Melodic technical death metal space invaders The Beast Of Nod are unleashing their coolest, most complex, melodic and flat out best album in their short existence. Trust me, this makes “Vampira: Disciple Of Chaos” look like a walk in the park. First off, the concept is great with a huge sci fi nod featuring a company “NEMO” and a whole roster of characters involved in this newfound lore. If you know the guys, they love scifi and it couldn’t be a more fitting theme. “Multiversal” has wild guest features from renowned guitarists such as Michael Angel Batio, Joe Satriani, Nick Padovani (Equipoise), Sanjay Kumar (Wormhole, Equipoise) and John Matos (Abiotic). Let me dive into this fantastic piece of art for you all right now.

Will’s guitar playing has been fantastic for years and is obviously evident with their new compositions. Sure it’s flashy, melodic, complicated and insane to watch (yes I’ve seen this insanity live and its one heck of an experience) but my underlying factor is his vastly improved songwriting. The debut had some good songs, like any other album had better songs than others. For myself at least I never found myself truly bored with songs being too complex or tough to understand turning myself off from it. As an artist and fellow guitarist I love how the compositions turned out. There are added synth and string elements that are more prevalent, and sections that groove harder than “Vampira” did in 2018. He’s improved quite a bit to say the least since the debut as a player and shreds all over their upcoming album. If you’re not a good songwriter, you won’t be able to KEEP the listener’s attention if you write in the technical/progressive/experimental style that TBON does let alone as a death metal band. Dr. Lunden is an absolute WORKHORSE!

Did I mention yet that the band grabbed another workhose in Marco Pitruzzella to drum on the album? The death metal robot lended his talents to further catapult a stellar album into the stratosphere with this clean, complex and brutal style of drumming many bands crave. There’s a reason he’s in 20 bands/projects and has lent his talents to countless others such as this upcoming release.

Paul’s voice dramatically improved most notably his lows, and in the past his higher range has been the name of is game. A guy like myself into brutal death metal and slam can really appreciate the lower end of the guttural section and to my ears at least sound a lot better this time around the multiverse. Brandon’s bass playing deserves a lot of credit here as its no easy feat to keep up with this bands demanding style, and got even wilder with the addition of Lord Marco. He has my everlasting respect to be able to handle such wild rhythms and forever an underrated asset in The Beast Of Nod.

Considering 4 main musicians backing instrumentation and guitar harmonies, “Multiversal” may not have been the easiest piece of music to mix and master. The band really strived for that ethereal, sci-fi styled wall of sound and definitely hit that sweet spot. Nothing necessarily dominates the songs even the vocals which tend to on occasion mix wise. My only slight wish is Brandon’s bass was a bit louder in the mix overall. I’ve heard albums without any obvious audible bass so It’s not THAT big of a deal to me.

To boot, the guys are fucking hysterical and great people to hang out with. I got that opportunity as I stated earlier when they went on tour for their debut album and got to help host that show here in Buffalo. The fact they’ve worked so hard on this album and garnered decent attention as an independent band (considering some signed bands don’t get enough promotion from their label) is impressive in its own right. “Multiversal” is more than a piece of music or art. It’s a legitimate experience and you need to submerge yourself in this release. If you’re looking for something slightly different in the tech scene, this will be a great suggestion for someone not into that style to give a shot to.

It is slated to release on March 29th and can preorder it below through one of the following links.

https://www.thebeastofnod.com

https://thebeastofnod.bandcamp.com

https://www.facebook.com/TheBeastOfNod