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TYPHONIAN “The Gate of the Veiled Beyond”
TYPHONIAN “The Gate of the Veiled Beyond”
By Dr. Abner Mality
TYPHONIAN is a band that should have quit while they were ahead. Most of “The Gate of the Veiled Beyond” is an excellent tribute to melodic Swedish death metal in the style of EDGE OF SANITY and DESULTORY...music that smoothly bridges the gap between Stockholm and Gothenburg DM. The band has a great handle on this rarely performed type of death and create a fitting tip of the hat that matches their influences. Then, in the last third of the album, they go totally overboard with a bloated 19 minute plus behemoth that exhausts the ears and the mind. Oh, what could have been!
Let’s look at the awesome first 2/3 of the album. With “Cosmic Throne”, they hit that fast, aggressive yet mournful and melodic vibe that EDGE OF SANITY perfected so well on “Purgatory Afterglow” and “Crimson”. It’s done so well that it’s not just a knockoff, but a fully functioning classic in its own right. “Primal Deceptive Light” follows in similar fashion and then “Crimson Rivers” rips your head off with a charging yet tuneful beast of a track...definitely following the footsteps of old DESULTORY. “The Gatekeeper” is quite epic with some really dark and majestic riffs...a top cut!
With the next two tracks, there’s a slight shift to an almost black metal type of sound. Imagine a mix of DISSECTION and E.O.S. and you wouldn’t be far off. These songs are effective but I slightly prefer the more death metal leaning earlier tracks.
Then TYPHONIAN’s ambition completely gets the better of them as they embark on the 19 minute plus “Cath’un: The Gate of the Veiled Beyond”. Obviously the guys thought they could do their own version of EDGE OF SANITY’s “Crimson” but this just doesn’t pass muster. It wanders forlornly from riff to riff, sounding like a collection of parts from other songs Frankensteined together. Add some really embarrassing spoken monologues and it’s clear TYPHONIAN’s reach exceeds its grasp here.
Yes, the giant track hinders my enjoyment, but the fact is that this is still a very strong work of melodic death metal from a promising band. They just need to leave the long winded stuff to Dan Swano and his buddies…
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