For the Love of Art and the Making
ALBUM OF THE MONTH / Rock Hard Magazine- (France) Friday 13th Zine - England - 5 out of 5 / Revolution Music - Denmark - 6 out of 6 / Aardschok Magazine - The Netherlands - 95 out of 100 / Powermetal - Denmark 97 out of 100 /Passzio Rock Klub - Hungary - 10 out of 10 --Several sourcesIt ll wind up among the most ambitious metal albums released in 2006, and it will be revered by some listeners and tossed aside by others. Even its title, For the Love of Art and the Making, reeks of pretension. But Beyond Twilight s third disc (featuring the band s third singer, Tears of Anger s Bjorn Jansson) deserves at least your initial attention for one important reason: It s a 37-and-a-half-minute song, divided into 43 snippets lasting between eight seconds and almost three minutes, that dares to conquer the abstract concept of life, death and practically everything in between. It s a monumental undertaking and boasts a Pain of Salvation-like vision while making musical references to Evergrey, Symphony X and Jorn (Beyond Twilight s first singer). Almost every kind of metal imaginable can be heard throughout For the Love of Art and the Making including progressive, symphonic, melodic and thrash/death. In fact, the record is almost too diverse, shifting the mood from Trans-Siberian Orchestra to Whitesnake to Malmsteen in mere seconds. Don t look for answers in the cryptic liner notes, which contain the lyrics but also such information as this about one particular musical passage: The melody line is composed and played composed backwards. The bass line is composed and played backwards as if it was recorded backwards. Played on keyboard, for instance, the right hand is playing the composed backwards melody line where the left hand is playing the bass line composition reversed as if it was recorded backwards. There is a significant difference between playing composed and recorded backwards. Here you have a mixture of both in one composition.  Alrighty, then, For non-music geeks who still enjoy a challenge, For the Love of Art and the Making will keep you busy for hours, despite its short length. That s because, amazingly, the album still works as a significant piece of music when you shuffle all 43 tracks and play them randomly. But I can t stop feeling that this entire composition was created with more than a touch of arrogance on the part of its primary writer, keyboardist Finn Zierler. --Sea of Tranquilty - Michael PopkeRevolution Music - Denmark - 6 out of 6 Aardschok Magazine - The Netherlands - 95 out of 100 --Aardschok Magazine, APRIL 2006