Interview

Beyond Creation Discusses New Album "Earthborn Evolution"

Heralds of the Canadian technical death metal scene, there was a time when Beyond Creation was an unknown metallic entity (even being covered in our look at the technical metal underground a few years back).

Rising out of obscurity and landing a record deal, the band just dropped new album "Earthborn Evolution" last month via Season Of Mist, letting the world know tech-death isn't even close to slowing down or going tame.

With a new full-length in stores and upcoming world tour dates lined up for Australia and Japan, we got the chance to check in with Beyond Creation and hear a first-hand chronicle of the album's creation. Read the full interview below.

xFiruath: Metalunderground.com has been following you guys since early 2011 when “The Aura” showed up on YouTube, so I was pretty stoked to see the press release hit my email last year when you signed with Season of Mist. Can you give me a brief rundown of what was happening with the band in that time and how you ended up landing your record deal?

Thank you for your interest. It’s been now more than a year and a half since we signed with Season of Mist who offered us to join their family. We added a new member to our team (Philippe Boucher) for his drumming skills and his thirst for touring. We now have our second album and good things to come.

xFiruath: In your opinion, how does “Earthborn Evolution” differ from the previous release, and what's still enough along the same lines that it will please fans of your earlier music?

There are many different influences from other genre of music in this album. It’s more jazz than “The Aura” and there are slower parts that groove and breathe more but keep the same aggressiveness and complexity.

xFiruath: When were these tracks written, and how does Beyond Creation go about the writing process?

We ended writing the music about year and a half from now. The song writer and leader of the band is Simon Girard. He builds all the songs and the direction of the music and then after, we jam with him one at the time to create all the arrangements.

xFiruath: Where did recording for this album take place and who did you work with?

We had another great time recording the album with Christian Donaldson (Cryptopsy) at his new studio called ”The Grid” not far from Montreal. The process was pretty much the same, we started recording the drums and followed with the guitars and bass to end with the vocals.

xFiruath: What's going on as far as lyrical themes on “Earthborn Evolution?”

I talk about many things in that album such human behaviors and connections with each other and our planet. I talk about science, spirituality, government, war, and even aliens/inhumans. As the artwork shows, it’s about the decisions that humans make and the world’s consequences that go with it. We have all the tools and much knowledge to evolve properly but at the end, these are our decisions that will make a profitable future for us and our planet, or this point where we lose everything because we thought first about money and domination.

xFiruath: I'm glad you brought up the artwork, as I just going to ask about that. It's Giger-y and sci-fi to the max!

The name of the artist that does this cover is Par Olofsson and he's from Sweden. This guy is very talented and we are really happy with the result that came from this cover art. That's something really beautiful but it keeps this dark ambiance all over it.

xFiruath: Have you read any reviews of the album so far, and what have you thought of the feedback you've gotten up till now?

Yes, we read and post a lot of them with pride. Reviewers are really generous and they describe with precision the message we want to convey with our music.

xFiruath: Where are you headed to support the album on upcoming live shows, and what's going on in Montreal as far as live metal?

We are going to play in Australia with Ne Obliviscaris for 6 shows and then 3 shows in Japan with Mors Principium Est. After that we’ll play our last show of the year in our home town. We'll see what's next with the new year! In Montreal it’s always alive, especially for metal music. There’s a lot of good shows and even on week days people show up in large number.

xFiruath: What are other bands do you guys have active these days outside Beyond Creation?

Every one from the band has many projects and bands to practice and develop more skills with other really talented musicians. Kevin plays in Unhuman , Brought by Pain, and Hangar of Deth (Megadeth tribute). Philippe plays in Incandescence, Chthe'ilist, and Décombres. Dominic plays in Augury, Teramobil, and BARF and finally, Simon created an acoustic solo project where he plays some finger style picking.

xFiruath: To finish off, what has been the highlight of your year so far?

The best was our tour with Origin and King Parrot , and of course the release of our new album. For the coming up, we are really excited to go play in Australia and going back to Japan again. It's gonna be good times for sure! Thanks to everyone that supports the band and bought our new album. We are looking forward to see many of you on tour. Cheers!