Meuse Music Records is a small label from Wallonia that, in addition to being involved in the organisation of a wonderful festival such as Haunting the Castle, has the merit of bringing to light even doom bands that are not yet well known but, qualitatively, are able to offer good results and albums of a certain level. The latest of these are the Belarusians Beyond the Darkness, who actually began their activity at the end of the first decade of the century; this experience already gained is evident from the notes of this Noche Oscura, the second full length that follows Blind Shadows (2015); the sound of the band from Minsk does not have absolute originality among its prerogatives, but Beyond the Darkness are very skilful in handling the material and trying to get the best of all the nuances from the major realities of the sector, and then amalgamate them and put them on the plate in a rich and always very balanced work between the roughness of death and a certain melancholic and melodic doom. The work of the Belorussians, however, cannot be defined as derivative in a negative sense, as there are no such blatant similarities to a specific band; clearly this work should be listened to for what it is, that is, a very good collection of well composed, well played and well produced tracks, characterised by a very direct but far from banal approach to death doom and with a vocalist of a certain calibre such as Mikhail Stefanovich, who is good both with growl and clean vocals.

2023 – Meuse Music Records