Beyond the Embrace's second album, Insect Song, starts off promisingly enough with "Fleshengine Breakdown," which comes off like a cross between To Ride, Shoot Straight...-era
Entombed and a couple of
Phil Anselmo's bands,
Pantera and
Down. The song has a combination of thrashy heaviness and bluesy
southern rock tendencies, and lead singer
Shawn Gallagher's vocals shift deftly from screaming to deep-voiced, melodic singing in a way that's similar -- almost too similar -- to
Anselmo. The
Anselmo comparison holds true vocally for the rest of the album, although subsequent tracks find the band broadening their range to include Gothenburg-style Swedish
death metal riffs and, more and more as the album goes on, generous helpings of generic, radio-ready
hard rock that brings to mind mid-'90s
Metallica -- and not in a good way (if it is indeed possible for one to be reminded of mid-'90s
Metallica in a good way).
BTE are kind of a hard band to get a handle on: one minute, they'll sound like
Lamb of God, the next like early
In Flames, and then the next minute like some generic,
grunge-influenced, late-'90s
hard rock band. Regardless, they have put together a well-crafted album here with lots of potential crossover appeal for lapsed
Metallica and
Pantera fans, viewers of the revived MTV Headbangers' Ball, and open-minded
Ozzfest goers. ~ William York, All Music Guide
