Beyond Deviation – Beyond Deviation 400 (400 Vocalist World Record Track)

Beyond Deviation started as a project to entertain local crowds in the home province of Quebec, Canada in 2014 and with plenty of support from a regional network of promotion companies, they quickly garnered the attention of one of the leading management agencies in Arrogance Management.  Now being ably managed by Hell For Breakfast, the band are keen and energized for an exciting future in the world of deathcore metal.

Following the success of their ‘White Noise’ EP and subsequently ‘The Plague King‘, ‘Dark Passenger‘ and a split EP with another of their brethren ‘Martyrs‘, entitled, ‘Bridge to Extinction‘, the band boasted promising sales and a loyal fan base.  Cut to the end of 2020 and a new single released on November 24th 2020 called ‘Identity Crisis‘, which critics and fans alike shocked by the creepiness and quality delivered on this opus, whetting the appetite for the new EP scheduled for the end of 2021.

With restrictions on movement in place, Beyond Deviation, have been brainstorming about their potential future direction and decided to create a world record attempt for the most vocalists on a record, hence the title ‘Beyond Deviation 400(400 Vocalist World Record Track)‘, 400 being the number of vocalists performing on the track. This release is promising to be a masterpiece not only for the band, but for the deathcore genre scene as a whole.

For those unfamiliar with the sounds that typify the deathcore style, vocalists rarely employ clean singing, preferring fry, scream, guttural and pig squeal vocals instead to get their point across.  The very essence of extreme.  The drums are a mix of tempo changes that range from breakdown moments to hypersonic blast beats.  The guitars create the eeriness through twisted Black Sabbath-inspired tones and chugging riffs.

This particular single is 37 minutes long and is the perfect showcase for all the mix of styles that deathcore offers. After recruiting Emmanuel Jean on drums and the returning Guillaume Villeneuve on vocals, completing the line-up with Kris, Rock and Nylist.

I cannot mention all of the incumbent performers in this article, however, credits within go to Ryu Miura (Divinitist), Alex Ferland (Lost Creation), Ridz Holsclaw (GOD OF NOTHING), Amanda Gjelaj (The Machinist), Isaac Bilbrey (Funeral Wake), Blaine Bruskotter (Wasted Creation), William Ramos (Euclid/Monument Of A Memory), Jimmy Collins (Basterds), Alan Grnja (DISTANT), Sebastian Grihm (Cytotoxin), Bryan Long and Raymond Charles (Dealey Plaza), Johnny Ciardullo (Carcosa), Kyle Williams (Babirusa), Taylor Barber (Left to Suffer), Orion Stephens (In Dying Arms), Josh Davies (Monasteries), Casey Tyson Pearce and Mike Greenwood (Angelmaker), Mark Garrett (Kardashev/Viraemia), Datscreaminboi (Zerotonin), Matthew Krawchuk (WRITHEN), Lucca Schmerler (Mental Cruelty), Jamie Hanks (I Declare War), Duncan Bentley (Vulvodynia).

From the get-go, the piercing scream and blast beats to introduce this masterpiece signify this is a project that has full intentions to rip your face off, metaphorically speaking.  The slow chugging riffs, and eerily sinister melodies, giving way to shredding patterns and runs.  The complex mix of blast beats and breakdowns from the drums, synonymous with the deathcore sound guiding the track through its different paces.  The sheer brutality of the vocalists’ range and styles is something to behold!  This truly does showcase what the human voice is capable of, which is quite breath-taking.

I can honestly say that this release is a must listen for deathcore fans and should be held as a standard within an already very competitive but niche sound.  To their credit, ‘Beyond Deviation 400 (400 Vocalist World Record Track)’ is a thoughtfully crafted and superbly produced record.  The audacity to create a track that contains 400 vocalists and to be able to acquiesce all the styles from everyone is truly a work of genius.  The musicianship is quite simply peerless.

The track is destined not to be recognised by the mainstream because quite frankly it sounds like a torturous scene from Hell, if it were to be recorded.  Something akin to the maelstrom encountered by the crew of the ‘Event Horizon’ before the ship consumes them, in the film from 1997.  It feels almost as if you are being relentlessly and mercilessly beaten up by the music, only momentarily pausing within the breakdowns, before being launched at again.

This is an amazing effort from all involved in this world record attempt and by the looks of the future, it certainly looks rosy for the future of deathcore and Beyond Deviation.

Score: 10 out of 10