It is, as I sit writing this, not even 4 a.m. I’ve been awake for a couple of hours — I’ll sleep when I’m dead — and while it’s far, far earlier than I’d normally sit down to start hammering out a review, it’s Halloween, the Demon Spawn are on half-term, and Dad Duty awaits. But this morning, my get-up-and-go had well and truly fucked off. I was a walking corpse. That is, until I hit play on Fear of the Unknown by Here and Beyond — because this record? This record will wake your ass up faster than a syringe of pure caffeine and cocaine jammed straight into your black heart.
Across eight blistering tracks, Fear of the Unknown is a cosmic mind-fuck of Atmospheric, Symphonic, and utterly unhinged Black Metal. It’s one of those albums that doesn’t just play — it fucking detonates. From the opening salvo to the final note, it feels like you’re being dragged through the void by the hair, howling into eternity as galaxies explode around you. This isn’t the kind of record that gently ushers you into its world; it grabs you by the throat and screams straight into your face until your soul starts vibrating.
The sheer scope of it all is staggering. Every riff feels like it was forged in a dying star, every drum hit lands like a mortar blast, and the atmosphere is thick enough to suffocate in. Yet for all its chaos, there’s precision — a deadly, meticulous craftsmanship that makes the entire experience feel deliberate and orchestrated rather than just noisy and violent. The symphonic elements aren’t there as window dressing; they rise and fall with genuine purpose, swelling like waves beneath the guitars, lending the album an almost apocalyptic grandeur.
And then there are the vocals — fuck me gentlywith a chainsaw. They range from guttural, abyssal growls that sound like Satan clearing his throat, to banshee shrieks that could crack glass and send every living creature within five miles running for cover. It’s a performance that pushes the boundaries of human capability while still feeling deeply, unnervingly emotional. You don’t just hear it — you feel it clawing under your skin.
What elevates Fear of the Unknown above the crowd is its balance. It’s savage, yes, but it’s also intelligent. It knows when to crush you and when to let the atmosphere breathe, when to descend into chaos and when to let the void swallow the noise. It’s this ebb and flow that makes the whole experience hypnotic rather than exhausting — a spiralling descent that you never want to end.
This is an album for those who crave eternal horror in sound form. For those who look up at the infinite and smile. For those who understand that beauty and terror are often the same thing, just seen from different angles.
Fear of the Unknown is available now from the Here and Beyond Bandcamp page.
CHOICE CUT: Crimson Eclipse
BLACK METAL ARCHIVES VERDICT: A blistering, celestial assault on the senses — Fear of the Unknown is pure blackened majesty. Here and Beyond have crafted a record that sounds like the end of the universe, and it’s fucking glorious.
