Further sculpting the abyss from their own amalgam of broken helices derived from ancient remains Philadelphia, Pennsylvania-based black/thrash metal trio WILD BEYOND enhance their craft with easier-read but no less successfully agglutinated acts of otherworldly conjure on this latest latest EP release. ‘Black Sites in Lower Chambers‘ may very well square up its modus into some clarity here but that shouldn’t suggest the anxiously exuberant flow between extreme and classicist formae characteristic of their signature has lost its alien touch. Here we find deeper stabs into their collective black metal tastes but no less of a thrashing heavy metal hand applied to their riffcraft.

Wild Beyond formed ca. 2021 quickly centering their efforts around rendering pieces largely written by guitarist/vocalist Edward Gonet (Daeva) during peak pandemia. With a scribbled-out, manic charge and thrashing heavy metal core one’d associate with mid-90’s USBM and black-thrash they’d produce a debut LP (‘Wild Beyond‘, 2023) characterized by its frantic psychic war of ideas within. Taking cues from the chaotic eye-crossing muse of Abigor and the jagged speed metal of Voivod their work refused to compromise its anxious flow of ideas, a level of unhinged expression I’d described in review: “[‘Wild Beyond‘] speaks to the awkward traditions of United States black metal’s over the top freneticism and it’s internalization of the easier parsed heavy rock influences inherent to certain Norwegian black metal acts, on the other hand there is a tentative touch to this swinging movement which never creates a whole phrase so much as it jumps between focused flurries and distracting change-ups.” In an effort to describe both frayed and focused consciousness summoned by their work.

Beyond the desert-bound fantasy synth that opens ‘Black Sites in Lower Chambers‘ we find a core three-song flood of Wild Beyond‘s latest begin with “Slaughtering the Lion” a brooding late 90’s Sadus-esque crawl and jogged-through piece. This already feels like a more linearly shot arrange with a bump of faster black metal intensity set to cap off its otherwise mid-paced push. With plenty of room to breathe none of this lacks the erratic charms of ‘Wild Beyond‘ but now reads through its diatribe left-to-right rather than in condensed kinetic burst. Just as was the case with their LP there is a sort of 80’s extreme metal core to these feats where you’ll feel the heavy/speed metal machinery clicking into phase on “Thy Entrance Night”, probably the most sophisticated wheeling between modes from the band to date where I could just as well point to Immortal or ‘Nothingface‘ for the general impulse of any given strand.

Production values are clear, above rehearsal grade but still bearing some manner of realistic live-in-studio sound for a trio. In general this record sounds intimately set though the bass guitar tone bows just slightly to the guitar layers to avoid muddiness and the drums have been tweaked to suit something a bit more ‘Damned in Black‘ from my point of view without sounding artificial. If I had to venture a guess the trio worked together quite a bit more on the three core pieces here and this is most clearly represented within the centerpiece of the album for my own taste “Vision Before the Siezure” where their interest in ‘epic’ black metal and thrashing heavy metal upholds its fast-flowing ideas while making coherent and confidently clapped-out rhythmus of it. This is the most coherent Wild Beyond‘ve sounded to date while still reaching for inspired connections between many interests, though I wasn’t offended by the ear-bending guitar layers found on “Slaughtering the Lion” as another point of signature refined.

‘Black Sites in Lower Chambers‘ closes with a cover of “Spellbound (By The Devil)” from Dimmu Borgir‘s third LP and since I’m not a fan of the popular symphonic black metal band I bear no particular nostalgia or recognition of it. I appreciate that it fits alongside some of what they’ve done with synth/keyboards on the album otherwise per the opening for “Vision Before the Siezure” and intro track “Dream State Abductions” as it seems those elements only add to the oddity of their own signature; Overall I’d found Wild Beyond are still admirably clawing at the walls, reaching for their own supernatural attack but this time around they’ve found cohesion vented through succinct channels without sacrificing any of their weirding trait(s). Whether this work is a revision, a next stage, or an experiment it only adds interest to their body of work which should continue to bewilder fans of thrashing black metal infused gear. A moderately high recommendation.

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