To say I love to be surprised by an album is a redundancy here because I say it all the time when I get my hands into something that is pure fantasy. I can’t tell how great I feel when I receive an abum that makes me wonder the bands it sounds like. Someimes there is no answer to this question and this is even better. This mental exercise is great to my mind. It triggers my memory, and memory always needs to be triggered.
The album has an interesting stoy under its belly that goes by as it started as a dream of a man named
Mr. Evermore and documents the trials and tribulations of a life lost, followed by grief, hope and the ultimate
survival of the human spirit as well as a possession of sorts and the arrival of a man named Johnathan Hadder. It’s a classic metal tale of how tragic events may bring redemption and salvation through music and how a premonition became reality and a dream prophetic. Needless to say I love albums with stories.
Now, the band that is doing this is Diamonds Hadder with “Beyond the Breakers.” At first, with album warmer “Ballad of the Dead Rabbit” this impression was stronger, but I couldn’t figure it out which band, or bands, were the influence for this very peculiar music. On first listen it became impossible to me to find it out. It was only listening to all the album that I comprehended “Beyond the Breakers” is a complex melt of many sonancies from 1970’s early Heavy Metal to some Prog Rock and dashes of 1980’s Old School Heavy Metal. The dense atmosphere of the song filled with lots of moods. The fact is that the track has a lot of tracks inside making part of the same one. There are times Pink Floyd comes to mind; other times early Rainbow with the wondrous Dio. By the way, as the album goes on the influence of Dio takes the lead and clears the doubt. Following track “Rivers End” commences with the same dense atmosphere the previous track had. It sounds a lot as early Rainbow with its piano and slow moments. John Evermore’s voice has a lot to do with Dio’s and, by the way, he’s the mastermind of the band playing all the instruments. This track is a kind of dealbreaker as it changes the pace in a heartbeat going fast and furious around its fifth minute to slow at its end full of moods. The initial guitar riff in “Long Is the Road” addresses a lot to Dio’s “We Rock.” Even though the riff changes little by little the impression goes on. From then on, the alum acquires more and more features of Dio’s 1987’s “Dream Evil’s” era.
It’s possible to say “Beyond the Breakers” is an album with two distinct parts being the first more related to early Rainbow and a little with Queensrÿche. The second is strongly related to Dio’s 1987’s “Dream Evil’s” era. The album has also a great flair to the epic and grand flirting a lot with 1970’s Prog Rock. well, from my side it was great to listen to it the many times I did.
Diamonds Hadder “Beyond the Breakers” was released on November 22nd via No Remorse Records.
Track Listing:
- Ballad of the Dead Rabbit
- Rivers End
- 200 North
- Long is the Road
- City of Fire
- Master of Illusion
- Evermore
Watch “Ballad of the Dead Rabbit” official lyric video here:
I’m just a lucky guy who has chosen metal to live with for a long time. Metal changed my life for good. It made me more confident and stronger. Metalheads are naturally far away from the mass mediocrity and don’t accept impostures from anybody else. Metal is more than music, it’s a life changing oportunity!