Now I've had my fair share of feces sandwiches since finding progressive metal an acceptable sound. Nation Beyond's debut has made records laced in bowels movements seem like golden nuggets, and that is seriously no jab or joke; they've honestly created one of the worst possible results, the likes of which promotes minimal variety, poor musicianship, and no originality whatsoever. To get a better glimpse of what this full-length snooze sounds like, go buy some Queensrÿche singles containing all their sh*tty b-sides and push play; now stick steel rods in every available orifice and jump into the nearest frozen lake without clothing. It is kind of like that.Instrumentally speaking, this whole record finds itself trying to emerge from redundancy, but fails miserably at making any progress. Time and time again, we are stuck with thin-layered songs made of three-note riffs, annoying piano surroundings, powerless percussion, and mediocre vocal attempts that desperately pursue decency, but quickly submerge beneath a fading background. As for female vocals, I can safely say they act as this record's only form of sanctuary, yet actually detecting them in a non-brief state is harder to find than a porn film involving Cerberus and the Trix rabbit. Seriously, what would compel these clowns to actually bury their only strength beneath everything else? The porno with Cerberus and the Trix rabbit, maybe?
The whole musical ordeal sucks bananas laced with sulfur, but I think it's so painful hearing the record sound like it is going to finally improve before slowly plopping in the mud. I can only picture a little butterfly that was popped out a day too early from its cocoon struggling to remain in flight; Nation Beyond, ironically, finds this early feeling dangerously familiar. When something actually looks good, you can just expect it to stay in that almost-listenable phase, which just cannot make a single cut towards pleasure, almost like it will bring something greater, but that ain't happening. I'm left wondering one thing: is this whole CD a twelve-piece intro track? It sure sounds like it.
Scrapping across dreadful plains of apocalyptic proportions, The Aftermath Odyssey shows what can happen when a group attempts progressive metal while knowingly abandoning everything worthwhile; a spineless effort not even worthy of postmortem slime. It's a completely directionless effort, and I'm still searching for a single track that's remotely memorable. Sadly, that search has been looking grim since the start; only fragmented slithers of substance look relevant throughout each pestering infection. Nation Beyond is predictable, dull, false to their roots, and stuck in the same gear throughout The Aftermath Odyssey, so running into the streets and calling this a masterpiece will only make you look like an idiot. In other words, don't even think about it.