Customer Reviews

Devil's Hall of Fame (Reis)

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

THE METAL OBSERVER gave it a (9.5 of 10 possible points) and says this about it....

"Wow, what an album. Who'd like to hear finest epic-stuff in tradition of "Headless Cross" or "Tyr" (both BLACK SABBATH) and one of the most gigantic vocalists of the scene at the top of his career, this one is yours. His name: Jörn Lande, a devil of a fellow, who sings with ARK, THE SNAKES, MUNDANUS IMPERIUM and MILLENIUM. But with BEYOND TWILIGHT he delivers his masterpiece and is somewhere between Dio and Tony Martin, but not a iota weaker! The songs all are rather doomy and extremely bombastic. The direction I had mentioned in the beginning is OK, just darker! This album is oozing with emotionality and pure passion, it is mystic and dramatic. With one word: killer!


PROGRESSIVE WORLD says.....

Essentially, this disc contains just about every aspect of what a progressive metal fan wants to hear. In addition, you also get a very well thought out story that is truly mesmerizing and haunting.


PROGRESSIVE ARCHIVES gave it 4.40 out of 5 possible points
and said..... "Excellent addition to any prog music collection"

Breathtaking and provocative, "The Devil's Hall of Fame" is definitely a piece of work indeed. Adding a "Beyond" to their name, "Beyond Twilight" offers up a new sound to go along with the band-name change, as well as the smartest move on the band's part, the addition of vocalist Jorn Lande. For those who haven't had the pleasure of hearing Lande thus far, I assure you that he is definitely the Vocal God of the New Millenium. Pigeonholing his voice is next to a sin, since he is able to take on a huge variety of sounds to amaze the listener with. "TDHOF" is no exception as he puts in a fabulous performance that is well suited to the dark and often times heavy prog METAL to be found within this package. This combines the the complexity of Symphony X, the dark heaviness of Abstrakt Algebra, the progressive ambience of Ayreon and the operatics of Savatage. Those looking for a mix of these elements will be in seventh heaven.

Beyond Twilight is a Danish prog rock/metal band with a most unusual style. For lack of an accepted term, I'm going to call their music Progressive, Symphonic Chaos. That's right, The Devil's Hall of Fame's music is kind of an organized musical chaos with irregular beats, some disharmonics and syncopated interruptions. It is both pleasant and unpleasant to listen to but when you realize that this is a concept album, wherein the subject has hacked into his own mind, the chaos becomes more understood and the ambivalence fades away.

When acceptance takes the place of ambivalence this album becomes a truly magnificent creation and through it all is one of the greatest vocal performances I've ever had the pleasure to experience. I say experience because The Devil's Hall of Fame is truly an experience. The singer is Jorn Lande, who has sung with Y. Malmsteen, ARK, Millenium, and Nikolo Kotzev. He is no doubt one of the most amazing, distinctive vocalists around. His voice is rich, spanning an extraordinary range, able to go from singing very calm and smoothly to a very gritty and aggressive, which fits The Devil's Hall of Fame to a tee.

This album is augmented by and in fact starts out with sound effects and the dialogue of the main character, which sets the tone for this dark and mysterious, yet thought provoking creation, serving as an intro to the first song, "Hellfire."

"Hellfire" is a magnificent, bombastic beginning, leading the listener into the dark depths of our subject's mind, setting a wonderful example for what follows. The guitar playing of Kragh, is paced and dramatic, emphasizing the haunting, dark side of the music's theme in conjunction with anguished vocals of Lande.

Keyboardist Zierler, who authored the music, opens the next song, "Godless and Wicked" with an eerie keyboard sound that is background throughout the song, which actually sounds like a continuation of "Hellfire". Fredin lays down a steady-but-wicked drum line that helps carry the fabric of the song.

"Shadowland," is probably the most conventional song on the album with very catchy choruses and other less chaotic portions. It begins with more of that majestic full sound and feeling and you can hear the solid heavy bassline of Lindgren. Slow and easy, we head into this song. The first vocals from Jorn are raw and ragged, but not full eventually settling into his clean vocals with a more melodic tone.

"The Devil's Waltz" is a fine piano and guitar driven instrumental that almost sounds like an malevolent circus theme.

It's in "Crying," that Jorn delivers a most passionate vocal performance with wide swings in style and substance. In addition the song seems to divide into two parts, with the first part concentrating on Lande's vocals but the second part bringing forth some fabulous drum work by Freden picking up the pace substantially.

The title track continues in the same ominous imagery, again bringing back that slow glorious ritual found in the first track. The track is slow, but not plodding, building and contributing greatly to the music and vocal's wicked storyline.

Quiet spoken words open the instrumental "Closing The Circle," which begins softly and quietly, is a haunting melody of a lone piano backed by strings, a brief reflective passage that offers respite before you head into the last song on the album.

As much as I like the other songs "Perfect Dark" is for me the most exciting among many exciting songs. This, the final song, begins with Zierler on keys and Jorn's haunting soulful voice until they are joined in full chorus, along with the rest of their bandmates for a song that builds and elevates, slowly and persistently , until it reaches it's glorious climax at the end, leaving the audiophile wishing for more.

CONCLUSION

In some ways The Devil's Hall of Fame reminds me of Yes, sans Jon Anderson and I honestly wonder if Yes could have even been even greater with a Jorn Lande. That's not a knock on Anderson but it would truly be interesting to hear Lande's vocals with Yes.

Anyone who considers themselves a Progressive Rock/Metal connoisseur really needs to check Beyond Twilight out.

I'm a huge fan of journeyman vocalist Jorn Lande, and love progressive metal as well, so the when I heard Lande appeared on the 2001 debut album by Danish progressive metal band Beyond Twilight - The Devil's Hall of Fame - I knew I had to check it out.

I've yet to be disappointed by a Lande performance, and this album was no exception. Jorn's David Coverdale meets Ronnie James Dio vocal style is great in a progressive metal setting; adding depth and emotion to what can often be cold and clinical music. I should point out that Beyond Twilight is progressive in the sense that Evergrey is progressive. You're not going to hear a bunch of 12-minute solo-fests (the songs average about 5 minutes apiece if you factor in the pair of 2-minute instrumentals), but there is a high level of technical proficiency as well as the overall conceptual aspect of the album that puts this in prog metal territory. It's also a fairly dark album, which brings to mind Evergrey as well.

The Devil's Hall of Fame benefits from having an interesting concept as well as by the fact that most of the songs can stand on their own merits separate from the overall concept. On top of that you have another noteworthy performance by one of the genre's finest vocalists. It's a definite winner for Jorn fans, and should appeal to most progressive metal fans as well, assuming you're not expecting something super-technical like Spiral Architect.

Jorn doesn't appear to be big on commitment, so this was his only album with Beyond Twilight. I bought The Devil's Hall of Fame because of Jorn's presence, but was impressed enough with what I heard that I'd consider buying their later albums.

The year 2001 was the highlight of noted vocalist Jorn Lande's career. He simply peaked that year with three different and amazing albums: Ark - Burn The Sun, his sophomore solo effort Worldchanger, and Beyond Twilight - The Devil's Hall of Fame. After his short-lived touring with guitar virtuoso Yngwie Malmsteen, there was little left to do for him to prove himself in the current music scene.

I have one thing to say about Jorn Lande. He is without a shadow of doubt one of the best, most amazing, distinctive vocalists of today. His voice is world class, rich, and spans a quite large range. He can go from singing very calm and smoothly to a very gritty and aggressive style, which he perfectly exhibits on The Devil's Hall of Fame. So, if you're only familiar with his earlier hard rock driven back catalog such as The Snakes, his first solo album and the s/t Ark debut, his stuff with Vagabond (a Norwegian hard rock band featuring TNT guitarist LeTekro), the melodic hard rock/metal band Millenium, or Nikolo Kotzev's Nostradmus (with Joe Lynn Turner), I think you will be pleasantly surprised. Because this album is the most aggressive album in his entire career. His singing is incredibly assertive yet still soulful.

Beyond Twilight, while a new name, was actually formed back in 1992. Their original name was Twilight and they had a different singer, namely Anders Engberg, who joined Lion's Share and then Section A respectively. Also, although most people recognise Beyond Twilight as "one of Jorn Lande's bands", the main man behind the band is Finn Zierler. He plays the keys, provides backing vocals, and (co)-writes each and every song. All eight tracks on The Devil's Hall of Fame were written by Zierler and Lande, except the two instrumentals which were both composed by Zierler himself.

The keyboards are very subtle and suggestive through the entire album. Right from the first song "Hellfire" they set the mood and define the ultimate direction of the record. Zieler's trade mark tone is widely prevalant on all the songs and they are very distinctive in all the arrangements. The guitars are also amazing, but no where near as subtle as Lande's vocals and Zierler's keyboards. Anders Lindgren lays down the bass and ex-Twilight drummer Tomas Freden sits behind the skins. Both of them provide fitting rhythm sections, but like I said, the main standout aspects of the album are Lande's killer vocals and the masterfully crafted keyboards and compositions.

Tommy Hansen, mostly known for his work with Helloween, handled the production duties and he pulled off a flawless job. Excellent mix of instrumentation and perfect clear production! He also produced Lande's Worldchanger.

The album itself is based on a quite interesting storyline, though I don't pay as much attention to it as I do to the beautiful compositions and Lande's vocals. The concept is about a man who uses a computer to hack into his own mind and explore the disconnected parts of his spirit. As he enters his mind, he is awfully shocked at what he faces. He begins to deal with the unwanted events in his life and gradually develops an attitude.

I happen to love every single song on this CD; but if I were to make choices I'd go for the opening song "Hellfire" for its incorporating all metal elements and mixing them up perfectly in one form to create the sound of Beyond Twilight. The guitar work is magnificent on this track. I think it could have been even better if Zieler had given Ericson a bit more space to lay down some more solos as opposed to playing mostly rhythm. The third track "Shadowland" is definitely my favourite off of this album. Not only is it my favourite on this album, but I consider it one one of the best songs that Lande has ever sung in his life. It contains everything you might be looking for in a composition: rawness, aggressive singing, dark atmosphere, great musical performance, thought provoking lyrics. Lande shifts from the most assertive styles to a very 80's driven clean delivery. Simply amazing! Zierler's instrumental wizardy on the following track gives us a few minutes to catch our breath before "Crying" kicks in. It's another personal favourite. Lande has NEVER sung like this before. It is unbelievable what he can do with his voice. I am glad Zierler let Lande co-write the songs, cause I don't think he would have sounded so emotional and soulful if he was singing someone else's lyrics. Each word he utters drips with emotion.

The title track is also the longest song on the album. It is very progressive stylistically combining various vocal harmonies, Latin lyrics, odd time signatures, keyboard and guitar solos, interesting tempo changes. Beautiful. The chorus in the end is fantastic! "Perfect Dark" successfully closes the album; by now Lande's singing sounds a lot more calm than it does on the first four songs.

I have no idea if Lande plans to work with Zieler on a follow-up to this wonderful album since he is now fully dedicated to his new band Masterplan. Whatever it is, I really hope he and Zieler do something together in the future, because it seems like they have a great chemistry when they compose together.

I just have to recommend this CD, it's that simple. It's a dark brooding metal cd and ANY comparison of this singer to Axel Rose is absolutely insane. (...) He can sing smoothly from Coverdale to an evil Dio. The music here is well done and dark to fit the concept. (...) I recommend this and his other bands such as Masterplan, Ark and his solo release Worldchanger.

Progressive metal is something of an enigma. Technical prowess, massive songs, storytelling, atmosphere, and score-like qualities can at times be egotistical and feel overdone. Metal heads tend to polarize when it comes to progressive metal, but this album has something for everyone. "Devil's Hall of Fame" is dark, brooding, and intelligent. Technically and atmospherically akin to some of Ayreon's albums, the story plays out very effectively thanks to great big production values and a band committed to creating not just great music but an entire soundscape. Jorn Lande lends his unbelievable vocal talents to this album and shows us why he is one of the most in demand singers in metal! Musically this album is like jumping into a dark lake at night...how deep is it? I'm not sure I will ever find out, because after repeated listens I always find it goes deeper, and that kind of album has the most important thing...staying power! Beyond Twilight will go on to follow this album up with another great work entitled "Section X". Highly recommended!

This is definitely one of the best metal CDs and one of the best vocal performances that has come out in a long time due in part to the legendary vocalist Jorn Lande. Not to take any thing away from the Danish band and the main songwriter/mastermind Finn Zierler, but Jorn makes this an outstanding CD. It is heavy, powerful, dark, and melodic all rolled into one. The story line is also cool!!! You can sit down and listen to it from start to finish while taking you on a musical and philosophical journey. Every song is great!!!! Definitely a hidden jem!!!

This is also Jorn's best vocal performance IMHO and that says a lot because all of his work from Ark, Masterplan, Millenium, Mundanus Imperium, The Snakes, Vagabond, Allen/Lande, and his solo band JORN are great!!!!

I still do not know how someone can give this CD a two rating. They music be deaf or not have any taste in hard rock/progressive metal at all or younger than 18 years old. I think this blows away any BT release and I think Section X is a great CD.

This is definitely one of the best metal CDs and one of the best vocal performances that has come out in a long time due in part to the legendary vocalist Jorn Lande. Not to take any thing away from the Danish band and the main songwriter/mastermind Finn Zierler, but Jorn makes this an outstanding CD. It is heavy, powerful, dark, and melodic all rolled into one. The story line is also cool!!! You can sit down and listen to it from start to finish while taking you on a musical and philosophical journey. Every song is great!!!! Definitely a hidden jem!!!

This is also Jorn's best vocal performance IMHO and that says a lot because all of his work from Ark, Masterplan, Millenium, Mundanus Imperium, The Snakes, Vagabond, Allen/Lande, and his solo band JORN are great!!!!

I loved this cd from the first track to the last track, it has everything a Metal lover likes..Dark slow grooves, melodic moments, AMAZING Vox by the Great Jorn Lande, superb production in the mixing of this cd. If you like Evergey, Sabbath, Candlemass, Queensryche etc you gonna love this.
Fav Tracks are:

Hellfire
Crying