Really great, that FJ of Blood & Iron Records re-released this lost masterpiece. LIFE BEYOND came from Maryland and unfortunately they existed only for a few years. In this time they recorded the album 'Thousand Vision Mist', which has been released through Sweden Rock Records in 2002 and two years earlier the MCD-R 'Ancient Worlds'. Nowadays it's nearly impossible to find this 4-tracker, because the group financed it without any label support. I already wrote a good review 8 years ago and still there's no reason to change my opinion about 'Ancient Worlds'. This is the kind of sound, which can only emerge in Maryland - soulful, virtuosic, heavy, energetic and authentic. Of course all three musicians have been in other bands before like Creepshow, Wretched, Indestroy and Gut Soup just to name a few, so that they could bring in all their experiences and capabilities in LIFE BEYOND. In the meantime bassist Louis Strachan is in Iron Man and drummer Gus Basilika is in the brandnew group Soul, but I don't know what Danny Kenyon is doing. Blood & Iron Records have done an excellent job and so this re-issue includes a new cover-artwork, which is close to the original, a fine booklet that contains all lyrics and some cool photos. Above all the playing time has been extended with additional bonus tracks. Here we have the killer song 'Rising Sunn' from  Crucial Blast's 'Maryland/DC Doom Capitol' compilation as well as five live cuts, all in good quality. This re-issue is limited to 500 copies only and no decent Doom/Heavy Rock collection should be without it.
(KK)
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