A while ago we poured out some love for Beyond over at Zen and the Art of Face Punching in the comment section to one of Blend’s NYHC posts. I figured a full post would eventually follow, but since that hasn’t happened yet I guess I might have to do it myself (someone certainly has to...)In addition to an enormous amount of song ideas and rhythm changes, that get crammed into each of these songs (and which might get mistaken for “generic neo stop & go posi-core”) there is a lot of youthful energy on this record, which obviously is good in HC. There is a lot more that could be said about this record, both musically as well as with respect to the band’s history (from what I can tell). But it’s getting late and I am not really qualified to say anything about either of these 2 things anyway.
I have to admit though that “No longer at ease” is not an album that I often listen to in its entirety (but those kinds of albums are a rarity anyway…), and the demo songs that were added to the CD reissue, which I am posting here, add very little to the experience. However, there are a few absolute nuggets on this record (Vitality, Effort/Ancient Head, Can’t deny) and overall this LP just doesn’t get the widespread recognition that it deserves. I carefully avoid labeling this record as “underrated”, because I believe that the people who actually do know it give it proper respect.
So if you don’t have this milestone of NYHC already, grab it here:
18 comments:
beyond & straight ahead... oh, rest in pieces, breakdown, krackdown, raw deal... the only late 80's nyhc stuff i kept.
good bye rev stuff. it was nice knowing ya'...
-jeff
Thanks, for the comment Jeff. I would not be just that critical with the Revelation stuff, but I do find myself listening more and more to the "other" NYHC in the last couple of years (Breakdown were great, Krackdown, too, but they always sounded shitty; Life's Blood is getting better and better with the years... stuff like that)
I definitely think this Beyond record is one of my favorites these days. Favorites in terms of NYHC. I share the sentiment that when I was younger I pretty much loved every early Rev band, but as I get older I find myself listening to the other NYHC bands that didnt get as much press.
Raw Deal and Absolution grab me by the short and curlies even more than Youth of Today did back in the day..
i always liked kevin egan's singing. loved 1.6 band. the last thing i heard him do was the last crime. saw them a couple times in nyc. nothing terribly special (this was like 99-00). mostly i just knew him as the guy who rented me videos around the corner from my apartment. him and the dude from unsane. i always thought it was awesome that i was renting movies from these dudes. doesn't take much to entertain me. btw, no luck on the shades apart dude danger. i have the 12", but now no way to digitize it! "it's always something." haha.
Oh, no fair! First you get me all hot and excited and then I have to learn that it just sits there in all of it's analog glory, never to be heard by me... Well, maybe, maybe one day (that's what I always say when I think of my "lost" treasure trove in my parents' basement). But I really enjoyed the story of your personal connection with Kevin Egan. NYC, a city where at every other corner a rock star is working a menial job.
i know...haha. after hyping it up, now i can't even listen to it myself! it's crazy it isn;t posted "somewhere" on the internets. i mean sheesh, the "russians" don't even seem to have it!
i just recently heard the Last Crime...decent. this guy Steve D was in the band and I am supposed to be going upstate for my friends bachelor party with him. Hes a funny dude. He recorded all the Another Wall, Antarctica and Last Crime stuff...
im supposed to get DAT rips of the Another Wall stuff... havent heard it in years..
Where oh where can i DL that Beyond No longer at ease album? I miss it!
@Hardballs
????
I just checked he DL link and it still seems to be working fine.
the link is definately not working now, i've checked a few times over the past week. can anyone help me out? this was one of my favorite albums in hs, my buddy and i still quote lyrics from this album to each other!
@silent_k: I'll re-up Beyond, but it may take a couple more days. I am currently out of town. Check back over the weekend. As I said in my last post, I'll only re-up stuff that people actually request. And since you asked nicely I'll try my best to get it up again; but as I said it may take a couple of days... Sorry.
@luciferyellow: thank you so much! i just grabbed this is and it is exactly as i remember. i'm pretty sure i still have the vinyl at my parents, but the ability to play that disappeared years ago, haha! thanks again!
beyond is the best music for the gym! i still love these guys, and i had their first release on TAPE when i was in high school.
great band, and definitely respected by those who know them.
thanks for this! I am glad I finally have this version. I played drums on the demo!
PROVEN HOLLOW - you were looking for shades apart dude danger record in digital format - look no further - http://tinyurl.com/mezygg
Hi, I was looking for the lyrics to No Longer At Ease and I found your post. I have to ask you: do you have their lyrics sheet or something like that? I really want the lyrics and I can't find the lyrics sheet anywhere! You can write back at atrudelx@hotmail.com Thanks in advance!
another nice story..
the other day I had to bring our car to an inspection and the rental car we got in return just features a cassette deck - so by chance I grabbed an old tape of mine, which included the Beyond demo and aahh, I was thrilled and flashed at the same time because this record is so great and I remembered how I loved it almost 20 years ago (!) - what a weird old man I am :-)
Nevertheless I really liked your balanced review and thanks a lot for posting the demo, so now I can have a digital copy to listen to in our cd deck only car ! It´ll rule my daily ride to work [I just love the energy of these tunes]!
regards and all the best from Germany !
Ha, ha, thanks Stefan for bringing back the memories of tape decks. Those were the good days of course ... ;-)
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