The first time I became aware of Beyond the Black was a few years back when they toured with Amaranthe and I’ll be honest id never heard of them.
That night Amaranthe had pulled out of the gig so Beyond the Black were the main Headliners. Considering id never listened to one of their tunes I was taken aback by how catchy their songs were and how outstanding their stage show was.
Tonight they return to the Manchester Ritz with another album under their belt.
Because of my eclectic taste in music I still haven’t listened to many of their songs but ‘Is there anybody out there’ is possibly in my top 5 most played songs on Spotify. So it was time to see how they had come along in the last few years….
During the break after Setyøursails (who were very good by the way) the stage staff managed to accidentally drop the Beyond the Black curtain hiding the stage set up which makes me wonder if they had to improvise on the way they opened the show.
Beyond The Black opened with Break The Silence, one of the stand out songs on their new album by the same name. Jennifer Haben looking absolutely stunning, followed the really well played opening song with Hysteria and Rising High.
The massive screen at the rear of the stage played some fantastic video images to accompany the music.
I am really only fully familiar with their 4th album, Beyond The Black so when they played Reincarnation I was singing a little (in my head) to it. I had listened to Break The Silence a little and there are some cracking new songs on there so Ravens followed by The Flood were not new to me but they sounding so good live, Jennifer with her wings on for Ravens then the robotic backing voice of The Flood with the screen enhancing the experience even more.
My takeaway songs from the show were In The Shadows, Running To The Edge and Hallelujah…….the previous two were played in the encore.
Beyond The Black played an extensive set with 19 songs, playing beyond 11pm and im glad i didnt scupper off for my tram home earlier. The band have a distinctive sound with Jennifer on Vocals and some epic Guitars from Chris Hermsdörfer.
I’m not gonna lie but I walked away disappointed, not that they were not good, they were fantastic……I was expecting ‘Is there anybody out there?’ to easily be on the setlist and it wasn’t.
This is more about me than the band, my bottom lip was wobbling. But that said, I took enough away from this gig to definately add a few more of their tunes to my playlist and their new album Break The Silence will be getting a few plays on my Spotify.
Words and Photos by Philip Goddard
