The Beyond was a band from Derby, UK, who creatively combined prog, metal, alternative rock, funk, thrash, jazz and more into their music. In their heyday, the band opened for the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rush and Soundgarden, among others. From 1995 to 1998, the band was known as Gorilla.
The 1991 album Crawl is particularly known for its skillful playing, complex rhythms, elegant vocal melodies and very tight snare sound, which was later also the trademark of Therapy? – or even Metallica‘s St. Anger. The drummer Neil Cooper of The Beyond, by the way, is currently playing in Therapy?
Crawl has a number of great songs, of which the One Step Too Far single release also surprisingly included a cover of Mudhoney‘s grunge classic Touch Me I’m Sick and The Doors‘s Break on Through (not such an interesting choice). The second single release from Crawl was from the song Empire, the video of which I saw for the first time as I was writing this.
Mayor of Derby
The band, which broke up in 1998 as Gorilla, played a charity gig in their hometown of Derby 20 years later. Interestingly, singer John Whitby was on Derby City Council at the time and was also mayor of the city when he took to the stage.
The Beyond’s Empire is one of the easiest tracks on the Crawl album, but you don’t hear singles like this much these days either. And certainly didn’t when the song was released. The Beyond is one of those bands that many music fans missed out on in the 90s.
