Arrived at the appointment with their 3rd full-length, the Californian band dealing with Hard rock, Traditional metal and Street punk in equal parts show a consistent lot of 10 tracks, where the guitars play a key role. This is immediately clear after the first 20 seconds of the opener "Crank up the Amps", and in this case the vocals and the backing vocals heavily contribute to the success of the composition.
"Creation" is a great hymn with good accelerations and is one of the highlights along with the Backyard Babies-like "Two O' Clock in the Morning", gleeful, easy and catchy.
"Another Day" is destined to be a classic in listening rooms, car CD players and live halls, and similarly go things with "The Loser in Me", whereas the long "The Knife" shows all the fury of the L.A. area bruisers with as an excellent and as effective blend of Punk and Epic metal. Amazing solo, riffs and lyrics inspired by Jack the Quarterer, how's the butt-crack after this song?
"Full Moon Fury" definitely deserves to be mentioned because of its songwriting quality, even if there're three tiny drum beating time mistakes.
"Mr. Argento" starts slow and atmospherical with early James Hetfield vocals, then bursts and shines like a star with the best vocals and bass lines entwined with drums of the album; moreover here you'll find a KO axe solo, one of the unforgettable ones come out from the heart in which every note has a meaning and there's no random act. Although the monicker, the cover and the album title mislead the unaware buyer by having them think this is a Death metal album or something, this song is the only one together with the next one that is rightly connected with the image presented, but you have to get to the ninth track to understand that!
Finally, "The Haunting" closes the record, boasting a dynamic fast structure and most of all a cool main Thrashy riff because of its central part, while "B.F.D." requires several listens before finding its place into our brains. Considering the sounds are clean, powerful and punchy, the arranging and the performance of high level, "Beyond These Doors" is beyond dispute an album you can't miss, even though it includes one track that's not really up to the rest.
Give praise to The Haunting!
MARKUS GANZHERRLICH - 20th October 2011