BEYOND THE LABYRINTH (BTL) released their fifth studio album named ‘XXV‘, celebrating their 25th band anniversary. Belgium based BTL is a group of accomplished rock musicians with various backgrounds ranging from mainstream, A.O.R and progressive rock. Current line up is Filip Lemmens (Vocals), Geert Fieuw (Guitar, Backing Vocals), Dominic Heynderikx (Bass), Eddy Scheire (Keyboards, Backing Vocals) and Michel Lodder (Drums, Loops).

Based on their album warning “Contains 80s synths sounds” they probably are the only band in the world that tries to combine the song writing of ABBA, the crunch of AC/DC and the orchestration from movie soundtracks into their songs. Compared to previous albums, the songs are shorter and more to the point. The whole album radiates a classic rock feel, but with a modern sound that still manages to refer to the roots from the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s.

This album will bring up a lot of classic 80’s rock bands memories to you – their warning is not just bluffing. Listeners like me with an age range around 50 will be seeing them in musical styles we know of historic rock bands like Van Halen, Toto, Journey or Deep Purple. The CD-version of their album contains 14 songs and is extremely well produced and mixed. You will always recognize the long history of the band, the massive (live-)experience from hundreds of gigs with well known and respected acts like Y&T, Uriah Heep, Doro and many more – all of them are greatly skilled.

The core theme of flying and the sky is the red line that goes thru the album – despite a few songs including the at current inevitable COVID19 song on every album; “Improve, Enhance”. Highlights are hard to name since this album is all the way excellent but I would choose the slower ‘Invisible Battle Scars’ and ‘Altitude For Energy’; finally synth dominated ‘Dedicated To Sir J./Rush Rush Rush’ with a lot of drive.

Release Date: Dec 15, 2021
Label: independent
Tracklist:

1. Altitude For Energy
2. Louder Than Thunder
3. Invisible Battle Scars
4. Nothing Comes For Free
5. Dedicated to sir J./Rush Rush Rush
6. Falcon Eye
7. In Camera
8. This Is How We Roll
9. Improve, Enhance
10. Up There In The Sky
11. Rise Above
12. Long Way Home
13. CD exclusive: Healer (2021 version)
14. CD exclusive: Wings (2021 version)

Links:
http://beyond-the-labyrinth.com
https://youtube.com/c/beyondthelabyrinth
https://open.spotify.com/artist/3hek3bMIJj9uNel9BQVeIV
https://beyondthelabyrinth.bandcamp.com