Tothen - Beyond The Tomorrow

*=Staff's pick	Ashes in the Abyss Keeping Silence Above the Law Wicked Soul Christened by Flame Altar of Freedom Wild Life Lady of the Lake Open Fire Beyond the Tomorrow Scream (Bonus Track)

Genre	Power Metal	Renato Trubuzy	Vocals
Tracks	11	Frank Schieber	Guitar
Runningtime	-- Min.	-	Guitar
Label	Scarlet Records	Itho Cruz	Bass
Release	18 March 2002	Marcos Barzo	Drums
Country	Brazil	Sydney Sohn	Keyboards
Similar artists	Angra

Beyond the Tomorrow is the debut album of the new Brazilian speed power metal band Thoten. The vocalist Renato Tribuzy was one name figuring when it came to replace Andre Matos in Angra. And the Angra- guitarist Kiko Loureiro's also produced this album and he also performs some guest-guitar-solos on some of the tracks. Beyond the Tomorrow is also mastered at House of Music, which is also used by for instance Helloween and Primal Fear.

But calling this speed power metal as Thoten's being promoted as, is hardly the case. They instead sound more like a hybrid between a demo-version of Labÿrinth and worse Dream Theatre plagiarism. Hence, this is way more progressive metal than speed power. There are tendencies of this though, but the overall sound is a progressive one.

The sound is also very thin and I can only with fear imagine what it would have been like without House of Music… The vocalist didn't fill Matos position in Angra and I begin to realize why. At the low tones he performs quite well but in the high parts it's below average.

This is, as you might guess not an album that appeals to me. There are a few choruses that got some potential though and that goes for some guitar-melodies too (probably by Loureiro) but it's unfortunately not enough to raise the standard of the album.
Instead of good guitar solos and passages we instead have to listen to some strange piano/keyboard mixtures and some other weird stuff.

I have big difficulties in seeing that this album will be a great success except for in perhaps Brazil where they've apparently had some better reception.
The promised speed power metal is conspicuous by its absence and the progressive elements dominate, which necessarily isn't a bad thing at all but in this case it is. If you're looking for good progressive power metal there are way better alternatives out there.

I'm very sorry to say this but Thoten will have to improve tremendously 'cause this can only be described as a very mediocre debut. It isn't good even compared to other up-and-comers in the genre and I must admit I'm very disappointed.

Given some time and routine perhaps Thoten can be something more extraordinary but at the present time that is sadly not the case.

Production	Vocals	Compositions
5,5	6	6,5

Summary
5 chalices of 10 - Mat