Beyond Extinction: Triumph In The Face Of Tragedy

There is no correct way for a band to handle a member’s passing. Whatever decision they make, chiefly whether they continue or not, will always be understood and supported by their friends, family and fanbase. In 2023, Essex death metallers BEYOND EXTINCTION faced that very reality, when founding guitarist Zach Scott tragically took his own life at the age of just 20.



“The day after he died, we all said we needed to be together physically and immediately have those difficult conversations,” remembers vocalist Jasper Harmer. “We talked about the best way to deal with it, in both the long-and short-term, and one was to prioritise keeping ourselves busy. I think what helped saved us was that the band didn’t become associated with the trauma of the event; we became associated with the solution of how to continue.”



He does, understandably, admit he had no idea in that moment whether BEYOND EXTINCTION would have survived. “If you’d asked me at the time where I’d see myself in five years, the band absolutely wouldn’t have been a priority, and there were certainly isolated moments where it would have been easy to stop. However, none of us ever had that conversation – we all owed it to ourselves to keep going and, individually, refuse to be the guy that said ‘I can’t do this anymore’.”

Once they felt ready, Jasper – along with guitarist Jude Bennett and drummer Niall Ali – brought good friend Danny Russell in to fill Zach’s place. “He helped massively,” Jasper confirms. “We needed someone to step in with energy, enthusiasm and commitment from the get-go, and he was so reliable, understanding and mature, it did a lot for the rest of us.”

Jasper also confirmed that Zach had written and recorded material that ended up on Where They Gather, the band’s debut album. “There’s a lot of guitar parts that he wrote, but there’s a couple of songs where we repurposed and remixed his backing vocals from other released. That’s really cool because it’s so much more difficult to recognise his guitar playing, but having his voice on there is a real stamp of his contribution.”


The other big stamp is BEYOND EXTINCTION’s on the British extreme metal scene in the coming months. Where They Gather is a nasty, vicious album that has the potential to send them sky-rocketing, such is its nuclear delivery and deprived lyrical content. It’s set in a dystopian city inhabited by people just trying to survive at the end of humanity, and, as Jasper summises, is “a place where all my hate and repulsion have come to live”. Naturally, the healing process from Zach’s passing will have lent itself to the spite and bile that is unleashed, but Jasper also drew on his experiences of London, both in his capacity working for a homeless charity and as a hub of entertainment and pleasure.

“When I was in a more negative mindset, the tube train stopped being transport and started seeming like a horrible, underground prison; buildings went from office blocks to symbols of financial dominance and the constant flow of people transformed into liquid. So much of the physical landscape you’re in is reliant on your brain, and cities can brainwash people into a lifestyle that is unnatural and brutal on them.”



Brutal is also the perfect summary for Jasper’s own performance on the record; you can scarce believe the human body is able to produce such guttural vocal tones. “I reckon it’s down to my height,” he says with a smile. “I’m only five foot eight, so my centre of gravity is closer to hell and that means I can bring up more evil sounds!”

Jokes aside, BEYOND EXTINCTION have brought out one of the best metal records of the year and have just done their first shows outside of the UK, specifically in Ireland. There’s plenty in the pipeline for 2026 as well. “We’ve got one festival booked in next year and then more shows are in the works for the first half as well,” Jasper teases. “Nothing that I can really say at this moment in time, but as ever there’ll be nothing for a while and then it’ll come every day for a week, non-stop.”

And when they’re not ripping apart venues? You can often find them hanging out on the band’s Discord channel. “So many other bands I know have it,” explains Jasper, “and we started using it as a band organiser before deciding to open it up to other people. It gives people that opportunity to get away from the hell of Meta algorithms and onto a platform where we can all just speak, play quizzes and escape the world. We’ve got 70 people in it right now; I hope we hit 100 by the end of the year!”

Where They Gather is out now via self-release. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS125 here:

The Pretty Wild: Innately Feminine

The release of a debut album comes with all kinds of demands: planning shows, shooting music videos, endless amounts of marketing, and the artists are just sitting in the eye of the storm. Luckily for the members of metalcore duo THE PRETTY WILD, they have managed to find calm in the chaos. Catching up with sisters Jyll and Jules Wylde just before the release of zero.point.genesis, they explain how they are managing to keep their cool.
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“We’ve been in a whirlwind, but the more we’ve gotten into the process the more we’ve let go. Oddly enough, that’s kind of the premise of the album. All of the industry people are freaking out about numbers, and we’re just in creator mode, we’re just so removed from the pressure to perform. The more intense it gets, the more we dive into our inner world,” Jyll explains. While they aren’t too worried about numbers, they are focused on how the album will reach people, as Jules adds.



“It means more to me when somebody comes up to us at a live show and is like, ‘I love Paradox, it inspired me to finish my comic book’, like that’s sick. We’re probably not traditionalist in that way.” It is important to the songwriters is that their music is empowering to women, and they find it incredibly rewarding to see how it has inspired their female audience to find their creative side.

While THE PRETTY WILD want their music to inspire other women to get involved in making metal music, they also acknowledge the difficulties and why there is still such a lack of female representation in the genre. Jyll explains, “we never wanted to cause a divide, like men versus women, but there are unignorable factors that are just honest in our story. Our whole thing is to integrate the polarities, but those imbalances do need to be addressed.” Although the genre is currently the most open-minded it has ever been, there is still work to be done, and there are a small but undeniable group of people who aren’t as accepting. Jules adds, “you see a lot of incredible bands with female components, but I also think the genre is physically very demanding, and a lot of the vocal parts are not as forgiving to the female vocal structure, so it takes a lot of confidence to put yourself out there and make mistakes. For us it’s just cathartic, it’s almost compulsive that we have to do this.”

‘Female rage’ is a term that’s often thrown about, especially in the context of women in metal music, but for THE PRETTY WILD, it means they have a place to let go, and feel all of their emotions proudly and openly, something women aren’t always allowed to do. Much of this new album is based on the band finding their voices, something that Jyll describes as “innately feminine”.


In the current output of music, visuals are often just as crucial to the makeup of an album, and this is where THE PRETTY WILD thrive. Jules explains that she has an extensive background in theatrical creative directing, and this knowledge is plain to see in everything that they create. All the different inspirations and current fixations somehow make their way into the album’s visuals, including but not limited to Tim Burton, the baroque era, philosophy, classical music and famous acrobats. Jules laughs, saying “it sounds like we’re not from this century”, but it was vital that the album became a world to live in, and the visuals just deepen the understanding of everything that is said. The artwork in particular is heavily inspired by Mark Ryden’s surrealist paintings, an uncanny exploration into the nightmarish side of girlhood. The stage fashion is also key, and Jules explains. “It’s another form of the art. It’s an extension of the brand and of creative expression, and it would be a travesty to ignore that. It makes it worthwhile when you get to scratch every creative itch, in all the corners it could exist in.” Jyll adds, “sometimes people say ‘it’s not a fashion show girls’. Yes it is! Fuck off!”

It’s clear that much of the ethos of THE PRETTY WILD is based on pushing the boundaries in the music industry, as well as changing the way things are done for the better, and this was put into place when they announced their decision to drop out of their support slot on the upcoming SET IT OFF tour. With a statement implying that they have decided to put their mental health first, the burning question is how they made this decision. Jyll explains, “I’m a gymnast, and you really learn how to listen to your body. A somatic understanding of the body’s intelligence is really important, and I feel like coming from the old-school mindset of the industry, that wasn’t valued. Knowing when it’s time, that can be really hard to do, especially when the pressure gets crazy, but being confident and honouring your body’s wisdom is important.”
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This is a sentiment that comes through in the message of the album, and while the band make it very clear how grateful they are to be in this position, it would be contradictory to not prioritise their mental health. By taking a step back, they are ensuring that anytime they do perform, they do it as the best versions of themselves.

zero.point.genesis is an album full of powerful messaging, and both Jyll and Jules wanted to inspire their listeners to put their mental health first, and feel like they can take on anything. Jules says, “the most important message is that people feel energised and ready to tackle whatever it is that’s dragging them down in life.” Jyll ends with, “there’s something bigger that we’re all attached to, and I hope people listen and feel a sense of calmness at it’s core, even though we’re screaming at you.”

zero.point.genesis is out now via Sumerian Records. View this interview, alongside dozens of other killer bands, in glorious print magazine fashion in DS126 here:

LIVE REVIEW: Katatonia @ The Garage, Glasgow

A soggy winter night paints the scene perfectly for KATATONIA’s live show in Glasgow. It’s been just shy of three years since the Swedish progressive rock act last painted the city grey. Now, they’re back at The Garage but the room is noticeably less busy than when they last played the same venue.



For whatever reason, Glasgow seems to escape many progressive power metal bands’ touring schedule. So EVERGREY’s performance tonight is a rare one for fans of this subgenre (although they did do a headlining show here just last year). Formed in 1993, these Swedes quickly defined a truly unique sound. Their prog power eschewed the fantasy and upbeat vibes of their peers in favour of melancholic and introspective tones. However, for nearly the past two decades, they’ve fallen into a comfy rut, failing to develop their style and losing the ambition of their most popular albums, Recreation Day and In Search of Truth.Evergrey live @ The Garage, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

Last year, they released their 14th album, Theories of Emptiness, and tonight they bring it to their support slot. The five-piece kickstarts their show with The Silent Arc. New drummer Simen Sandnes immediately draws the room’s collective eye to himself with his highly animated standing-up-drumming that resembles more beast than man. The band’s sound is suitably voluminous; drums are noisy, the keyboards feel icy and the guitar leads carry a subtle, sinister intention. Frontman Tom Englund has a silky, mid-range and muscly voice that cannot be mistaken for anyone else.

Nothing from the setlist is older than 2014, so fans of their most popular releases are disappointed. Cold Dreams and Falling from the Sun bolster the new album, while King of Errors is the strongest output of the night. The audience is mostly static throughout the set and just proffers polite reactions at the end of each song. While EVERGREY’s stage presence is serviceable and there’s nothing terrible about it, the songs blending into one and the sense that you’re watching a band well past their prime mark the show as lacklustre. Closing with the new single OXYGEN! is a brave choice, but for whatever reason, the band avoids their best material and fails to captivate the crowd meaningfully.

Rating: 6/10Katatonia live @ The Garage, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

The key change in KATATONIA’s world since they last touched down in Glasgow is the departure of founding member and guitarist Anders Nyström. Interestingly, Nyström threw in the towel as the only original musician now, Jonas Renske, refused to weave the band’s old material into their live shows. Also, earlier this year, guitarist Roger Öjersson called it quits, so it’s been a bumpy 2025. Like EVERGREY, KATATONIA are frequently accused of failing to vary their sound and releasing stylistically similar albums over the course of around 15 years. New album, Nightmares as an Extension of the Waking State, is used by a large portion of the fanbase as evidence for this argument.

Opening with new song Thrice, the headliners soak the venue with lonely, high-pitched guitar leads, off-beat prog rhythms and Renske’s velvet-smooth croons. The drums sound more bombastic live, and the overall sound is excellent. Given the song’s quieter, lingering passages, it feels risky to start with it live. However, the song is stalked by the beloved classic Soil’s Song, which oddly receives zero ovation from the crowd when it starts. Being from 2006, this track displays KATATONIA‘s more atmospheric alternative rock leanings and less progressive rock observations. Its staccato chorus works live and provides ample opportunity for headbanging.Katatonia live @ The Garage, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall

Nothing older than the highly praised The Great Cold Distance is visited tonight. Leaders and July from this album are clear highlights, as well as Lethan, Nephilim, Dead Letters and Old Hearts Fall. New songs, like Liquid Eye and In the Event Of, trace the typical KATATONIA formula of mid-paced guitars, cinematic, moody atmosphere and bombastic distorted riffs. The new guitarists, Nico Elgstrand and Sebastian Svalland, slot into the lineup seamlessly. Their stage presence is energetic and even playful with the other members. Backed by three projector screens showing animations inspired by the album art of each song, the performance feels slick and polished.

Despite this, the audience remains particularly subdued. Before the end, notable portions of attendees head for the exit altogether. An encore of the beloved Forsaker reanimates those who remain, but given the gaps in the spectators, it’s hard to feel that this is an outstanding KATATONIA concert.

Rating: 7/10

Check out our photo gallery of the night’s action in Glasgow from Duncan McCall here:















Katatonia live @ The Garage, Glasgow. Photo Credit: Duncan McCall































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