Relaxed and routinely

58 minutes long shows Hackett on his new album, once again, that it must be still considered one of the best rock guitarists. He does not fancy or super-fast stuff on his instrument, he has to prove anything to anyone anymore, rather we could speak with him in his game of understatement, calmness or simply Songdienlichkeit.
Wealth of variety is again the key: from the hard rock, about the blues to classical guitar sounds and all varieties are represented again. Even the occasional elegiac solo may not be missing again.
In addition to some purely instrumental tracks (wonderful: the with 00:48 minutes too short "Wanderlust") is also sung. Who knows Hackett knows that he should not expect any technical miracles here. Time of singing is electronically modified, provided even with a fairly strong Hall, but the bandwidth of expression remains limited nevertheless always audible. Embarrassing or annoying but the song for my taste is never.

What distinguishes "Beyond ..." of comparable albums like "Out of ..." or "To Watch ..."?
On the new album is overall a bit quieter than one would otherwise expect from Hacketts rock albums. There are relatively represented many calmer and more uniform pieces that in the middle of the album for my taste a little too much piling up. Nothing against slower pieces, but in the meantime the album somewhat lost the initial voltage. Only towards the end with the Blues "Catwalk" and the varied 12 minute film "Turn this Iceland Earth" album takes again really to ride.

A very relaxed and mellow acting album, which a few rough edges had more certainly not harmed. In places Assozationen me came while listening to Gilmour's "On An Iceland" to mind. The production has to my mind a little too much "Blur" and it sounds phased a bit undynamic what me also not particularly well pleases.
But that's whining at a high level. Fans will not be disappointed, even if I personally, for example, "Out of the Tunnel's Mouth" in total something like better.

To buy the "Special Edition" I can only advise ausrücklich. Here's an additional 28 minutes solely instrumental songs where Hackett its entire range and his skills (especially on acoustic guitar) are the best.

4 stars ****