"Saturation Point" - The Facebook story

Like most people nowadays, Beyond The Labyrinth and guitar player Geert Fieuw are on Facebook - finding back old friends and acquaintances. This way, Geert reconnected with Fabienne De Lel, who used to be the singer in a band called "Saturation Point' together with Geert 2 decades ago. She asked Geert if he could find back the old demo recordings they did and burn them onto CDR because she had lost the tape.

When transferring the DAT tape into the computer prior to burning it, Beyond The Labyrinth singer Jo De Boeck heard the song "Saturation Point" and said "I want to record that one". (Former BTL drum player) Bruno Goedhuys also listened to the song and concurred, pursuing Geert to start working on a new arrangement to fit Beyond The Labyrinth's sound and approach. Saturation Point - the band was built around the Roxette concept and sound very much like "half-of-Abba-try-to-go-hard rock"....

(BTL Bass Player) Gerry Verstreken worked out the rest of the arrangement, heading it into a total different direction from the original one...

"Saturation Point" is the first release featuring Beyond The Labyrinth's new drum player John Van Tongelen. All keyboards have been played by Geert Fieuw.

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"Hypersensitive" - The "chat" story

"Hypersensitive" originates from a chat session Geert had with a colleague. The discussion went about the new age view to hypersensitivity, indigo parents and how the crystal children from these indigo parents are often considered the new "Lamb Of God". Add to that the association of a greedy, decaying civilization and the song lyrics were born. As an absolute contrast to the lyrical subject, the song itself is dark, heavy and aggressive. The use of electro influences and the word "spite" in the lyrics are a direct wink to fellow band (4) "Doncker" (featuring former BTL drum player Bruno Goedhuys)

"Hypersensitive" features a guest participation by award winning keyboard player Lisa LaRue.

"Chapter III - Stories" - A Work In Progress

For the 3rd Beyond The Labyrinth album, "Chapter III - Stories", BTL have chosen a whole different approach. Beyond The Labyrinth have decided to treat "Chapter III" as a Work In Progress - releasing the music onto the internet as the songs are finished, only regrouping the tracks onto CD once there is enough material.

Beyond The Labyrinth has always been a mix of studio project/live band but, like most regular bands, would follow a classic cycle of songwriting-demoing-recording-rehearsing-releasing-play- ing concerts and promoting the album. This work cycle forces any band to operate in time blocks, creating lots of anticipation on how the new album is going to sound  and squeezing all promotional efforts into a limited time frame, creating periods where the band would not be able to perform and promote at all.

Along with the big jukebox iTunes and the realm of the world wide web, bands are being judged on single songs, on favorites -call it instant gratification-, as opposed to entire albums. "Castles in the Sand", the band's 2nd album was a concept album meant to be listened to at once, while each of the songs could hold up by themselves as well. "Chapter III - Stories" is more like a book of short stories that can be read individually, over and over again.

We believe that this approach will encourage the true followers and supporters of the band to help BTL survive the current difficult times in which the music industry is suffering. Where others fail or give up, Beyond The Labyrinth is determined to continue delivering quality melodic rock with a rough edge

Singles Released :

December 2009 - Hidden Agenda + Stories Waiting To Be Told

September 2009 - Saturation Point + Hypersensitive

May 2010 - Oceans Apart + Where Kindred Spirits Meet

When meeting in real life with someone you collaborate with, one often faces the question "what's the catch ?" Unclear, even opaque motives can raise a doubt about our co-player's sincerity, on what is really driving him or her. And that's when we sometimes want to speak our mind out loud....

Fans has been asking about the whereabouts of "Hidden Agenda", title song of the unreleased 2007 EP.

The fate of the song had been unclear ever since Geert, unhappy with the way things were going, disbanded the 2007 BTL line up and decided to shelve all recordings. The scheduled "Hidden Agenda" EP didn't contain much new material - "Hidden Agenda" was the only new song, and even then, Geert wasn't too happy with the way it had been worked out and how the original chorus had been modified - too much compromises.

The song itself was played live once more at the "Castles in the Sand" presentation, soliciting new questions about its release. At that time, Beyond The Labyrinth promised to include it for the 3rd album. Working on the song revealed that the 2007 takes can only be seen as a blueprint version, a demo.

For this new recording, the lyrics, keyboard arrangement and overall song approach have been reworked (except for the Spice Girls joke that we found too cool and left in) ... Any resemblance to real persons is, off course, purely coincidental ;o))

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Everybody's got a story to tell - or to hide, sometimes ..

Stories about love lost, about trying to build up a new life, carrying along an unescapable past, about making the same mistake over and over again ... or beyond...

Sometimes, the story is obvious, sometimes it is deeply buried inside the person carrying it along, only to be revealed in small segments and ad libitum, in the wee hours when we lose our harness and show our frailness ...

Sometimes, you don't even have to dig, other times digging is useless, but you know ... somehow, there's a story waiting to be told ...

everybody's got a story to tell - what is yours ?

Chapter III - Stories (tbr 2010)

Love works in mysterious ways, as does music. As they say, when one door closes, another window of opportunity opens.

People who read the fine print on a cd (the so-called "the credits") already know that (BTL singer) Jo De Boeck co-wrote the music for "For Eternity" (featured on the 2008 Castles In The Sand" album) with (BTL guitar player, Keyboard player) Geert Fieuw, but when Jo came into the studio one evening, announcing "I wrote a song, but we need to work a bit on the music" he was being way too humble. After having heard the melody line and lyrics, Geert's jaw dropped - this was not just simply a song, this was the best BTL song he ever heard, even with hit potential ...

"Oceans Apart", a love story, underwent quite some rearranging until the band settled on "let's make it a power ballad mix of AOR and Marillion approach". After all, hit ballads by Guns'n'Roses The Scorpions, Bon Jovi have proven the age-old adage : "It's the wildest rockers that write the best love songs"  

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Where Kindred Spirits Meet

 Jamming along to some new ideas one day early in 2009, (Beyond The Labyrinth bass player) Gerry said "Oh by the way, I have this bass riff, can we do something with it ?". Now admitted, the bass is an underestimated instrument - providing drive and the missing link between rhythm and melody, most people tend to overlook its function. However, this particular bass riff had so much drive and inspirition that Geert grabbed his keyboard and soon the rough shape of "Where Kindred Spirits Meet" was laid out. During several songwriting sessions, Geert perfectioned the song into a mid tempo anthem with a memorable chorus and some great lyrics -in a typical BTL sound setting.

When someone passes away, most religions believe that he transcends to a different stage, an afterlife. Even considering it from a mere scientifical point of view, one has to wonder where the deceased person's energy has gone to - the principle of conservation of energy in a global universe still applies.

"Where kindred spirits meet" is a journey into the metaphysical, an ode to those who have left us - and a message that they will not be forgotten.