
Man V Machine
-- Next Door To Heaven --
21/03/2021
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Progressive metalcore |
Album artists:
■ | Daria Mazunova | Vocals |
■ | Evgenii “Gene” Mazunov | Guitar, bass |
■ | Pavel Lokhnin | Drums |
Review written by Corin Geypen.
However, where Daniel Thompkins puts a lot of variety and vocal range into Tesseract songs, I found vocalist and lyric writer Daria sticking to the safer routes. The lyrics for the “Inside” EP are interesting and philosophize on the state of life and her role as a human, which I can definitely relate to. Her words provide a lot of food for thought and I like the journey she takes me on. But when it comes to vocal lines, I kept waiting for her to break out of her comfort zone. I’m definitely not saying Daria is a bad singer, far from it, but it all felt very same-same. Personally, I would've welcomed some experimentation, maybe with some distortion or screams.
Guitarist Gene had a lot of work on this EP, taking care of guitars and bass as well as arrangement and orchestration. The drums were handed over to Pavel, who does his job admirably. Musically, this is not a bad band, though, again, I would have liked for them to break out of the comfortable mold. Listening to their back catalogue before reviewing this EP, I was struck by how many different genres the band tried to touch upon. Yet for this “Inside” EP, NDTH sticks to the familiar to produce a listenable, but generally generic-sounding prog album. Not a bad release, just a little dime-a-dozen.

[CORIN REPORTING]
Before receiving the “Inside” EP from Stijn, I had never heard of the Russian progressive metalcore act Next Door to Heaven. As a taster, the Belgian Metal Shredder had sent me the YouTube link to “Dance With Me,” a song that pulled me in with its quirky drums, meandering vocals and interesting music video. So I was eager to get started on this 2021 release. “Inside” is released independently and sent to us by Asher Media Relations.[SHREDDING BASICS]
Next Door to Heaven certainly has a lot of experience: between 2 albums and 4 EPs, this band has been around the block and back again. When I first heard them, I was reminded of Tesseract. The distinctly prog guitars and clean vocals evoke the same sort of dreamy violence.However, where Daniel Thompkins puts a lot of variety and vocal range into Tesseract songs, I found vocalist and lyric writer Daria sticking to the safer routes. The lyrics for the “Inside” EP are interesting and philosophize on the state of life and her role as a human, which I can definitely relate to. Her words provide a lot of food for thought and I like the journey she takes me on. But when it comes to vocal lines, I kept waiting for her to break out of her comfort zone. I’m definitely not saying Daria is a bad singer, far from it, but it all felt very same-same. Personally, I would've welcomed some experimentation, maybe with some distortion or screams.
Guitarist Gene had a lot of work on this EP, taking care of guitars and bass as well as arrangement and orchestration. The drums were handed over to Pavel, who does his job admirably. Musically, this is not a bad band, though, again, I would have liked for them to break out of the comfortable mold. Listening to their back catalogue before reviewing this EP, I was struck by how many different genres the band tried to touch upon. Yet for this “Inside” EP, NDTH sticks to the familiar to produce a listenable, but generally generic-sounding prog album. Not a bad release, just a little dime-a-dozen.
