From the very first second singer Tasos Iliopoylos opens his mouth I instantly dislike his voice. Taste is a matter of personal opinion but he just can’t sing. He lacks power, stamina and the ability to sing on key. The music however is more to my liking with its mix of rock, metal and a bit of gothic. It’s unfortunate that a gifted individual like Melios Iliopoylos, who wrote all the music and plays the bass, the guitars and synth, is accompied by his not equally talented brother.

If Tasos doesn’t sing the music is very soothing, relaxing and they manage to create a certain atmosphere, for instance on the track “Heavy Waves”, which has a strong intro and some interesting guitar parts (and surprisingly some good background vocals).

Each time Tasos is backed by the backing vocals his voice sounds way better, like on “Hell in Heaven”, the strongest track on the album. On this track his vocals almost sounds like the clean vocals on Amorphis’ “Tales From The Thousand Lakes”.

I can keep on mentioning strong points of Beneath The Real because there are a lot, but the fact is that they are all overpowered by that one mayor disadvantage. Should Melios dump his brother on the next album, and I have no doubt he will if he wants to go anywhere with Morning After, it should bring him a lot more attention and praise than Beneath The Real will.