BACK IN BLACK

Interview With Jennifer Haben Of Beyond The Black

Beyond The Black recently returned with their brand-new eponymous album. The record follows hot off the back of a UK run with touring counterparts Amaranthe and The Butcher Babies. The latter being something which the German outfit enjoyed. “We had some really amazing shows on that whole tour. But especially in England, we always feel so comfortable,” explains lead singer Jennifer Haben. “The people are just amazing, and we always feel very good.”

Following the success of the group’s last studio album Horizons, Beyond The Black wasted no time getting to work on their current release. “When Horizons was released - our previous album, we started thinking about the new album. But I think the only thing that was different to every single album before was that we were thinking about some deeper questions,” explains Jennifer. “I think everyone had these questions like, okay, what is happening here? Is what I’m doing really what I want? And where do I want to go? All these deeper questions we had for ourselves personally, but also for the band. So, what is Beyond The Black? Where do we want to go? How do we want to sound? We normally have these questions for every album. But this time it was much more intense, and we had more time for it. Answering these questions before writing intensively and recording was the base of everything that came after that. So, I think that this album you can hear that it’s more confident, that we knew what we wanted before we were writing it. So, all of this was more intense than ever before.”

One of the tracks on the release, “Winter Is Coming”, was inspired by the band’s love of a popular hit TV show. “We are some Game of Thrones fans. So, this song is the only one that is a bit older than the others. It was written during the time of Horizons,” explains Jennifer. “With the previous music videos with Reincarnation and Winter Is Coming we discovered our nerdiness much more with the cosplay and the visual effects and all of that. So, it was just perfect to add such a song that also has more symphonic elements. It fitted so well and fits so well with what is happening in the world right now. So Winter Is Coming is a metaphor for the crazy world out there. So yeah, I think that is the reason why it was good to have it as a third single for this album.”

On the release, the song Wide Awake struck a chord with the vocalist. “I was always some kind of a ballad lover, so Wide Awake is a favourite. I think the reason is because I can have some extreme dynamics in my vocals as well, which I don’t have normally in other songs. So, I love Wide Awake. But also, I Remember Dying, which is more like a super special interest song for me. I don’t think that everyone can get it. But that’s not important to me. So, this is something that is a new colour to the album, but not the base of the album. So yeah, I love this song.”

There has been a lot of change within the Beyond The Black camp since the band’s original incarnation. With personnel changes, from the original lineup, the band is now in a good place to move forward. “I was eighteen when Beyond The

Black started. So, I didn’t really know much, to be honest. So yeah, I have grown through all these changes, and especially that big band change, where a lot of haters came out and said horrible things about me personally and didn’t know me. And that was something that was really hard,” explains Haben. “I’ve really learned a lot and got stronger and stronger. So, I’m really glad that we’re at this point now that we could convince a lot of people that we want this and that we’re better than ever. So yeah, I’m happy with everything. And I know that these boys that I’m with at the moment that they really love this what we’re doing, and they invest as much as I do. So that is the most important thing for me.”

The band’s agenda presently is to continue touring and promoting the new album. “We’re not planning as much as we did before the pandemic. But, of course, we’re planning a tour and we want to play a lot of festivals during the summer and then we will see what the album brings and how it per forms,” said Jennifer. “Maybe we will have some other opportunities as well to come in some countries that we’ve never been to before. We’re open to it and maybe we will have the chance to do that, but of course, we’re planning a tour and festivals.”

The new eponymous album from Beyond The Black is out now via Nuclear Blast.