Album of the year!
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Break the Silence – Review by Hannibal
Hang on, is this a serious article to start off 2026? Who are you and what did you do with Hannibal?
Introduction
Beyond the Black happened to be my most played artist on Spotify in 2025, with a little over 7,800 minutes listened.
When I realized they were dropping a new album 9 days into the new year, I thought, blog post.
Actually, that is a lie. I found out about the new album months before I got back into writing posts, but let’s pretend the first thing I said is true.
Either way, here we are. Early January and I have a brand new album to talk about. So let’s dive in.
Info.
Title: Break the Silence
Artist: Beyond the Black
Release date: January 9th, 2026
Label: Nuclear Blast
The Band.
Beyond the Black are a German metal band fronted by Jennifer Haben. Haben started the band as a solo project back in 2014 and wrote and recorded the first album on her own.
She added touring musicians over the next few years before announcing a permanent lineup in 2016. Break the Silence is the sixth album released by Beyond the Black.
I first came across this band at a concert back in 2023, and they were incredible. They were just an opening band on a tour with about six other bands on the night, but they came out and crushed it.
So lets jump into the review.
Track List.
01. Rising High
The first single from this album, It was released over 6 months before the album. I admit I have already listened to this song many times. I would put this in my top 5 songs by Beyond the Black. It is high energy and holds a really positive message about stepping out and taking control of your own life.
It is catchy, and musically it’s a really solid opening to the album. Also, who doesn’t like a guitar solo?
02. Break the Silence
Another song released months before the album came out. This song is such a big vocal driven song.
It is easy to see why they picked this as the title track for the album. Huge choruses, and up beat rhythm. The song is well rounded and a perfect vibe for the rest of the album.
It continues the energy that was set up by the first song on the album, but it has a “feeling” about it that makes it stand out.
03. The Art of Being Alone (Feat. Lord of the Lost)
Some guy is singing and I don’t like it! No, that isn’t fair or true. Actually, this is a really good collaboration. His voice gives some fantastic harmonies with Jennifer’s voice.
This song feels very melancholy. However, it is a song that starts slow and builds into something truly epic by the end.
04. Let There Be Rain (Feat. The Mystery of the Bulgarian Voices)
I can’t understate how much I love this song. Musically this song is fantastic, but vocally it is phenomenal.
It was a standout for me on the first listen.
Musically it is a mix of simple rhythm and a fast paced beat, with a really good guitar solo.
But the vocals are where much of this album really shines. The verses are good, but the chorus is a mindscape of voices. The guest vocals provide a layer of vocals performed in another language, while the lead singer does the main melody, with another member of the band providing a lower male vocal harmony.
It is absolutely outstanding, and probably the number one song from this album I want to see live
05. Ravens
So at the start of this article I did say that Beyond the Black were my most listened to artist in 2025. I don’t think that is going to change for 2026. Part of that is I love the music, but mostly I love the singer’s voice.
Nothing stands out more about this song than her voice. It is slower and far lower energy than the other songs on the album so far. I think for many bands this song would be a down point for me, but letting her voice shine over something very simple is perfect.
This song is a good midpoint of the album with how simple and effective it is.
06. The Flood
Ok, straight away I will say this is my least favourite song on the album. Overall it isn’t bad. Very straightforward, it would probably come under the category of “yeah, I like it, but it is nothing special.”
Absolutely nothing wrong, just a song on the album. That is, of course, until someone decided to put a strange robotic voice all throughout this song that throws me off every time I hear it.
It was a strange musical choice. I will still listen to this song, but it was certainly a choice.
07. Can You Hear Me (Feat. Asami from Lovebites)
So apparently this song was released two months ago and I completely missed that fact. I never saw it on my YouTube searches and it never came up on Spotify.
But that is fine because it gave me a new song to discover upon release of the album.
This song doesn’t stand out, but at the same time it is a good song nonetheless. I felt bad, because I didn’t realize on my first listen that there was a guest vocalist. Her voice blends in with Jennifer Haben’s so well.
08. (La vie est un) Cinéma
So I don’t think the fact they have a song with some German in it is surprising. They are German after all. However, this is the first time they’ve done it in six albums.
In saying that, it was somewhat of a surprise when the chorus was just randomly in a different language to everything else so far. Then I read the title of the song and I kind of got it. However, I don’t speak German, so I have no clue what is being said. However, it sounds really good.
This song would probably be just another song on the album. However, that language shift does bring a certain level of interest to this song I probably wouldn’t have latched onto on my first listen.
Overall a pretty good song, although the robot voice does come back, but a bit less than in The Flood so it is ok.
09. Hologram
We have reached the penultimate track on the album.
This is probably the highest energy song in the back half of the album and I really like it. It is also at this point that I realized this album has been telling a story.
It starts with us breaking out and setting out on our own, facing setbacks, and coming to terms with those and growing, reaching out and finding support in another.
I then Googled it and realized, yes, this is indeed a concept album, and I totally picked up on that after 9 of 10 songs. Go me!
10. Weltschmerz
Oh no, I still don’t speak German and much of this song is, well, in German.
However, I absolutely love this as an album closer. It starts slow and very low energy. As the song goes, it builds and we get a high energy chorus that, for some reason, is in English, but a quiet refrain of the title at the end.
A perfect album closer here.
Overall.
I don’t get excited for albums like I used to. Often I don’t even know albums are coming until they are out, either because I forget, or because I just don’t hear anything until they are released.
However, this is one I knew was coming. It was announced at the Wacken Festival last year and I was watching that performance. The hype was real and this album didn’t disappoint.
Was it a perfect album? Well, not quite. But from start to finish it has it all. Musically it gives you everything you could want.
Vocally it might just be Beyond the Black’s finest. It has a good mix of high energy and slower songs, plenty of catchy choruses and sing along moments, with a healthy sprinkling of collaborations.
Rating and Final Thoughts.
I would say that there are a few little things I would like done differently, but overall a fantastic album, and no song on this album I would skip on a re-listen.
9 out of 10.
Honestly, probably would have given it 10 out of 10 if it wasn’t for the weird voice in The Flood.
Links.
A Youtube playlist with the entire album on the bands youtube channel is right here.
Bonus Ranking.
I have never done this for an album. I will now attempt to rank every song on the album from worst to best.
So let’s go behind the scenes of this article for just a moment. Originally I only did exactly what I said. I ranked each song, but realized halfway through that I didn’t like doing it that way. I even wrote that I should have made it a tier list. So I have decided to do exactly that.
So this is my tier list of every song on the album.
C Tier
These are the songs that I would put at the bottom of the list. Honestly, a tough choice to even put them in a C Tier, but here we are.
Track 03: The Art of Being Alone, and Track 06: The Flood.
I don’t actively dislike any songs on this album, but I did feel that The Flood and The Art of Being Alone were the weakest on the album. If I could bring myself to skip any songs on this album it would be these two. I wouldn’t, but if I did, that would be it.
B Tier
This is my “I like these songs but they don’t quite stand out enough for me to bump them into the exceptional categories tier.”
Track 08: (La vie est un) Cinéma, and Track 07: Can You Hear Me.
I originally had more songs in this tier, but it kept changing.
A Tier
These are songs that stood out for me, that I really liked, either on a first listen or after a few times.
Track 05: Ravens, Track 09: Hologram, Track 10: Weltschmerz, and Track 02: Break the Silence.
This was a tough category. I moved things around a lot, but I stand by this placement. Most of the album does deserve this placement.
S Tier
So we get to the best of the best. These were the songs that I love the most.
Track 01: Rising High, and Track 04: Let There Be Rain.
Without question my standout songs. Rising High has been a frequent listen for me for the last four to six months, and Let There Be Rain stood out the most on the first listen of the album.
Conclusion.
I rarely write an article so quickly after getting an album. So I don’t have any real time to consider these thoughts. So it is certainly possible some of my opinions here will change, but overall I loved this album.
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