This review would have been penned sooner if my computer hadn’t decided to have a boot up error on a day that was plagued with problems and binned as a nonstarter in the end. However I eventually resolved the issue eager to digitise my thoughts on this exceptional debut full length. Like you I listen to a lot of albums many of which just pass me by as background material if truth be told whilst I’m doing something else but this UK act is really something else, akin to an underground extreme metal super group This Is Endless has recorded a set of songs that are as incendiary as they are ingeniously crafted. Within the band are members from Dead Beyond Buried, Voices, Dripback, Onslaught and Ted Maul and given that it should give you some indication as to the hybridization within This Is Endless.
Opening with the monstrous ‘Skin Cyst’ the songs uneasy build-up leads into the aggressive blasting that hints at a hardcore stance that is subtly instilled in the song and within the album generally. The multiple vocal tones are brilliantly executed adding their own vitriolic shades to the song as the awesome ‘Insect’ follows. That melding of death metal with the hardcore like credentials really comes to the fore here as the songs venomous onslaught is utterly raging where the deluging double kick cascades into the track.
Equally devastating is ‘Creature Of Habit’ with its purer death metal traits linked to a start-stop riffing style that I always like, making it accessible and just downright groove infested as a harsh vocal caustically strips your flesh on ‘The Damned And The Weak’. The blast beat is grindcore based to me as that groove based aura hooks into the riffing frenzy that ensues as again the song is super catchy. ‘Noise Track’ is well a noise track that bridges into the cymbal smashing start of ‘Imprinted In Life’ as the visceral vocal disembowels the listener before a borderline slam riff guts in. Again there is that tendency to edge the track into hardcore territory even if momentary before shifting back into grisly deathly realms, as everything is done with fervent urgency and rampant potency.
Slowing down is ‘Into The Hive’ where the more gruesome opening has a deeper focus as the vocals are suitably guttural but mixed with the harsher more piercing variety right before the very cool riff break and teeth smashing riff change which has a cool crossover riff style leaving ‘As I Suffocate to conclude this incredible release. Being slightly longer the song has an impacting opaque start, similar to Immolation in some respects due to its density before shifting emphasis and becoming more chaotic momentarily with a metallic hardcore catchiness. As the song evolves there is an eeriness that underpins the songs compactness like a slithering ghoulishness that crawls underneath making the song unnerving before it finales with a true death metal demolition.
Destructive death metal at its core, but enhanced with deviant extreme metal trickery this debut is absolutely essential.
(9.5/10 Martin Harris)
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