Your End -- Le sombre triomphe (review)

Band: Your End
Album: Le sombre triomphe
Genre: blackened death/grind/sludge
Year: 2017
Label: independent

Your End started out as an extreme metal duo in 2017, but they sound as if they've been honing there sound for at least half a decade.  Needless to say, these guys exist to deliver sludgy, HM-2-driven black/death.
The EP opens with my personal favorite track, "Endless Agony."  The sludgy riffing and crushing breakdown set the morbid tone for the hail of frantic blasts and dark melodies that follow.  When the band kicks it into high-gear, the songs sound as if they are on the verge of falling apart, like all the screws are loose and everything is violently rattling.  As a result, the music sounds urgent, as if Your End is trying to record the whole thing before they shatter into oblivion.  That may not sound so good on paper, but the EP benefits from this greatly.
The pacing of the music varies from frantic blast beats to slower sludge metal passages.  There are plenty of riffs and melodies to make each track stand out from the rest.  The vocals are very much a cross between black metal rasps and grindcore growls and grunts.  The track "Dead Before Dawn" even briefly features some more emotive vocals.
Overall, Le sombre triomphe is an excellent, raw debut release from this American extreme metal duo (now a trio).  I highly recommend procuring their full catalog.  You can download this EP (for free/name your price) on bandcamp.


Rating: 4 / 5
Top Tracks:
Endless Agony
Dead Before Dawn
Drain

Within Destruction -- Deathwish (review)

Band: Within Destruction
Album: Deathwish
Genre: slamming deathcore
Year: 2018
Label: Rising Nemesis Records

Let's start 2018 out with something heavy!  My introduction to the Slovenian behemoth Within Destruction was their sophomore full-length, Void.  That album was heavy, slammy, melodic, and the double bass was fast as fuck.  So their latest outing should take that good reputation and improve upon it, right?
Well, the band did introduce new elements this time around, which is good considering the fact that this is still a relatively young band (8 years, didn't really take off 'til 2016).  The melodic passages are different than what was present on Void.  I would describe these melodies as kind of light and fleeting, whereas Void's melodic riffs were more ominous.  The vocalist has also revamped his style a bit.  The intense growling is occasionally broken up by some less-harsh moments.  It seems like the song is gonna lapse into melodic metalcore, but he reverts to tunnel-throating it as quickly as he stopped.
Aside from the aforementioned tweaks in style, this thing just turned out to be another run-of-the-mill "slam deathcore" album.  Anything that made the band's 2016 breakthrough interesting is painfully lacking here.  I couldn't even force myself to see an ounce of originality in this.  Everything from the production to the music to the album cover is so done-to-death it hurts.  Please, stop beating this dead horse.
Bonus: the guest feature on the title track made me never want to listen to Psychosadistic Design ever again.  It is that BAD.
Maybe someone can find something good to say, so check it out here.


Rating: 1.5 / 5