The End – Within Dividia (Relapse Records)
Wow! Talk about truly progressive. Intense metal/hardcore with grind and noise elements thrown in, made to sound like it enjoys being whacked across the head with its own leg. This is vicious, brutal, terrifying stuff. The riffs are disjointed, the drums are manic, the vocals are downright scary, and there’s nothing like the disfigurements that are the song constructions. Think DEP, Burnt By The Sun, and Converge with a smattering of Mastodon and Neurosis. This is basically mathcore; angular, jarring riffs, switch-on-dime time signatures, screamed/shouted/growled vocals, bass parts running everywhere, and a super-smart, intelligent story being told. Are you reading this, Neepa? This is spectacular.
Tracks:
1) Starts with crazy double bass and guitar riffs, and then it settles into a practically unpredictable/undecipherable pattern.
2) Very DEP-like, chaotic with a few guitar squeals and double bass and parts that you hear once and you’re like “Ooooooh, play that shit again!”, but they don’t. FCC at –3:07. Catch it and “bleep” it out because this song is stellar, super-melodic, and it even has an attempted guitar solo.
3) Instrumental, starts out slow, dark, eerie, and then slowly, very slowly builds up, lingers, slows down, speeds up, becomes powerful with intricate drums and segues into the next song.
4) Pounding from the get-go with some double-personality lyrics that verge on histrionics.
5) A riff that sounds like an old VHS tape being rewound and played, again and again, stop and go and no, wait, stop, go back, ok, now go. Drums and vocals are everywhere all the time, insane! The bass also gets really creative towards the end.
6) FCC at –2:06, but otherwise one of the best songs here. Total chaos from the beginning, then there’s a series of arpeggiated chords and heavy, thundering drums, followed by the final breakdown, which is way intense.
7) Odd track, mostly instrumental, starts with guitar pinches and chords over thundering drums and then develops into a full-on modern hardcore attack with an almost-guitar solo and then some intense screaming.
8) The last track starts like any other deathcore song, but before you know it, it’s out of control, smacking you around, calling you names. Some powerful power chords with great double bass and guitar runs hell-bent on taking off your head. Way cool! Ends with 1:10 of strange noises, I can’t tell what they are, but fade down, mmmmmmk?