Artist: The End
Label: Relapse Records
Release Date: 1/13/04
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Title: Within Dividia Artist: The End Label: Relapse Records Release Date: 1/13/04 |
Judgment Committee Reviews | Rating |
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Go to Reader Reviews | ||
Abyss's Review:
I think the average listener's impression of this band has a lot to do with how long they've spent listening to them. This band didn't make much of an impression on me until I listened, and concentrated, on them for the third time. See, I usually listen to a record in many different situations: sometimes distracted, sometimes playing video games, sometimes concentrating fixedly, and sometimes drunk. And while this album didn't do much for me when I was somewhat distracted, when I paid close attention to it I found it a great listen.
"One word review: NICE!" Fans of Dillinger Escape Plan and A Life Once Lost should find a lot to like in this record. And while I'm sure the band would hate such comparisons (like every other band does) they are accurate and give you a good idea what to expect. Of course, in and of itself, this music is unpredictable, relying less on the strength of any individual riff than on their ability to weave a tapestry of sound out of disjointed and contrary themes. And this band is very successful, showcasing the prerequisite technical chops and whirlwind of broad-ranging ideas.
They also have avoided coming out with an album of 80 songs that spans a mere thirty minutes. And while the individual songs seem to be a little more 'structured' than many others in the genre, they are no less chaotic and unpredictable. My only pet peeve with this record is that sometimes there are long period of little or no sound in between tracks. It only happens a few times, but has me looking to see if the record is over. One word review: NICE!
Death's Review:
Relapse Records has always been able to walk the line between sporting an extremely diverse roster yet still somehow managing to cultivate a common aesthetic that runs throughout almost every record these Pennsylvanians put out. If one had to sub-categorize the Relapse roster, however, you might say that there is the noisy, crusty, low-fi punk side of the label, the incisive, surgical metalcore side, the tribal, crushingly primitive and instinctual side, and the grinding chaotic (and sometimes experimental) death metal side. And, apt to their name, "The End" combine many aspects of the Relapse aesthetic into a single conceit. Elements of many of Relapse artists like Dillinger Escape Plan or Neurosis are embedded within these tracks. Think emotional, tribal and brutal technical metalcore, played out over the course of a label-described "film noir atmosphere" that tells the conceptual tale of "The Dividia Estate."
"I don't dislike the record, I'd just rather be listening to many other things." So is this the ultimate Relapse Records release? No, sadly it is not. While the band does carve out an interesting niche, delivering an amalgamated sound that I don't think has been replicated in just such a fashion before, the whole is no greater than the sum of these parts. Ultimately, the "core" part of the metalcore is just too much for me here. I don't dislike the record, I'd just rather be listening to many other things. The singer is adequate but does not truly capture my attention, and while there are some cool riffs and some really heavy parts here, it lands as merely average overall. The bottom line on The End is that I like them, don’t love them, and while I appreciate what they are trying to do I hope they can elevate their sound to a higher plane for the next record. In the meantime I'll be interested to hear this stuff in the live setting.
Hel's Review:
So I ask Death the other day, “Did you listen to The End yet?” He says, “I think so, is that the one that sounds like Dillinger Escape Plan meets Neurosis?” Damn him! I haven’t been able to get that analogy out of my head since. It is just too apt.
"The End manages to create a sound uniquely theirs." The End does indeed combine the epic organized mayhem of DEP with the extended almost psychedelic jam sensibilities of Neurosis. The band manages to somehow combine the two styles so that only a shift from the pure form of one style to a pure form of the other causes you to realize the astounding similarity to the aforementioned examples. The remainder of the time, the two are integrated in a seamless fashion that I wouldn’t previously have envisioned possible. The songwriting enables this seemingly random juxtaposition to be perfectly coherent and sensible. Despite their rather obvious (once they are parsed out) influences, The End manages to create a sound uniquely theirs.
Clearly, there is a high level of musicianship implicit in the performance of such complexly written songs. The members of The End possess a mastery of these necessary skills, and the music on Within Dividia is chaotic, but somehow coherent as well, as music of this ilk ought to be. This is one of those bands that sounds like pure noise to your friends, but makes absolute musical sense when you pay very close attention. There is a veritable sea of so-called “mathcore” pretenders out there, attempting to do what The End seems to have effortlessly done here. If you are addicted to this style when it is done well, but frustrated by winnowing through the chaff to find the gems, you need this album.
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