>Through The Mirror by ENDON (2017, Hydra Head Records) (bandcamp) (download)
>genre: extreme metal, avant-metal, avant garde
>best enjoyed at loud volumes, i've heard one song ("Your Ghost Is Dead") off this album prior to a full listen and it really stuck with me. an incredible, unapologetic assault on the senses, that song rots and eats away at your brain. it's almost poetic in its sonic mystery. it's a massive tangle, a huge knot of exhibition and sweat and sawblades, a piercing and beastly enigma of a song. so i was definitely excited to listen to this album today. plus i need to listen to more grindy, heavy stuff anyway. i haven't checked it out in a while.
"Perversion 'Till Death" has some of my favorite vocals on this album. at just a hair over ten minutes, the buildup and release in this song is perfect-- it has a chaotic opener with guttural, demonic screams and screeches and equally unsettling, frantic drumming. the guitar makes it irreverent, a delicious opposition to the ritualistic manner of the melodies. about four minutes in, we reach a breakdown: a no-holds-barred, pounding plea to any higher force before squealing away and back into this album's signature terrifying atmospheric noise. the guitar writhes its way back into the top harmonic layer of this song until it falls back into grisly yelping... that is, until the final piece of the puzzle comes in. the last few seconds of the song, the paradoxical crashing of a waterfall, serves as an offering and also a reunion on holy ground.
their self-assigned identification as "catastrophic noise metal" is perfect, because that's exactly what it is. marked by exceptional vocal dynamics, a guitar sound so monstrous and contorted it's almost heretical, and samples and synths shrill enough to rip through the fabric of time. on top of this the orchestral additions give it that surreal appeal. somewhat slippingly, the drums don't seem to live up to the rest of the noncompliant arrangements we see on this album, but it doesn't take away that much: if anything it's proof that these tracks are still grounded in some tangible reality. they are the manic bestial heartbeat of this monstrous album, especially on a track like "Born In Limbo." on this song we hear everything from a cackling dolphin to separately reversed and hellish blatherings to flat-out deprived shrieking. the drums is what make it accessible because otherwise this would just be a chaotic, freaky sound collage (not a bad thing).
however, as i listen to this album more and more, it begins to reveal itself as more than a smattering of juvenile impious urgencies. there's a inimitable beauty to it, like all other extreme/avant-metal albums i've heard, after repeated listens. it's incredibly rewarding. it's a brain blast, a minecart ride through a cultish sex cave, an expression of little more than perfectly summoned dischord. i complained about the drums earlier but they do have their much brighter points on the album. take "Postsex," for instance. they work you into a sweaty freak-trance only redeemable by thrashing until you can barely breathe. it's insanity incarnate.
reaching the end of the album, we reach more melodic bits with the guitars in "Through The Mirror," a crashing battle of crescendos and squeals like metal grating on metal. a couple sound bits of sobbing and dry heaving later you slide hellwards into a chorus of perfectly executed screams, and the voice of the guitar takes on a more garden of Eden-like quality that transitions perfectly into the final song. "Torch Your House" begins as an ode to all things to all this beautiful and terrible, to the creator and the destroyer. the saccharine sweet drone it plays with in the beginning moments melt away with the guitar. it gets a little djenty if i'm honest, but they do it fast, hard, and well before they move on to something more hard-hitting. it feels like the ending to an epic: sweeping, very final, and incredibly emotive. as i write and listen to the last three minutes i feel quite satisfied with what it accomplishes. a final yell for life rings out through the drums and clear-ringing guitars before it descends into its last seconds of existence, somewhat heavenly in its singing and thumping guitars.
what a journey of an album. jesus christ. reflecting on it feels weird because it already did all of that for me. however, with a clear head and heart following that fucking motherload of a record, i can say with confidence that it's good. really good. my only complaint, really, is the drums and small but painfully cheesy djent section in the last song. other than that, this is a solid 4.5/5. vox, guitars, atmosphere, everything else, is perfectly crafted and really draws you in. i definitely recommend this for anyone looking for avant-metal outside of maudlin of the Well and anyone who likes extreme music in general. i've included the bandcamp and a free download link as well but remember to ALWAYS support artists when you can. bye
