If you’re looking for feel-good music, look elsewhere. END’s stock in trade is nasty, nihilistic heavy hardcore that sounds like it wants your lunch money.
Their first album Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face and debut EP From the Unforgiving Arms of God before it laid down a blueprint of monstrous HM-2 laden noise that was practically an aural mugging; after a split with fellow nihilist miserablists Cult Leader last year, second album The Sin of Human Frailty arrives with much expectation behind it given both its predecessors’ quality and the names involved in the band – and it smashes all of them.
Opener ‘A Predator Yourself’ is 82 seconds of sonic annihilation, screeching feedback giving way to pummeling, frantic drumming as Brendan Murphy roars like a man possessed. Lead single ‘Gaping Wounds of Earth’ follows by dropping the tempo initially (though not for long) and keeping the grinding aggression at frankly irresponsible levels with blastbeats and buzzsaw riffing. So far, so terrifying and very much the END people already know and love. Where The Sin of Human Frailty departs though, is in evolving their maniacal heaviness to embrace industrial elements alongside the sonic equivalent of being beaten to a bloody pulp.
That’s no more apparent than on final single ‘Thaw’, featuring the talents of Heriot’s Debbie Gough as guest vocalist. Pulsing electronics open it, accented by drum fills; the effect is to heighten and distort their rage into new forms, while Gough’s guest vocals are truly stellar. Showcasing both her acidic shrieks and more ethereal singing, it elevates ‘Thaw’ to an easy highlight of the album. There’s plenty other star guest spots too; ‘Twice Devoured Kill’ features scathing contributions from J.R. Hayes of Pig Destroyer while the ever-busy Full Of Hell’s Dylan Walker lends his demented contributions to ‘Worthless Is the Lamb’.
These three tracks in particular show the range of sounds END can conjure within their relatively narrow niche; where ‘Thaw’ is scathing industrial that you can picture at grimy metal nights, ‘Twice Devoured Kill’ is a grinding assault that flirts with crust punk, even d-beat, and ‘Worthless Is the Lamb’ leans into Full Of Hell’s blackened palette of extremity. It makes the middle of The Sin of Human Frailty all the more compelling, as we get a glimpse of END’s desire to find their own niche and create a sound more their own.
Naturally, a major plus to the album is its production; Will Putney once again brings his near-magic touch to it, creating a stifling, menacing atmosphere. ‘Embodiment of Grief’ offers up a fine example, its dissonant harmonics scything through the maelstrom, while ‘Leper’ suffocates under its sludgy weight, a final beating that END flesh out to perhaps their longest song yet at a five minute battering that heaves and roils throughout. The Sin of Human Frailty isn’t just a good END record; it’s a natural progression from their starting point, embracing new textures with its industrial scraping and clanking, all the while remaining confrontational, oppressive and blisteringly heavy.