Album Review

Holy friggin‘ double bass.

That pretty much sums up this, The End‘s second album. Southern Ontario‘s most vicious product deliver eight tracks of nonstop aggression, save for a few softer passages that seem inserted solely for the purpose of emphasizing the grinding, technical fury found everywhere else. Within three seconds (I counted) of opener ‘These Walls‘, The End establish themselves as overlords at a tender young age of the math-metal realm. Having been compared, um, endlessly (pardon the pun) to the kings of this genre - Dillinger Escape Plan - since their inception, with this album the band mint their own sound, and it‘s All About The Polyrhythm. How this unit avoids each song devolving into a complete train wreck, I do not know, but the rhythm section swings like Frank Sinatra, allowing the guitars to soar through fluid leads before cranking out insane riffage. The vocals are almost decipherable in places, unusual in this style, and the melodic sections are downright pretty...until the anvil drops again. Unbelievable. The only setback - and this is subjective - is the sameness throughout, but discerning listeners should latch onto Within Dividia.