Ov Sulfur “Endless”
The almost two-minute breakdown, a behemoth of a track that is “EndlessGodless” completely pummels the listener with blast beats, chugs, bleghs and all the quintessential tropes of the deathcore genre. The album officially kicks off with “Seed”. With atmospheric brass and strings, rising from the depths along with Ricky Hoover’s sniveling snarls into deep, guttural growls. With the guitar riffing of Chase Wilson & Christian Becker delivering a combination of deathcore heaviness, interspersed with traditional and even melodic death metal passages amongst the double bass of Leviathvn. Clean, gritty vocals come in at the halfway mark, adding a little bit of modern metal tinge before switching back into a melodic death metal transition that any The Black Dahlia Murder fan will love. Overall, a good all-around track that has a little of everything in it. From the symphonic elements, to chugging breakdowns at the closing moments, to almost melo-death/metalcore cleans on the chorus.
On “Forlorn”, the same epic scale from the “Seed” carries over but now with more symphonic, choir and brass amongst thundering percussion. Hoover’s gutturals amongst the pounding double bass and harsh harmonies just hits like a ton of bricks. Leviathvn continues to fly all over the kit with precision and speed, while Hoover just becomes more unhinged and summons something unholy right after the halfway mark. Bringing an otherworldy breakdown of gutturals, brees and stank-faced inducing chugs. Clean vocals, with string accents, before the drums and guitars come back was a nice touch and was a nice reprieve from the nasty breakdown the band brought.
“Vast Eternal” has an almost war-like, call to arms tone and presence in the production and delivery. And when that double bass kicks in almost gives it a black metal tinge, before the speedy delivery of gutturals reminds me of Oli from Archspire but deeper. The track truly has a nastier, symphonic black metal tinge to it. Like 2000’s Death Cult Armaggedon-era Dimmu Borgir with the guitar tone and presentation musically, but with a grittier, bass-heavy production. Sweeping orchestra, all over the place drumming in both speed and technicality, and gnarly but understandable vocals. Before at the halfway mark, we return back to deep, unhinged and primal deathcore. Vocals are cavernous and deep, double bass kicks in hard, and the slow, ringing chugs hit hard with the down-tempto strikes. This is a true beast of a track and I bet will kill live with its sheer complexity and unique genre-blending.
“Wither” has a haunting and harrowing guitar opening, before clean vocals accented by Josh Bearden’s bass. Lyrically, a tough song that truly captures the feeling of losing someone and watching them fade away. The band takes a step back from the deathcore heaviness of the album to have the lyrics and vocals truly deliver the emotional weight of the lyrics. It does lean towards the modern metal/octane-core sound, but I like the mix-up. I don’t think sheer gutturals and blast beats quite fit the motif and message of the song so this musical direction was the right way to go.
“Evermore” brings back the heaviness and just brings that straightforward deathcore sound of the current era of the genre. A decent song, but it was also a tough song to bring back the heaviness as a follow-up track. Almost wishing “Wither” was the album closer. Brutal in its breakdown and hitting in it’s chorus, it just somehow to me the only song on the album so far that just doesn’t quite hit the mark compared to what the band has presented so far.
Now we get to the guest appearances on the album. “Dread” feature Josh Davies of Ingested. With a chug heavy opening breakdown, it already had me slow headbanging on before the vocals come roaring in. Then, another black metal-esque tremolo and black metal blast beats come roaring in, transitioning into the chorus with soaring strings, gutturals and clean vocals. The second verse just sounds unholy with the vocal layering, and again the transition from deathcore to black metal or symphonic deathcore works really well. After the halfway mark, the vocals just become more chaotic and demented, combined with the deep production and thundering bass ringing through the snarls.
“Bleak” opens with strings and commanding drums. Vocally, it features Johnny Ciardullo of Carcosa on the track. It is a sonic bombardment of double bass and hostility in the sheer power the band delivers. With strings becoming more prominent on the chorus, as vocals aren’t “quite” clean and go more for the ominous spoken word with grit and feeling of an ominous nature. After a formulaic breakdown transition, vocals deliver the trademarks of the genre (brees, deep guttural, animal noises, etc) and then comes back with a nice lead in of strings, double bass and ringing guitars. With many symphonic deathcore or blackened deathcore sections that the band does so well, It seems like the band can’t decide whether to go full deathcore, symphonic/blackened deathcore or a hodgepodge of deathcore and metalcore with some of its cleans on the choruses.
“A World Away” is the last of the guest appearances, featuring Alan Grnja of Distant. Back to traditional deathcore with the string elements more in the background on this track. The chorus does feature the slower, snarlier vocals instead of cleans, which is a better choice than cleans for that section in my opinion. Hoover’s and Grnja’s vocals fit the more deathcore-focused sound on the track and is actually a pretty solid track overall.
The album closes with “EndlessLoveless”. Opening with acoustic guitars, somber drums and clean vocals, it presents itself as a melancholic vibe that “Wither” delivered. With a more uplifting tone and performance, the song builds in grandeur and scale throughout the four and a half minute runtime and concludes the album on a pillow of strings and reverb soaked acoustic guitar strings.
With Endless, Ov Sulfur takes the same roots and power of their debut The Burden ov Faith and enhances that to the next level. Songs like “Vast Eternal” capture that hybrid of black metal, deathcore and death metal I loved a lot. While “Wither” shows a more somber, lyrical and emotional heaviness. Though the album wasn’t perfect for me, with some songs having moments of predictability or formulaic, along with “Evermore” being the only “ok” track on the entire album. Hurting it’s overall score. At the end of the day, Endless will be a great continuation of the ideas and sound that the band delivered from the debut. And with the constant evolution of the band’s sound, it will be interesting to see what gets blended into the band’s sound on their next album.
SCORE: 4 / 5
You can purchase Endless on the band’s Bandcamp or stream it on the band’s Spotify when it is released February 16th. The band is about to embark on a North American tour starting in February supporting Orbit Culture. Check out tour dates below and purchase tickets here.
