Some of the most cringeworthy reviews ever, mostly on websites but more often than not snuck into the 'real' music press by writers who've wandered terrifyingly out of their depth by foolishly claiming to "like a bit of everything", which was their first mistake as only cunts who like Mogwai say that. To compensate and see them through their 100-odd words, which can seem the like the biggest, most daunting eight sentences in the world when you're a complete moron, they fill it with lists or tenuous, over-embellished analogies. The former becoming redundant after the first, and the latter are just instantly recognisable as desperate horseshit, like when you ask someone their opinion on something they claim to hate and they immediately zone in on some peripheral detail and stick steadfastedly to that like some sort of comfort blanket that'll see them through life's many ambiguities. Then as a closing gambit they'll make some sort of sweeping statement that clearly by this point they have no authority to make in even the eyes of most musically illiterate, talk about how x-genre frequently does y and z things wrong, but x-band escape this trap.
Durham's grinding hardcore five-piece End Reign are really heavy, then. A mixture of knuckle-cracking Integrity chug with a trace of post-NYHC Early Learning Centre mosh parts that tickle the part of the brain that makes you strike fight poses in the mirror when you get out of the shower, the tar-thick riffs and that breathless, infectious rush towards musical orgasm that characterises/characterised bands like Trap Them, Cursed, Black Breath and Nails - existing at the meeting point between emotive Swedish-style crust, razor-edged thrash, and the sort of purposefully faded t-shirts worn by people at the Vice offices.
Heavier than the season finale of Game of Thrones, heavier than RyanAir carry-on luggage, heavier than your eyelids in the euthanasia clinic. Unconvincing metaphor to conceal ignorance, this reminded me of the time I blah fucking blah. What fast, angry hardcore usually does wrong is be too fast and angry, lucking End Reign escape this trap by not being so fast and angry that they put people off, but just being fast and angry enough to be brutal \m/
i love you jimmy
ReplyDelete