End of Destiny
The Thoughtless Existence
7
For now End Of Destiny is a bit of an ugly duckling, a little malformed and not the prettiest thing to listen to, especially with the sub par production, but hints of a much brighter future lay ahead. Their sound is primarily rooted in mid paced sludgy post hardcore, the kind that’s so poorly recorded and overly saturated it’s hard to grasp anything amongst the dense, blunt force wall of sound. I’m guessing this was a deliberate choice to let a certain surprise instrument play a major role: keyboards. Thankfully it’s not in the vein of symphonic black metal bands where it’s utilized as a separate instrument, complete with their own solos, but more as an ever present follow-the-guitar-line mood setter, sort of like Bleeding Through. And even though the keyboards sometimes sound like the lasers in Flash Gordon or something a kid does on has pre-programmed Casio, they do give a bit more atmosphere to the sometimes featureless landscape of pure sludge, so I can’t say it was a bad choice to include them.
After getting over the initial shock of an American band using so much keys, I was surprised yet again by their liberal use of melodic guitar riffs, offsetting the generally grubby guitars. But what’s interesting, beyond the juxtaposition of grimy with what is supposed to sound pretty, is the melodic elements are just as raw and skuzzy as the regular guitar tone, giving a tainted, decayed feel to what should have been pure and harmonious. It sounds as good as the poor but thankfully loud production lets it be. What I’m having a hard time grasping is if this sound is aided by the sloppy production or whether they recreate this but with a bit more definition and separation between the guitars. If not, then this is a perfectly recorded record and I should stop mentioning the bad production.
Personal gripes with production aside, I do have to also take issue with the drumming. Even though the kick drum was probably dropped in the mix to keep in line with the wall of sound vibe, he misses several key opportunities to add some double bass and up the aggression level, even if it would have been hard to hear. Whether it’s sticking to some hardcore aesthetic or he’s just not talented enough, the washed out kick drum sound and lack of more dynamic, metallic style percussion gives the drums a bland, anonymous feel when they should be a centerpiece.
In the end the brutish melodies and thick, dirty guitars win out over any production qualms and musicianship skill concerns. At their best they sound somewhat like a less expansive, simpler form of Burst, gliding from raging hardcore to something outright metallic to clean instrumental passages in the same song without awkward segues or forced tempo changes. And for that ability End Of Destiny shows promise and originality in a crowded field. Given this is a relatively new band and this is their first go around, improvement on future efforts is almost certain. With better production and a bit less spoken word over clean chords, they might be able to pull something really exciting off: be one of the few bands with a full time keyboardist in my collection.
