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Review Summary: A true display of a complete lack of band chemistry. On rare occasion you come across an album that is just so bad that it hurts, I physically winced and cringed my way through most of this album but I even admit I couldn’t listen to it completely finished. And I hate the fact this is so terrible because when you listen to this, unlike bands such as Brokencyde this band is actually trying, it is very clear right from the get go that this album has ambition and charm, there are fragments of a style and sound but they just absolutely fail to meet even mediocre standards on every front again and again resulting in one of the worst albums I have ever heard.
The album’s general sound follows the guitar, bass and drums as a tightly knit foundation. The riffs are low tuned and heavy, they in themselves aren’t awful albeit quite generic there is a sense of harshness and viciousness to them. This guitar sound could work for the band but it seems the band completely ignores the stage set on every song like shouting Luke I am your father! Standing in front of the backdrop of a poorly painted castle. Guitars, drums and bass at least to some degree seem to be on familiar grounds with one another creating a tired low tuned, cymbal abusive experience but it is when the rest of the band comes in that everything truly falls to ***. First off the worst offender, this band has a flute player, yes an actual god damn flute player. Shouldn’t be too hasty though, Panopticon has proven over time that flutes and assorted instruments mixed in with heavy metal can work under the right circumstances, creating woodland-like, ethereal, beautiful soundscapes in unison with harsh washed out black metal riffs. The flute here however fails to really evoke anything at all, it kind of just exists, it is completely out of line with what the rest of the band is doing and winds up just sounding like someone randomly slapping nonsense noises in the background of the music. The guitars, bass and drum terribly blend together, stripping one another completely of any of their punch, but serve as a solid foundation for the rest of the band. Flute and vocals hover around the rest of the soundscape sporadically, without any concern for what the other members of the band are doing and that pretty much sums up the tone for the whole album.
The vocals, oh god, the vocals are just awful. This band features clean gothic female vocals, male vocals and some death metal inspired growls. Neither of the two vocalists can either scream or sing at an even average level, both are horrendously off-key in singing with a weak, lazy sounding delivery that is desperate to try to be more than what it is, even when implementing a shouty sort of style they fail to hold any sort of vocal power due them falling apart by their own shaky voices. The screamed vocals sound like he is talking with a harsh cookie monster like tone, and the high screams sound like they are completely straining his throat rather than pulling power from his diaphragm, poor guy, I bet his throat is bloody raw after each song. Vocals aren’t just off-key however they are also often out of time as well, not even lining up with what the band is actually even doing, the harsh tone of the guitars and banging driving cymbals of the drums have zero effect on whatever the flute and vocals decide to do.
A masterpiece album often feels seamless and effortless because of how smoothly the band members play together using multiple layers and building off one another to create something greater than the sum of their parts. On this effort, Endlight not only perform poorly but bring each other down to new lows, no member complements another exceptionally well, there is no chemistry here and frankly every member of the band is downright average to terrible without exception.
Production may be one of the biggest flaws of this album because of how it without compromise points out the flaws in the disjointed nature of the project. The production is all over the place, there are random volume jumps of each instrument all over the place on this album with the drums and vocals being the biggest offender. The guitar, bass and drum are all compressed to hell and lose all of their punch instead opt to just sound unpleasantly noisy and abrasive like banging on pots and pans. The flute is often too quite but it doesn’t matter because it is completely irrelevant to the band’s sound, just... enough.
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Album Rating: 1.0
Can be streamed here: https://endlight1.bandcamp.com/releases
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i'm excited to listen to this
Edit: holy shit
dude how did you find this? this is like a redefining of what amateur means
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
decided to check out a random album on a blog and it happened to be this one.
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pos. it sounds like absolutely no one, producer included, talked to anyone else making this record while making it
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Good review, pos'd
This isn't terrible it's just really amateur, only truly awful part is the vocals ugh. Even the flute has potential, the actual playing is proficient but it doen't know how to hang back, and the production doesn't help at all. Rest of the band is actually solid.
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yeah like if you took the individual elements and reassembled them into a totally different album, with different production, this could actually pass for good to decent
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
The guitar, drums and bass alone with good production could've been alright yea, still pretty generic even then though but there are a few good ideas on here. That's why this album is so painful to listen to because you can totally tell what they're going for but they fail at it so hard. The flute, vocals and production make this unlistenable.
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if you want a hearty chuckle, check out their facebook band photos
in all seriousness, they seem like good folk with a lot of passion, hopefully they get it sorted out
edit: it really does sound like a flautist raided their recording studio and just went crazy
| | | Album Rating: 1.0
Yea, I have some faith in them it is definitely not going to be an easy climb but with some time and practice, learning from their mistakes they could make something epic. They have the vision, what they lack is the means to reach it, currently.
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"edit: it really does sound like a flautist raided their recording studio and just went crazy"
haha, you're right. The songwriting is the major thing they need to work on, it just doesn't mesh.
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Well you convinced me to listen to this. To be honest, I'm kind of upset that you did. The clean vocals are just atrocious. Everything else is generic and pretty crap but the clean vocals are absolutely awful. Lots of a-words for them I guess.
Oh and yeah Essence is right, the flautist just came in and raped and pillaged the final mixes, splicing in his tracks.
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i can imagine these guys sitting around over a couple of brews, getting excited to listen to the final master. the second track plays and after a few moments, one of them goes "where the fuck did that flute come from?"
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This was mastered?
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I think he was referring to the masterful musicianship and not the lackluster production.
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Because clearly this wasn't mastered, as in the verb.
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eh i more meant the 'final cut' of the cd. but you know, i genuinely can't tell if anyone produced it.
although the alternative is pretty hilarious, where these guys were recording their parts and their asshole friend Jim, the flautist, would just barge in the room and play his flute and they're all "Fucking Jim, get out of here man" and Jim just plays his flute even louder
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Totally diggin this at work right now.
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one of those situations where i couldn't possibly express how i feel about that better than my avatar does
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I know, poorly executed joke on my part. Anything at 2:00 in the afternoon on a Friday will make me laugh, even if it's as hamfistedly written as that was.
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Speaking of louder flute, the part around 4:40 in "Land of Dying Trees" where they build up to the scream - "Land of DYING...TREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEES!" - listen for the flute to just absolutely blow a gasket at the trees part. It's so fucking funny.
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