Review Summary: Open this room up
A cursory look at Desolated’s past releases reveals a startling lack of vision. Starting out with a deathcore sound with the unimaginatively titled
Birth Of Corruption in 2010, the band were clearly riding the coattails of the deathcore trend of the time. Unapologetically heavy and dark, the album was neither a standout on the scene nor a particularly serviceable release in its’ own right, struggling to find an identity and preferring to capitalize on current trends. Aware that this style was not their forte, the band made a somewhat tenuous sidestep towards beatdown. The sound allowed them to retain the typified aggression, but also made their lack of songwriting skill an asset rather than a hindrance. Groovy, brooding, and laden with breakdowns, the sound is neither big nor clever, but full of anger and gut-punch energy. Even though the outfit has become somewhat of a meme in the hardcore scene for footage of their admittedly ridiculous live shows, as well as being derided for failing to live up to the ‘beatdown’ name, the band has come into their own quite admirably. It took five releases to get here; two poor full-lengths and three promising but ultimately vacuous EPs….. but finally, the sound has expanded and become one that is all at once groovy, dispassionate and actually rather entertaining- for the first time in their careers.
The first and most obvious thing to note about
The End is that it is not sophisticated. Even in the realm of beatdown it is not particularly original. It’s not a patch on the best releases by bands like Shattered Realm, Bulldoze or Bearclaw. However, this release has a sound that sets it apart. It is consistently grim and punishing- whether this is a good thing or a bad thing depends on the listener, but if
The End were to be compared to a more recent beatdown album, such as
Laugh Tracks by Knocked Loose, where the latter has an undeniable sense of ‘party’ aggression (for lack of a better phrase), the former is a pummelling assault of legitimately hard-hitting rage. Melodies are oftentimes minimal, with chuggy grooves pacing alongside the vocals, emphasized bass interludes, and dirty, satisfying percussion. As would be expected, there’s also plenty of group vocals and breakdowns- which are consistent and varied enough to keep the anger interesting. The record has clearly been recorded with live shows in mind, much the same as the band’s previous work. Occasionally, however, the simplistic musicianship does strikeout and end up just being rather monotonous; tracks such as ‘Therapy’ display little innovation, and even though the vicious energy is still here, some substance would not go amiss.
There’s plenty of instrumental sections on the album, although generally these are limited to the downtuned guitars playing an indecipherably distorted groove, except this time without the accompaniment of the rest of the band. It’s very ‘hardcore’ but it does hammer home just how basic the individual components of the music are. ‘Invasion’ and ‘Olanzapine’ are particularly guilty of this, although the latter does have a particularly savage vocal/ instrumental combination to its’ verses that makes it rather memorable in the context of the album. This is mainly due to the fact that, for the most part, the release does that typical plodding, brooding beatdown pace- so when a track has a modicum of urgency to it such as this, it is oddly satisfying. The title track is one of the band’s best written songs to date, tightly wound in both instrumentation and breakdown, and rarely for the group, it does not feel as though one element is adding up to or relying on the other. There is a bridge where the pace of the music picks up somewhat, which should feel a little ill-fitting. However, thanks to the well placed breakdown in the middle, it works oddly well. Instrumental outro ‘Out Of Luck’ is a nice touch too.
Observing a band progress in this way is always a pleasant thing, and those who found enjoyment in Desolated’s earlier EPs will undoubtedly find something to love on
The End. Although it’s not a peak release within the genre, it’s clear that Desolated have tweaked things and improved their formula just enough to breathe fresh life into their style. Some aspects need immediate improvement however; lyrical subject matter is still trite and simplistic, and the vocal style will not be to everyone’s taste. On top of this, a mild variance in style here and there would be a welcome addition, as structure is largely the same on a majority of the songs found here. Despite these bugbears,
The End is a legitimately fun listen, crushing in all the right ways. It’s unintentionally silly in places, but this does lend it a sort of indefinable charm and makes it more likeable, in a curious way. If the band continue along this path, they may finally unlock their full ability and make an album that transcends simply being ‘good’. It will take an upheaval of certain motifs they have grown very fond of using, but the potential is clearly on display here.
