
Metalcore message in a bottle!
-- End Of Silence --
29/04/2019
Stijn Daneels

Album genres:
■ | Metalcore |
■ | Melodic hardcore |
Album artists:
■ | Dan | Guitar |
■ | Thomas | Drums |
■ | Mathias Bissig | Bass |
■ | Andreas | Vocals, rhythm guitar |
Review written by Glenn “Terra Shredder” Van Bockstaele.
“Sail To The Sunset” is the second album from Swiss metalcore band End
Of Silence, succeeding their independent 2012 release “Sky Turns Red.” Their
new album is distributed by Italian record label Wormholedeath and sent to us
by those same sweet Italians. Grazie mille!
The album opens with a peaceful monologue called “Lost And Free.” This
song slowly builds up intensity as the album’s title gets whispered many times
over until the title track eventually kicks in. It’s a solid, melodic tune with
frontman Andreas showcasing a varied range featuring crisp metalcore shrieks
and tragic clean vocals. The next track, “Anchor,” is a heavier tune
(particularly the drum beats do their headbanging purpose) but despite the
sharper riffs and breakdowns there’s still room for some soaring guitar work. The
fourth song “We Are The Fallen, We Are The Warriors,” starts off relaxing but
this makes the sound of Andreas repeatedly snarling out the song’s title feel like
a pretty effective battle cry. Eventually the song’s main riff enters the fray
and it’s thunderous quality provides a good backdrop for an overall excellent
combative tune. And it’s all wrapped up by some great guitar solos. Certainly
one of the album’s highlights!
Then comes “One Of Those Days,” one of my favorite songs on this
release. It’s starts with some Pantera like groove riffing before things
explode into a frantic barrage of full-on metalcore with all the headbanging
and moshing that comes with it! One of the fastest and heaviest tunes on the
release, only to cool down a bit around the middle part and then gradually
building things back to where they started. After a moody 33-second interlude
called “Mask Of Doom” the band transitions to “Unspoken Truth,” another
favorite of mine because it once again features a relentless frenzy of
metalcore beats and catchy lyrics, both harsh and clean. The album’s eighth
tune is “Edge Of The Road,” one of the slowest and soberest songs on the album.
Once again End Of Silence mixes gentle melodies and soft vocals with distorted riffs
and rough vocals and in this particular song it creates a bleak, almost
desperate atmosphere.
Track 9 is “A Million Miles Away” and is another catchy, well-paced and
structured metalcore tune as we’ve already heard earlier on this release. You’ll
be seriously tempted to sing along to this song’s title. Next up is “F@#k Off!”
Like the Warriors song before this is a blood pumping anthem injected with
plenty of hardcore rhythms and dead honest rage. And fortunately the song’s
title is the only time where fuck is censored, both in this review and in the
song itself! Then comes “Blind Hearts,” a slow burner just like “End Of The Road”
but this time with more upbeat riffs. The penultimate track, “Cross The Line,” a
very catchy and powerful tune that would fit perfectly as the closing song of a
live gig. The album itself wraps up with “Save The World.” This finale features
one last set of epic guitar work and mostly emotional, clean singing although
there are some shrieks as well.
With a solid production and a 50-minute runtime, End Of Silence’s label
debut provides an excellent treat to all metalcore lovers out there! Not only
does End Of Silence tick all the necessary metalcore boxes, but they provide
this subgenre’s greasy sound with plenty of variety in vocals, rhythms,
melodies and overall feel. Bands like this prove that metalcore can be very
artistic without dishing any of its typical rawness as well as showing that Switzerland
has plenty of good extreme stuff to offer other than “just” Coroner. Here’s the
music video of “Unspoken Truth.”
85/100