 |
  
 
 |
|
The End
Posted by Scott Heisel on 29-Jun-07 @ 01:35 PM|
HQ: Brampton, Ontario, Canada NOW PLAYING: Elementary (RELAPSE) WHY YOU SHOULD KNOW 'EM: After nine years of pushing math-metal's boundaries, this Ontario quintet are pushing themselves into an even more difficult area-melodic songwriting-and blowing minds in the process. YOU LIKE? YOU'LL LIKE: Deftones / Tool / The Dillinger Escape Plan You'd be forgiven for thinking the End changed lineups between 2004's Within Dividia and their new, third album, Elementary. Where the former-the Ontario quintet's second full-length overall-was a dizzying calculus-metal assault that made peers like the Dillinger Escape Plan sound lazy, Elementary opens with a chugging slab of post-hardcore atmosphere and only gets more straightforward from there. As vocalist Aaron Wolff explains it, the End didn't have to change lineups to arrive at their new direction: The change came collectively, from within. "We just dove inside ourselves for this record," he says. "Our whole mindset while we were writing [Elementary] was getting back to that point where nothing else matters and just saying, 'Fuck it. We don't care if it's cool; we don't care what people are going to say; we like our music." Ironically, the retreat inward caused the End-rounded out by bassist Sean Dooley, drummer Anthony Salajko, and guitarists Steve Watson and Andrew Hercules-to pen their most engaging and, dare one say it, loveliest songs to date. Math-metal purists may scoff, but if bittersweet atmospheric epics like "The Never Ever Aftermath" start landing outside of their scene, these dudes could have the arena-worthy potential of Deftones, Thrice and Dredg combined. "I think we've always offered more than just 'math-core' or 'tech metal,' whatever that means," he says. "Our whole motto is to get listeners to dive into each record and make it a personal experience, and I think the best way of doing that is offering yourself up to the music and putting everything you have into it. If we did anything less, it wouldn't be as significant a part of us." -Aaron Burgess |
Post a Comment