All Hail The End

Freya have always been treated like the weaker younger brother to the hulking behemoth that is Earth Crisis. Which is unfair, in a host of different ways, since when lead bellower and straight-edge hardliner Karl Buechner formed Freya in 2001 after Earth Crisis first disbanded, it was to make a band who were heavier, darker and a tad scarier–and by scarier, we don't mean meeting up with the dudes from Earth Crisis in an alley behind the all-ages club, open beers in our hands. We're talking the metal kind of scary; dark imagery and even darker lyrics. Now these Syracuse, New York, thrashers are still bellowing along, and Earth Crisis have even managed to reform and put out respectable albums again, so all is good in Buechner-land.



While Freya's All Hail The End has some really standout (and really metal) moments–the Middle Eastern-inspired refrains in "Human Demons" are particularly harrowing–there's never a light feeling or a shred of hope poking through on the horizon. It's all about the riff, the screaming and the despair… the riff, the screaming and the despair… until it feels like getting hit repeatedly across the neck and chest with a lead pipe. Ultimately, this whole album feels like a huge weight on our shoulders. Like, there are no songs about riding off into the sunset on a Harley, or the sweaty joys of slam dancing with your buds, you know?

Victory http://www.victoryrecords.com