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Released on April 4, 2015 via Black Bow Records
Endless Misery is an apt title for Dead Existence’s latest opus. Sludge, down-tuned brutality and riff worship is the order of the day; and Dead Existence do this very well. The London based band has been working hard on the scene for over ten years, toured pretty relentlessly and have several releases to their name including a split with the excellent and much missed Dopefight. This new album is a step forward, reigning in some of the excesses of the previous Born into the Planets’ Scars EP, but still remaining gloriously unreconstructed in its approach to pure sonic bludgeon.
‘Consume’ is a great opening statement of intent; brutal, thick riffs and a pacey rhythm section topped with a ferocious yell, with a clever pacing to the song that varies the assault from out and out metallic aggression to slower, doomier sections, all of which are effective and exhausting. The production supports the songs greatly, with a thick wall of crunchy downtuned guitars over a slippery bass sound with a powerful drum sound which drives the rhythm. The vocals are splenetic and it sounds like vocal chords are being pushed to the limit – when the vocalist screams “Just know you’re a fucking leech”, it is clear he’s putting everything into it.
The assault continues into ‘End Devoured by Beginning,’ a mid tempo sludge-y bruiser of a song, again with some smart choices that keeps the attention across the lengthy 9 minute run time– a sudden slow down into doom territory at the five and a half minute mark is a great move, freshening up a formula and a set of riffs that was starting to become overfamiliar through repetition. This is a common problem with the sludge genre – doing enough to justify the running time. Too often bands get stuck on a set formula and don’t craft an actual song out of it. The lack of dynamism either in terms of pace or style can kill engagement in a sludge record, leading to loss of attention, and the songs becoming a background noise. This is a fine line that Dead Existence walk a few times over the course of Endless Misery – with ‘End Devoured by Beginning’ they stay the right side of the line, but with closer ‘Regretamine’, there is not enough variety and the 13 minute run time starts to feel a bit like a chore, especially given that the preceding ‘Delusion of Hope’ is basically a three minute drone interlude.
Among the other hits on the record is the driving ‘Obsidian Black’, propelled by a riff faintly reminiscent of something Matt Pike would deliver and an excellent vocal performance. Again, the dynamics of the song come to the fore, driving a strong doomy vibe for the second half of the song, with some nice layering to give some light and shade. ‘Worthless’ also changes up the pace bringing in a speedy first section, underpinned by some pacey percussion. ‘Tear Apart The Veil’ starts with two minutes of aggro riffs that hint at Down on an amphetamine rush, before moving into more familiar Conan inspired territory. After that frankly exhilarating start, the song struggles to justify its near ten minute running time, despite a really lovely mid-section with effective repetition of a picked lead.
Overall this is a bit of a theme. The band are tight, the recording is really good and considered individually the riffs, sections and structures are great, and brutally, crushingly heavy in places. However, listened to as an overall, the record is almost mesmerizingly heavy to the point where it becomes desensitizing; by the time ‘Regretamine’ comes around the formula has gotten, well, a little bit boring. I’ve listened to this record a lot to write this review, I’ve had to mostly because on most listens I’d find myself zoning out by about track 6. Part of this is due to the repetition, part of it is the track lengths. It seems a bit harsh to compare this record to Metallica’s much maligned St. Anger, but rather like that record, I’m pretty sure that if the running time on some of the songs were cut then this album would be fantastic. As it is, too many of the songs overstay their proverbial welcome, becoming rather like that guy at the house party who is still drinking the dregs of the liquor cabinet the next morning when everybody else has gone home and the residents just want to clean up and go to bed.
This all sounds really negative as I write this; it’s not intended that way. There’s plenty to admire in this release. Individual sections of songs really stand out, there’s a wonderfully oppressive atmosphere to the album and the quality of the riffs here is excellent. For the genre the vocal performance is great as well, impassioned and, well, believable; the sincerity really carries and takes the listener along. The album definitely builds on the bands legacy and delivers lots of pleasure to listen to, it just needs some editing – over the course of a 50+ minute full length the lack of dynamism and the consistency of tone ends up weakening the impact and the sum ends up less than the parts, which is a real shame. I really, really wanted to love this album, I merely really like it. It feels frustratingly like a missed opportunity; I can’t help but think that there’s a really stunning 40 minute album in all of this material.
