REVIEW: Ov Sulfur - Endless

Born out of Nevada, one of America's hottest and harshest states, the blackened deathcore crew OV SULFUR know a thing or two about the pain of seemingly never-ending, scorching sun. That experience has clearly put them in good stead for their sophomore LP Endless, which considers the premise of eternal suffering and the various forms it could take - for example, the age-old philosophical quandary of eternal life and what would actually happen were one to really live forever.

With a brief intro, coming in at under two minutes is Endless//Godless, and it acts perfectly as a summation of the sonic onslaught the listener is about to be exposed to. The blackened deathcore style of their debut hasn't been removed, but has instead been broadened - within the chaos, there are moments of melody, clean vocals, and sections that are clearly deliberately restrained, so that those truly insanely heavy moments hit all the harder.

Second track Seed shows off more of this approach, with moments of melody interspersed with the brute force of their usual approach. Vocalist Ricky Hoover has rejoined the band and plays off of guitarist and vocalist Chase Wilson excellently, allowing both to maximise their own vocal talents without detracting from the other. This then makes its way into Forlorn, a behemoth that throws everything the quintet have at the listener. From the symphonic elements found within, the searing guitar lines, and the sombre lyrics about the unstoppable passage of time, OV SULFUR are streamlining their approach to make it easier to distil the story they're telling, whilst safely keeping their musical core intact.

Tracks four and five are somewhat disparate in their sounds - whilst the former, Vast Eternal, follows the same path as the previous three tracks in its blackened deathcore brutality, the latter Wither dispels much of the pummelling weight of the band and takes the scenic route through a much less aggressive sound, giving the guitarists fingers a very well-deserved rest.

Speaking about the themes across the record as a whole, and specifically lead single Evermore, Ricky had this to say: "When coming up with the theme for 'Endless', which is basically endless suffering and the various ways that could rear its ugly head, we questioned what it would be like to have endless life. This kind of allows it to be a bridge to our earlier anti-organised-religion material, as eternal life is a major tenet of many religions. In THEORY, living forever sounds incredible, but stop and think about what would come along with it: the death of your loved ones, the world around you gets worse (politically and physically), and no doubt eventual insanity from the eternally stacking heart break. 'Evermore' encapsulates these thoughts, building as the character reaches the point of insanity. Fortunately, it mirrors the build of the song, too. We knew it had to be our album launch single."

Ricky was joined by Chase, who added "When I finished recording it, I kind of laughed at the whole thing. It was fun to write. We have a really fast melodic riff to start the thing off, go into a beefed-up chorus, and then top it all off with a slam-style breakdown to shake things up. It's kind of all over the place in the best way possible, because as different as these parts are, they work together." He's not lying either, whilst the track does twist and turn in various ways, bringing a number of different sounds to the fore, they all end up working together deceptively well - and the gnarly breakdown that comes right towards the end of the track really does top things off.

From there comes a three track run of features - track seven is Dread, featuring Josh Davies of INGESTED throwing his mic into the ring, before Bleak sees CARCOSA's Johnny Ciardullo follow suite, only for Alan Grjna of DISTANT to follow up on the penultimate track A World Away. Each brings their unique style of heavy vocals with them, injecting some new tones and timbres into the bloodstream of Endless, and Bleak even brings a guitar solo that could just about have been tracked by a much younger version of AVENGED SEVENFOLD.

As all things do - with the exception of the album's themes - the LP must come to an end, and it does so with Endless//Loveless in the greatest departure from their core sound so far. Utilising acoustic guitar alongside singing that borders on crooning at points, even drummer Leviathvn displays highly restrained parts across the finale. This dramatic variation feels like a breath of fresh air after having been drowned in gutturals and blast beats, so even the majestic solo towards the end still feels bright and airy in comparison.

As the record makes its way to a close, it does feel that - even though the brunt of it is made up of blistering deathcore - that the most memorable moments will be those two much softer tracks. The band were certainly spot on that Evermore is a highlight, but it may well stand out that much more precisely because of its proximity to Wither. This is of course no bad thing, but may suggest that the band could well consider even more breathing room on the next record. Pummelling metal is always enjoyable, but you can't hear how truly heavy it is without something right next to it to compare it to.

Score: 7/10

Words: Jasmine Longhurst

Photos: Ov Sulfur