This Is Where It Ends

All Shall Perish‘s sophomore album, The Price of Existence was my favorite album of 2006. Unfortunately, their 2008 follow up, Awaken the Dreamers was a bit of a let down. In part due to the precedent set by the prior album, but also due to some more commercial moments, clean vocals and even ballads.

So I was curious to see how one of modern metal/deathcore flagship bands would return with the pivotal album number 4 (their third on a bigger label and scope, though). Even more so with the loss of shredder Chris Storey, who is replaced by newcomer Francesco Artusato and a new drummer.

Well, fans of The Price of Existence rejoice. This is Where It Ends is a no nonsense, no clean ballad, no clean vocal (well there’s a couple of tiny snippets), vitriolic return to the band’s awesome watershed second album, being almost a carbon copy of The Price of Existence‘s perfect mix of tightly wound aggression and shredding melody.

This Is Where It Ends is a ballistic shredding, blasting, breakdown filled assault that drips with intensity. It’s like the band is tangibly answering the criticism of Awaken the Dreamers with a forceful, violent and pissed off sonic middle finger, re-stating their place in modern metal’s deathcore hierarchy. Artusato fills in admirably with plenty of solos and melodic bite, and new drummer Adam Pierce (Sea of Treachery) being particularly effective in manning and upping the band’s seething percussive backbone which leaps out of the speakers with Zach Ohren’s tight, top notch production.

From start to finish, the 53 minutes that comprise This Is Where It Ends rarely lets up. Starting with the utterly throttling opener “Divine Illusion” (which features a nice intro to Artusato ‘s skill with cool solo and simply fucking killer ending breakdown) to “In This Life of Pain” (which initially hints at an eye rolling ballad before exploding into an perfectly paced, epic bookend), the album just simply rips.

Second track “There is Nothing Left” is an intensely melodic hack and slash At The Gates styled number before “Procession of Ashes” gives the listener a little respite with a mid-paced shoulder bobbing number. “A Pure Evil” is an aptly titled, menacing, lurcher of a track with Artusato really making his presence known. You’d think by looking, that the sub 3-minute “Embrace the Curse” would be the album’s soft mid-album interlude, but it’s actually one of the album’s more brutal tracks, with a signature ASP breakdown. Admittedly, “Spineless” is the album’s first track that doesn’t leave me saying ‘wow’, but the 6-minute “The Past Will Haunt Us Both” and the albums most likely single, “Royalty Into Exile (there’s also a bonus, Spanish version of this track on the digipack version of the album) make up for it with svelte, smart, slicing metal.

As much as I love the album, it’s hurt a little bit by its 53 minute run time, as around “My Retaliation”, “Rebirth” (a nice, vehement blackened number) and “Death Plague”, my attention wanes a little, even as good as those tracks are. But damn is This Is Where It Ends a nice comeback and All Shall Perish are back atop their respective heap.

Review originally published at http://www.teethofthedivine.com by Erik Thomas