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Review: All Ends - Self-Titled

Written by Pacdan

I guess I’m kind of obligated (blogligated?) to write about music stuff, even when I’ve got nothing good to say about it. Yes, contrary to the way my previous posts would seem, I don’t like every scrap of music I listen to, I’m just infinitely more apt to write about the ones that I actually do. Partly because it’s more enjoyable, partly because I hope people would be more willing to give me their music voluntarily to listen to (no takers on this yet) if they don’t think I’m going to trash it. But the good must come with the bad as well, and in all fairness to my (few) readers I need to encompass both sides. OK, enough of my rant - here we go.

All Ends is a band which I think I’d heard a couple of tracks from somewhere a while ago, but since I didn’t actually have any clear memories of those I was going in with no expectations - other than that I knew they are a female fronted metal band. The opening track, Still Believe, isn’t bad. Not mind blowing, but decent enough. Rather than the traditional mellow symphonic sound that generally tends to go along with female fronted metal (or alternatively the extreme style of In This Moment or Arch Enemy that exists as it’s exact opposite), the band basically falls into traditional heavy metal. The guitars are blazing, the vocals are powerful rather than angelic. They’re almost like a modern day Girlschool, except with a modern rather than 80’s sound. Unfortunately, almost every song on the CD is dull and repetitive. The guitars are loud, but ultimately simplistic and uninteresting. The drumming isn’t noticeably bad, but it’s not noticeably good either - just falling into the background. The only highlight of the album is Within Temptation reject song Just A Friend. Mostly made up of piano and orchestration, with a heavy chorus part that they would have been better off leaving out. It’s still a good song, though, and, while the singer is no Sharon Den Adel, it’s the best vocal performance of the album. Just A Friend might be worth grabbing off iTunes if you’re a lover of female fronted metal and have already heard Within Temptation and Nightwish’s entire discographies. The rest of the album, however just sounds like the same uninspired track playing over and over again. Disappointing and generic - not recommended. 3.5/10