Most of the world is oblivious to the fact nuclear war is closer to reality now than it was during the Cold War. Thus the increasing need for music that taps into the subconscious to remind us of the grim future looming. 3TEETH’s fourth album “EndEx” (Century Media) has all the End Times anxiety you want. The Los Angeles-based band remains consistent in their sonic vision. They work off of industrial strength grooves to pump the lifeblood of their sound to these songs.
The album opens with a foreboding dystopian drama before “Acme Death Machine” hammers into your head with the chugged weight of Meshuggah , blending nu-metal with metalcore-like aggression. “Slum Planet” finds their gospel marching out in a bleak anthem with a creepy narrative. The cyborg snarl of the vocals on “What’s Left” shove the point home, with a dystopian flair we have not heard since the days Wayne Static still walked the earth.
One of this album’s strengths is the wide array of vocals employed by frontman Alexis Mincolla. “Merchant of the Void” slithers along a flickering neon wasteland of synths and guitars that crunch in equal measure. “Higher Than Death” marks one of the band’s most melodic moments to date. “Ali3n” explodes into a more metallic bounce owes more to nu metal than other sub-genres, and is the best way possible. Ho99o9 joins them on “Paralyze”.
“Scorpion” is one of the album’s strongest songs, picking up the previous songs left off and injecting it with a double dose of hyper aggression. This results in capturing the feel of buildings imploding with each chord.cranked out. “Drift” gets even more melodic, with the vocals performed with an introspection that carries a feel similar to eighties Pink Floyd.
They close the album out with a cover of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” (currently en vogue due to its prevalence on TikTok – Ed with an offspring at early secondary school). Tears For Fears are one of my favorite bands, so my ear becomes more critical, particularly when it comes to the vocal lines on this song, since they are so iconic. To pay tribute to this song without being able to flip your voice into a fluid head register, is a sticking point for me, but aside from this the band makes excellent choices when it comes to their own songs. After repeat listens it irks me less and I can listen to the album with more appreciative ears.
This album makes it very clear these guys are the best at what they are doing. They prove themselves just as legit as the legacy bands that they are now carrying the torch for. I would rather hear these guys push this sound forward, than Fear Factory try to cash in on nostalgia or Korn squeeze into sequined Adidas in fake anger faded with age. The only competition 3Teeth has is Code Orange. This album might position them to be even more arena-ready, without compromising who they are.
If you are a fan this is what you have been looking forward to from these guys, and if you are new to the band it’s past time to check them out, after all, who knows how long we have left on this planet, so play loudly with middle fingers extended.
Buy the album here:
9 / 10
WIL CIFER