It would be redundant to label End Reign an angry band. Metal tends to breed a dime a dozen of those. And metallic hardcore isn’t a previously untapped subgenre. Besides, the two have probably worked in tandem long before we subdivided every possible combination for the sake of clarity. 

Yet the debut full-length, The Way Of All Flesh Is Decay (Relapse Records) is the culmination of a vast array of experience, talent, and know-how. 

Domenic Romeo (Integrity, Pulling Teeth); Adam Jarvis (Pig Destroyer, Misery Index, Lock Up); Arthur Legere (Bloodlet); and Sebastian Phillips (Noisem, Exhumed) are the mainstays of End Reign. They’ve also recruited the likes of Dwid Hellion (Integrity); Dylan Walker (Full Of Hell); and Ed Ka-Spel (The Legendary Pink Dots) for guest vocals. Thus, not only is End Reign an angry band; the record boasts a plethora of notable musicians with enough angst and vitriol to power a small city. And even with the bevy of fingerprints smeared all over the record, it’s as tight and polished as they come.

‘Divine Abysmal End’ promotes malicious decimation fueled by a raucous rhythm section. ‘House Of Thieves’ is invigorating in its bitter riff and furious fill. ‘Chaos Masked As Order’ sounds like a group on the brink of insanity, bolstered by rumbling, cascading drums.

The majority of the album is decidedly heavy and brash. 

‘Giving Life To Tragedy’ is tamer, relatively speaking, with its explorative, smooth solo. And ‘When Death Comes Crawling’ features End Reign at their most melodic, musically speaking. However, sprinting drums and a healthy dose of chuganomics ensures no one will mistake The Way… for a cop-out, phone-it-in longplayer.  In fact, one lyric in particular aptly describes the album: “I give you the darkness / to bring you the light.” 

Which is to say, End Reign has done everyone a favor. They’ve given us a crushing brand of metallic hardcore and it should brighten everyone’s day accordingly.

Buy the album here:

https://www.relapse.com/pages/end-reign-the-way-of-all-flesh-is-decay

8 / 10

MATT COOK