For me, Montreal Canada’s Endast came out of nowhere. With their third release Thrive, it’s clear they know what they’re doing. With the assistance of Bjorn Strid of Soilwork and Jon Howard of Threat Signal co-producing, this is a sonic powerhouse of Canadian metal.
Bassist Ryan Miller’s tone is infectious all throughout this recording. He shines heavily on the first of two instrumentals ‘Letting Go’ and ‘No Fate But What We Make’. The guitar team of Pepe Poliguin and Chris Arsenian deliver the most haunted instrumentals I’ve heard in a while. Its just nice and creepy, it’s perfect. You can hear them feed off each other on ‘Suck It Up’ and ‘Your Best Stories Are Victories’.
James Arsenian’s blue-collar lyrics are very relatable and he’s easily understood. He has a more hardcore style approach to his vocals that fits great with the music. Bjorn also lends his pipes to the groove filled ‘Oceans of Regrets’. Drummer Steve Harlall does a masterful job on this album. No overplaying here, he just has this nice little moments of drummy goodness sprinkled over songs like ‘Brotherhood’ and ‘Breath the Bullet In’.
I don’t know whats in the water in Canada but keep on drinking it! They don’t really sound like anyone. They are their own animal that deserves to be heard.
7/10
OMAR CORDY