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Band: End Of Green
Album title: Void Estate
Release date: 18 August 2017
Label: Napalm Records
Tracklist:
01. Send In The Clowns
02. Darkside Of The Sun
03. The Door
04. Head Down
05. Crossroads
06. The Unseen
07. Dressed In Black Again
08. Mollodrome
09. Worn And Torn
10. City Of Broken Thoughts
11. Like A Stranger
12. Leave This Town [Bonus]
Creating deeply emotional and melancholic dark rock/metal music can be a tricky thing, many bands tried it and many of them just made something that turned out to be a very bland and soulless music, but not End Of Green. This German combo who returns four years after their previous album, The Painstream, knows how to do it right, without losing the thread throughout the entire record. I can easily say that End Of Green with their ninth opus, Void Estate, did one of the best melancholic metal or rock albums that I heard in recent years, it's also the most consistent, darkest and deepest album that this band ever released. Void Estate is an outpour of sadness and emotions that captures the listener in a stunning way and it doesn't let go so easily.
Void Estate is melancholy incarnated and in its essence this is deeply immersive and introversial album that speaks about aging, loss and loneliness, it's filled up with nostalgia, yet every single note is clutched by wistfulness and somewhere in these lofty melodies glimmers a spark of optimism. Musically it's a strong album with no fillers this time and I find it very good that the band almost completely left behind those groovy aternative metal elements that spoiled some songs on their previous couple of albums. Almost every song has kind of a special drive that smoothly builds up in ambiance until reaching a climax in some absolutely catchy, but not cheesy at all, refrains and many times strong endings. It's mostly slow to mid paced, based on goth/doom metal which nicely intertwines with other genres. End Of Green this time made an album that is direct, without any special embellishments, there are almost no synths used to make kind of dark background ambiance, yet the sound is so very rich, dense and filled up. They just use typical rock instruments, strong rhythmic lines and Michelle Darkness' very emotional, addictive, versatile and unique deep, dark, raspy baritone voice.
From the magnificient opener, "Send In The Clowns", on we are drowned in the world of isolation and beauty. Just listen to doom/goth masterpiece "Darkside Of The Sun", which sounds like a mix of Type O Negative and Paradise Lost in their best times, integrated into the trade mark End Of Green sound, or to the extremely addictive refrain of emotional "The Door", and I believe that already with the first third of the album End Of Green will drag you into the world of uttermost melancholy and pain. The songs are constantly very melodic, absolutely captivating and many times End Of Green mesmerize with elements that you won't expect, like is country/americana in the driving semi acoustic "Crossroads" or with balladic hard rock in "City Of Broken Thoughts", that sounds just like if Poison, Guns N' Roses or Mötley Crüe in their ballads found the world of dark music. Then kind of a spacey/psychedelic guitar riff that reminds to Pink Floyd appears in the fantastic "Worn And Torn". But even if these elements might sound strange, End Of Green do insert them very smoothly and create so very dynamic sound that it doesn't get boring for a second.
Then again the darkness and sadness strikes in all its glory with monumental doomy masterpiece "Mollodrome". Sometimes you can almost feel and picture every single word that is said, it has such a strong impact that is almost irresistible. This is music done with soul, it's alive, it touches deep into the listeners mind, heart and soul, but yet, even if at the first listen it might sound a bit too simplistic, it's so very professionally done, and you'll hear it if you just pay a bit of attention to every single instrument. Void Estate has that very evocative lucid pathos from start to finish, and it'll be nothing strange if in the end, "Like A Stranger", will leave you with tears in your eyes. Void Estate is an album with immense depth, it's a maze of doleful goth, doom, metal and deep-rooted pain. There are not many bands on this planet who can in such an elegant way visualize isolation in the midst of beauty with such ear-piercing power like End Of Green. It's absolutely their best album since in 2005 released Dead End Dreaming and it shows the band in their best form, yet I can easily say that this is one of the best albums released so far this year!
Review written by: T.V.
Rating: 9/10
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