Release Date: March 04th 2022. Record Label: Heavy Psych Sounds. Format: CD/DD/Vinyl
Impending Doom - Tracklisting
Harbinger Of Disease – 5:11
ICBM – 5:51
They Live – 4:05
Cities On Fire With The Burning Flesh Of Men – 7:44
Living Graves – 5:13
Review
ENDTIME debut album Impending Doom has the great honour of perhaps being Heavy Psych Sounds heaviest and filthiest release to date. As this band play a bleak and oppressive style of Doom and Sludge Metal with creepy Occult Stoner Metal. Taking cues from bands such as EyeHateGod, Primitive Man and CONAN, ENDTIME builds up an unflattering picture of heavy down-tuned guitars with some epic amplifier riff wizardry through the entire album.
The vocals and grooves capture the bleakness and the overall vision ENDTIME aims for from the very first few moments of excellent opening song Harbinger Of Disease. The subtle Psychedelic touches bring the Occult-ish tones of the album to the forefront of the music for a few moments with a slightly Progressive feel. The atmosphere has an almost classic HORROR MOVIE feel to it which you can see within the brilliant album cover. The song is quite slow-paced but this allows ENDTIME to build up a chilling vision of modern day Doom/Sludge Metal.
Second song ICBM carries on that bleak and claustrophobic vision as the music becomes with a haunting moral message. The short excellent sound-clip at the song gives you something to think about within the lyrics and the music is fantastically heavy that Primitive Man showed their classic debut album many years ago. The slow-paced nature of the song fits firmly in the SLUDGE METAL camp with the lyrics giving ENDTIME a hard-hitting DOOM METAL appeal.
The next two songs They Live and Cities On Fire With The Burning Flesh Of Men sees ENDTIME at their nihilistic and oppressive best with the heaviest and aggressive grooves on the record. Especially on Cities On Fire With The Burning Flesh Of Men. The song is quite long running pat the seven minute mark but there’s a whole ton of different strands of Sludge/Doom/Stoner Metal with that sinister Psychedelic vibe that ENDTIME use to their creative advantage.
ENDTIME ends the album on a downbeat note with Living Graves and it’s another round of down-tuned sounds with nasty vocals and lyrics that ultimately leave you wanting more.
Impending Doom is a short album running under thirty minutes but what a tortuous punishment ENDTIME will put you through. This perhaps could not only be one of the bleakest debut albums I’ve heard this year but also one of the very best.
ENDTIME have delivered the goods for this album and these guys have huge potential in the years to come.
Words by Steve Howe
Thanks to Purple Sage PR for the promo. Impending Doom will be available to buy on CD/DD/Vinyl from March 4th 2022 via Heavy Psych Sounds.
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