Year: 2024
Total Time: 40.30
Label: Apostasy Records

THIS ENDING is a band that, although I follow their releases, has never really won me over. With “Needles Of Rust” in 2021, they seemed to find their way into my ears, but still, it was another mediocre release overall for the Swedes. Fortunately, this seems to be changing with “Crowned In Blood” where THIS ENDING presents us with a work imbued with the spirit of the Swedish Melodic Death Metal scene.

The album opens with “Crowned In Blood” where, for almost seven minutes, the band will give us everything we know and love about this particular scene, along with Black Metal riffing and plenty of epic elements. In “Birth Of Evil” the band’s approach sounds tighter and more focused towards a purely Melodic Death Metal result, as in the next song, “Devils”.

Then comes the hefty and beloved “Will Of Iron” with refrains reminiscent of fellow Swedes AMON AMARTH, violent riffing, and an epic finale. The instrumental “Blood King” is a quite pleasant addition with, I dare say, a Folk character. “A Venomous Prison” is quite melodic with parts strongly reminiscent of giants like AT THE GATES but also early ARCH ENEMY.

“Hope In Inferno” is melancholic, with changes in pace between verses and choruses and an introduction that reminded me of something between ICED EARTH and NEVERMORE. The second extensive piece, “Lord, Master, King And Emperor – All In One” sees DISSECTION meeting AT THE GATES. The end comes with “Awakening” which sounds like it came straight from “Needles Of Rust” to my ears.

With “Crowned In Blood”, THIS ENDING obviously doesn’t reinvent the wheel or redefine the sound; the numerous references to other bands in this review I think are characteristic of that. Nevertheless, we’re talking about a good album with all the characteristics of a beloved scene to many fans and certainly the Swedes’ best release so far.

Rating: 6.5/10
Editor: Antonis Braikidis
Related Link: This Ending – Bandcamp