Album Review: "Endarkened" by Eucharist (Australia)

Endarkened

This is another one of those times when more than one band has chosen a name.

There is also a Swedish band, but this is not them.

Let's just focus on Eucharist (Australia) here. Unfortunately, I cannot find their Facebook page, so you'll just have to trust me that these guys are real.

I also have no photos of them.

However, I have heard the music contained here and I can tell you that they are quite, quite brutal.

They're coming off of having their demo released by Iron Bonhead Productions on vinyl, of all things. So, in order to celebrate and move forward, they're releasing a mini-album here. We'll call this an EP though.

What qualifies as an album and what's an EP.

Slayer's Reign In Blood, considered an LP, clocks in at 26 minutes.

Eye of Solitude's Dear Insanity, considered an EP, clocks in at about 54 minutes.

Eucharist's Endarkened is a lot closer to Slayer than Eye of Solitude here though, at least in terms of time.

Musically though, there's nothing Slayer about Eucharist. Their music is far, far closer to our European friends, Eye of Solitude.

Endarkened features two tracks of doomy, sludgy metal. The vocals are slow and disturbed flowing over the rest of the music. The drums are fast. The juxtaposition is palpable.

The guitars are rhythmic and fierce. Full of high precision sloppiness, aside from the solos which feature a spectacular sloppiness.

Music isn't always clean and when you're packing the amount of power Eucharist doles out, there's going to be a lack of precision. Just like when a certain sith doesn't have full control.

Two tracks over thirteen minutes each. Snarling, incoherent vocals. Drums that sound like they were recorded in a church's bathroom.

This album nearly achieves doom metal perfection. A bit more focused songwriting and this band will catapult into the upper echelon of doomers.

Release: 2/1/16
Genre: Doom Metal
Label: Iron Bonehead Productions