Bands from Russia don't come around too often, so I was delighted when the latest from Muscovites EndName dropped onto my doormat. They reference bands like Meshuggah, Baroness and Jesu in their biography, so it came as no surprise to hear riff-heavy, instrumental post-rock pouring out of my speakers. Ironically enough, the main mile-wide, cyclical drive of their music echoes Russian Circles more than any of the bands they profess to be influenced by. There are certainly vast wodges of Isis, Neurosis and even Pelican in there but the "math" part of their "math-doom" self-analysis is pretty wide of the mark.
The band opens on a straight-forward blaster, "Black Light", that appears to head in one direction and one direction only. Heavier than a planet, it manages to blow out any ear cobwebs you may have by piling on the distortion until it begins to disintegrate. Staccato leads and rolling riffs pop in and out of a consistent rhythm but the powerful two-chord groove remains steadfastly in position. Now, seven-minutes of droning power is all well and good, but when the next two tracks follow suit, refusing to do anything other than crush, the whole thing gets pretty tiresome. Sure, there's the odd spot of double- and half-time and a few field recordings (listen out for the lawnmower and the vacuum cleaner in "Under Asphalt") but it won't make your eyelids feel any lighter.
Thankfully, "Old Star" pulls us back into the land of the living. It wakes us with a blast of brass and chimes before blasting forth the dirtiest, crassest chug you'll find this side of the Mississippi. Then, just as you're settling into the groove (possibly whilst trying to fit the words of Nirvana's "Something In The Way" over the top), the band flick on the water and hose down the sludge to reveal this psychedelic, string-bending hydra whose multiple heads writhe in and out of knots before wrapping themselves around our heads. Screaming in unison they swallow-dive to attack with fangs bared. It's a ten-minute thing of wonder and shows the band's true potential in all its glory. Why this is not up front and centre is beyond me.
Keep on rocking from this point and you'll trip over the magical "Horizon", which will give your neck a good workout if nothing else, the undeniably classy "Not Dead", with its thick top-end riffs, lush dips and sliding chord structures, and, for the space cadets amongst you, the odd, interminable burblings of the mahoosive title-track that lies in wait at the climax. These pesky Ruskies are certainly a band to keep a close eye on. "Anthropomachy" is yet another step in the right direction, even if those early tracks make a damned good fist of killing the party before it even gets started.
http://www.myspace.com/endnameband
http://www.endname.ru
John Skibeat
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