Death is June - End Reign : " The Way of All Flesh is Decay"

A project formed by Integrity guitarist Domenic Romeo, who enlists the talents of Pig Destroyer and Bloodlet's bass player. We know it will at least be dark. There is a tone of cross over hard core coming out, so let us have a listen to hear how these veterans are faring among the current crop. There is almost a black metal feel to it at times. Their is a tortured mood to the vocals that cries out amongst the apocalyptic perishing around it. They remind you they are from hard core bands by including some muscular stomping break down like riffs. Lyrically this has more in common with metal as they are talking about astral planes. There are also more guitar solos than you expect from hard core. 

The first clear cut death metal song is "Divine Abysmal End' which lashes out with an Obituary like sneer. The riffs have all the hook of classic death metal, but propelled by hard core anger. Romeo also brought aboard Exhumed guitarist Sebastian Philips to join him on guitar so that leans them in more of a death metal direction there. "Serpent Messiah" feels like something Starkweather would have done, back in the day. Hyper aggression is a mood shared by both death metal and hard core, here it is hard to tell where one begins and the other ends, I think this would be better called death core than a band like Whitechapel, who has little hard to their core. 

"House of Thieves" finds the punk part of the equation settling in. "Giving Life to Tragedy" finds melody expanding the emotional range of the sonics they hit you with. They declare  they speak for the dead on "Chasing Divinity" which stays around the same sonic zip code most this album has raged within.   They remind me of when Slayer would embrace their more unhinged punk roots on "When Death Comes Crawling". They are at their most effectively metallic on the last song that howls with great feeling. Benefitting from a organic production that is mixed to put the action in your face, you get a feeling this is what they sound like live as well. I will give this album a 9, it is being released on Relapse Records on July 14th.