#EndlessLoss Traversing The Mephitic Artery

Band: Endless Loss
Album: Traversing the Mephitic Artery
Label: Nuclear Winter Records
Release date: 25 March 2024
Country: Australia
Format: High-quality digital recording

What in the world have I gotten myself into this time… I went into this listen expecting something and I ended up with something on the total opposite side of the spectrum… Talk about shock and awe. As you may have already guessed, Endless Loss is NOT a depressive black metal band, contrary to my initial, baseless assumption. Nothing could have possibly prepared me for the fact that I was about to stumble across a blackened death metal album bordering on war metal. Like I said, opposite side of the spectrum. Australia has already put itself on the map in terms of war metal bands when they spawned Sadistik Exekution, but in their case, the name of the band makes sense for the genre.

Despite the initial shock, I found this album to be really good, and thoroughly enjoyable to listen to. There were plenty of musical elements that I enjoy, including the longer songs, tempo changes, and the music being overall easy to vibe with, while also being totally pummeling to the inexperienced listener. It is definitely not the same as “pure” war metal (Case and point: Blasphemy, Antichrist Siege Machine, fellow countrymen Sadistik Exekution and Diocletian), but they are quite close, fact that gives them a rather original sound that I don’t recall hearing previously. There is probably a bit more death metal, and the instruments are slightly more technical, and although this may not seem like much of a difference, trust me, it is audible nonetheless.

As I mentioned previously, this record is nothing short of unrelenting. It pummels the listener from start to finish. The focus is of course on the drumming, mostly consisting of blast beats, but not without slowing down to much doomier tempos from time to time. There is also an ever-present use of cymbals. The rest of the instrumentation follows in a similar manner. The guitars are tremolo-based, featuring low tuning, an aspect that tends to make them hard to distinguish from the heavily distorted bass. The riffs are mostly brutal and primitive, featuring more technical and experimental passages from time to time, in an almost unnoticeable manner, that is easy to miss in a more relaxed listen. But like they say, the devil is in the details. The vocals, however, are a different story. They feature a mix of low growls and breathy screeches, that highlight the feeling of dread left out by the album as a whole, being exceptionally well done in the given context, at least in my opinion.

The album structure helps bring out the brutality of the album even more than the music itself. Featuring medium-length to short tracks, with no filler material for interludes, it gives that classic feeling of “complete blasting” which is obviously fitting, if not desired, in this type of records. This also poses the challenge of choosing the standout tracks. They are, of course, rather hard to determine given the sound similarity of the songs, but if I were to pick, I would go with the title track, “Traversing the Mephitic Artery”, “Mouldering Ressurection” and “Sepulchre of Violent Consummation”.

Endless Loss are definitely a niche band, even in terms of extreme metal. However, if you are looking for a dark, brutal listen or you are trying to get yourself into war metal, this could be a good place for you to start. Overall I give this record a solid 9/10. Ioana

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