This is contrasted against much mellower post-rock sections of expansive guitar and clean vocals. The riff that opens "Gears of Violent Endurance" is weird and insistent, with echoes of acts like Meshuggah. As the song turns the corner into its final section, the pace increases and we see flashes of black metal guitarwork. Waves of guitar wash over the listener, supported by a rumbling organ and broken up with sharp, tinkling piano. As this nine-minute monster trucks on, that power eventually comes to the fore. This song builds in tension the music is quiet for most of its first half, but there's a sense that a storm is brewing, just out of sight. Synths flash in the background for a great textural component, and there's an enthralling ebb and flow in these first minutes. "Liminal Veil" opens with rolling percussion and a discordant guitar line which sounds like a spookier version of early Baroness. "The Endless" maintains a clean atmosphere throughout most of its runtime, though it morphs in its final minutes into a passage of dark, mucky doom riffs and hoarse vocals. The mellow closing of "Midnight Moon" flows neatly into this album's title track. Hypnotic, tribal rhythms and groaning bass come seemingly out of nowhere, but these suit the song well. Soon enough, echoes of black metal come reverberating through, with expansive guitars, powerful drumming, and shrieked vocals. The vocals make this passage distinctly Dreadnought, though. "Midnight Moon" opens with watery guitar, rolling drums, and an eerie synth line in a moment that reminds me a lot of certain post-punk acts. In the song's second half, the less-distorted moments borrow heavily from post-rock with their abstract guitar lines and echoing piano. Soon, though, it erupts into metallic fury with distorted guitar and harsh vocals. It's subdued but subtly urgent, and it features some of their most complex vocal arrangements to date. Light percussion and the occasional swelling growl of organ function as the backdrop, and eventually piano and a steady tom pattern on the drums start to propel the song along.
The album opens with the folky, intertwined vocal melodies of "Worlds Break". The songs here are slightly terser than usual, with none topping 10 minutes. The band continues to demonstrate excellent compositional skill, and the interplay of the dual vocalists is wonderful. This album sees the band moving slightly away from their doom metal roots and incorporating a greater amount of post-metal influence.
In many ways, my assessment of The Endless is pretty similar. It demonstrated continuity with the sounds of their prior records while also being distinct within their discography. Their previous release, 2019's Emergence, was a wonderful evolution in their sound. Denver's Dreadnought are back with their fifth full-length album, The Endless.
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