Endseeker--Coffin Born (CD/LP) (2026 Metal Blade Records)

www.metalblade.com

7/10 CRUSHED FUCKING SKULLS

It's been three years since last we heard from Endseeker, one of the better of the crop of HM-2 style death metal bands in the world today. They give us four new songs and a cover of David Hasselhoff's recent masterpiece, "True Survivor." And, no, I'm not joking, I love that song and I love David Hasselhoff's singing. They do a fine job adapting the track. Their new material has everything you'd expect from them: big open riffs, a little melody, and good solid songwriting. Although they're not the most interesting of all bands playing this style, they're good songwriters and it really helps make this just that much different. "Coffin Born" is easily the best song here, and it's no wonder they named the EP after it. The songwriting and all the time shifts in the song really makes it interesting as well as the heavy-as-fuck chorus riff. It's intense and furious and a perfect song. As a vehicle for the title track this EP works, and has a few other interesting songs besides, including "True Survivor." A worthy EP release. Plus, the cover is gnarly.

Cognitive "Abhorrence" (Review)

Cognitive "Abhorrence"

2024 Metal Blade Records (CD/LP)

www.metalblade.com

I don't generally like much deathcore material, but this is, as they say, the exception to the rule. I've known about Cognitive for a long time, well before their signing to Metal Blade records, since they toured incessantly and came to Ohio for a lot of shows, often playing with Fully Consumed, if I remember correctly. Their blend of technical death metal and deathcore was good then, and it's good now.

There are a few new tricks here, like the clean vocals on several tracks, which are very nicely performed and not at all the sing-song-y stuff that a lot of modern bands use. They're still metal as fuck. They moved out of some of their death metal influence, and moved into more of their hardcore influence, and that's ok. It works for them. That's not to say the death metal on offer here is diluted - nay, it is not. It's simply more understated than they were at the beginning, nut the death metal that is here is absolutely vicious, as are the hardcore riffs that they mix in. They bring serious heaviness in the riff department, and most songs, of course, have a breakdown, and they're generally extremely heavy and veer away from some of the "deathcore chug," although there's a tasteful amount of that here also.

It's easy to see where death metal fans and hardcore fans are able to get into them, as has been the case over the years. They hooked me with their fine songs very early on when I saw them live, and they've continued to refine and evolve their sound to perfection. I believe they've hit their apex here, and it will be hard to follow this record. All the songs are extremely memorable and diverse, yet staying in their death metal crossed with hardcore lane (lanes?). They've increased the speed over the years, and there's some blazing fast blast beats on this record. The production shines as well, and it's not overly loud, thankfully. Even the clean vocals are mixed right, avoiding the pitfall a lot of deathcore bands have when they push those over the top of the mix and make them sound out of place. Like Cattle Decapitation, they pay attention to how those vocals sound and it's mixed appropriately. Overall this is a damn fine job of a record, and I'll look forward to the next one for sure. I always pay attention when Cognitive puts an album out.