Beware the Neverending

With their second album, Beware the Neverending have written a good metalcore album with a great sense of groove. Having taken their sound and stripped it down to focus on rhythm, you won’t hear complicated leads and melodies, but the trade-off is normalized with the rhythm section. Once you start the album, pounding guitars batter you into submission with syncopated rhythms and groove-centric breakdowns. Its darker doom sound takes away from the variety of sound.

Songs like “Time of War” and “Zero to Nothing” have heavy, syncopated, off-beat chugging during the verses before shifting gears to a more plodding breakdown. This back-and-forth rhythm adds an interesting dynamic to each song; it’s subtle, so don’t let it slip you by. The shift in tempo makes hitting those breakdowns more exciting, giving them an added punch.

Lead singer Bobby Stratton really mixes things up with his range of low growls and higher raspy screams, like on “Kamikaze” and “Repercussions of Destroying a Pearl.” One of the highlights of the album is the first track, “Pride over Sanity,” with its call and response; Stratton and the group vocals and will sound awesome played live with a crowd. Times of War suffers when you hit the middle of the record where songs have a tendency to blend together. This is still a good album that starts strong and really picks the momentum back up towards the end. Times of War has some standout, but overall lacks the extra leap of variety to make it great.