Endmember – “Pathetic” [Album Review]

Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, visitors to this site should already be familiar with the name Endmember given that, just a couple of weeks ago, we were giving away the track “Miserable” from their brutal debut album, Pathetic.

Now, having taken in that five and a half minute demolition job of a track, extreme metal fans will be pleased to know that the rest of Pathetic follows in a similar vein. Delivering wave after wave of crushing heaviness, the likes of “Curse” and “Shunned” are full of uncompromising, face-smashing brutality.

There’s no need to beat around the bush when reviewing an album like this because, listening to the Chicago newcomers battering through “No Love,” it’s obvious that their intention is to make things equally as to the point. Despite forging together frill free death metal with elements of sludge, doom, grind and black metal, Pathetic is an album that, while it offers up something from all corners of the extreme metal world, is simply just a good, solid, heavy-as-fuck album.

It’s clearly been a whirlwind twelve months for the band who only emerged in 2015 but, listening to the competency, intelligence and fury with which they smash through Pathetic, they’re very much heading in the right direction.

Track Listing:

01. Mother Earth
02. Miserable
03. Shunned
04. Pathetic
05. No Love
06. Curse
07. Binary God
08. Drowning Souls

Run Time: 38:52
Release Date: January 1, 2016

Check out the song “Miserable” here.