Album Rating: 3.5
I wouldn't necessarily say this is this case. Given the general monotony of the record's style, the end, while perhaps slightly better composed, doesn't hit nearly as hard within the context of a full listen. Every single time I went through this record in its entirety, it was the ending which felt most vapid and uninspired to me. Perhaps if I start back-to-front it would be more impactful.
Also, I don't actually think the vocal performance was all that stellar, it served its purpose adequately, but I wasn't completely blown away by the man's range or technique.
Edit: Listening to those last two tracks (in isolation) again, the first, Endless Wound, has its momentum frequently stalled by these tediously long, considerably slower, atmospheric, doomy passages and a fairly weak vocal performance towards the end of the track. It isn't nearly as immediate or hard-hitting as the first three tracks here. The final track, Finality I Behold, starts guns blazing, but in no way justifies its 8+ minute runtime. Its first solo last an exceedingly short time and barely leaves an impact, it's riffs are decent but are repeated almost too often for my taste and the doomy part which kicks in at around 5 minutes, while initially headbang worthy, ultimately doesn't pack nearly the same amount of punch as the track's earlier sections. The second solo takes its time and does fit the track's pace, but its reduced speed, also undermines its intensity. And this underlying doomy movement continues until the track fades out, which I think is definitely a compositional cop-out, and goes on far longer than it has any right to go on for. The first five minutes, therefore, far exceed the power of the last 3.
A fairly tepid experience in a way, something exacerbated if one listens to the record in its entirety. Again, I don't see how these two tracks are in any way superior to the record's first half.
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