Review Summary: All in all, for a demo I give it a pass, nothing special but nothing that I would go so far to say I hate.
If tool and alice in chains had a baby, got divorced and that child was given custody to slipknot this ep would probably be what that child would make. Clearly still a demo, riddled with mistakes most notable on the first and second tracks with the guitar work. But I digress, they call it a demo so I shall let it be.
The first track 'an endless venture' serves a short intro that doesn't overstay its welcome, in turn not becoming boring as it could easily have done. A simple guitar lick coupled with some melodic and slightly eerie vocals isn't anything new or special but serves the purpose I believe they set out to do.
Second track and the clear headliner of the ep, 'the truth' starts with a muted guitar riff and swings into some alice in chains/tool-esque riffing accompanied by some simple but solid drum work followed by some ok to slightly awkward, maynard sounding, vocals. The verses stay short and transition well to the chorus which attempts to soar under a pretty average mix. Again it is a demo but I can see where the band was trying to go. The breakdown gets into some fairly heavy territory with the vocalist using some shouted vocals akin to Chad Gray of Mudvayne or Corey Taylor of Stone Sour/Slipknot followed into more deathmetal territory towards the end of it. The chugging to shrieking guitars follow along quite nicely with it.
Finally 'Despise' is the most questionable of the bunch. Clearly programmed drums followed by a simple hard rock riff transitions into some weird almost soft african tribal drumming dished with some muffled/lo-fi rapped vocals, which lead us into screaming, angsty territory in the chorus. The whole track screams angst which would work if I could tell what was being said most of the time. In saying that the vocalist does deliver some vocals once again comparatively to the ones on the previous track. Topping off the song is some melodic sections that sort of fall flat and are mixed very strange.
