45. End - 'Splinters from an Ever-Changing Face'

Blisteringly heavy and brutally fast, this is dubbed Extreme Hardcore, but it shares a lot of DNA with the more excessive end of Death Metal and, of course, my beloved Grind-core. The tracks here slam at you, dripping with conviction and consternation. This is an angry album; it certainly not going to take any more, using walls of snarling guitars and precising vocals to push that point home. This is music (in the loosest sense of the word) used as metaphorical sledgehammer. It is just wave after wave of brittle agitated noise. Presumably letting go of this barrage of pure unadulterated rage was an extremely cathartic process for the band. For the listener it is exhilarating, engaging and enriching. Uncompromising but, in its righteous fury, incredibly uplifting.