Self professed (cliché alert) "worshippers of the riff" End Of Level Boss rose from the ashes of Hangnail, and since their inception have made a few ripples in the pond up in London. Touted as one of those stoner rocky doom metalish type bands they actually exhibit few if any of the qualities attributed to either genre. Instead they're a rather odd-beat amalgamation of early 90s heavy alt-rock, Isis/Meshuggah/Cynic riff progression and slight Voivodian discordancy. As intriguing a combination as that sounds, the execution is sadly a little tedious.The basic formula for each song is essentially the same. A handful of discordant riffs repeated with some variation, complemented by fairly generic gruff vocals, at times dancing between Chris Cornell and Daniel Johns with the odd John Garcia moment. There's a Larry Lalonde style Primus solo thrown in ('Mr Dinosaur Is Lost'), a few quieter moments ('Inskintivitus') and the mostly instrumental 'Words Have No Meaning' comes off like a cross between Meshuggah's 'I' and Kyuss' 'One Inch Man'. All in all, if you've heard one song from the album you've pretty much heard all EOLB have to offer.
Despite the potentially exciting combination of influences and nods to slightly left-field metal bands, it's essentially one of those albums that feels like one long tedious song. Not completely terrible, just decidedly average and mostly unengaging.
5/10
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