Vehemency After multiple spins, End’s third album - simply titled as III in the same vein as the previous two - starts to show how diverse the record actually is, despite how gray it sounded in the beginning. The simple black & white cover art nods to a rather basic underground black metal formula, but III is surprisingly detailed and almost progressive. Yeah, I could even mention Opeth here when it comes to certain beats and guitarwork here and there.

So, what is to be expected of III is frenzied, authentic black metal with rather professional and bassy sound, vocals going from high-pitched screams to masculine growls similar to Mikko Aspa, and even some acoustic guitars (”In the Womb of Sick”, ”Ugly and Bygone”) among the distorted ones that are, by the way, played very well. The menacious melodies are played with ease, making the album sound a well-rehearsed totality. The drummer deserves a mention here, too, due to the successfully powerful battering that is groovy at the same time. A down-side, however, is the fact that the drum sound is somewhat muffled: for example, the snare drum could do better with some more snare mat.

Song-wise, III is at times brilliant: the rather slow and brooding ”Still in Flesh” sends chills down my spine and ”Lavish Gloom” rises nicely to a melancholic climax, for example. But compositional stagnancy is to be found here, too, unfortunately. In spite of all the many ideas that are provided - III is far from being repetitive or anything - there are moments when the riffs simply don’t have enough power (the first half of ”Megalomania”). But no worries, most of the album’s 50 minutes are still worth hearing, keeping the listener enough interested.

I find it hard to name any similar bands, in all honesty. For who I would recommend III? That’s a question I’ve been pondering since listening to the album for the first time. I guess I could throw Si Monumentum era Deathspell Omega here as a reference point, just don’t expect that deeply evil and dissonant music - a more rocking version of it, this could be said to be. Anyhow, III is definitely above an average black metal album, that is for sure.