Kev Rowland

End of Green have been deploying their own styles of Goth, Doom, Metal, doleful Alternative metal for some twenty-five years, and with their ninth full-length album they are still desperate to find hope: based on this, I don’t think they’re going to find it any time soon, although they’re not going to give up hope just yet. Michelle Darkness sings touching and intimate dirges about aging, loss and loneliness, and on “Darkside of the Sun” he comes across so much like Pete Steele that I had to look to see if it was a Type O number. This is dark music, with a sense of bleakness permeating every note, yet Michelle is also trying to be optimistic as he says in “Unseen”, "Together, we are less alone.”

What is apparent throughout this album is that it is packed full of quality and thoughtfulness, this isn’t something that has been rushed, but instead each lyric has had the sweat poured over it, and then the music has been polished to ensure that it is all working together at its optimum. It is gothic, it is dark, yet there is that slight tinge of light that makes one think that although the band are inhabiting a very dark place indeed, there may be some light for them the other day of the cellar door. I wouldn’t recommend playing this album under the influence of anything, as this is music that needs to be played in the light of day, yet “Crossroads” shows that they can be lighter when they want to be. Commercial, yet never compromising this is a mature album that shows that even though they have been around for quarter of a century they are showing no sign whatsoever of slowing down yet.