The End Of 6000 Years / Embrace the End

Split (2006)

Jordan Rogowski

On a split record, I think it's fair to say that there's a problem when it's nearly impossible to discern which band's songs are which. Such is the issue with the split done by the End Of 6000 Years and Embrace the End. Both share many of the same songwriting elements, same techniques, and same basic musical structure.

Really, the only thing separating these two bands is song length. With their three efforts, the End Of 6000 Years generally keeps their thundering riffs and wicked solos right around the three-minute mark. Conversely, Embrace the End require a little bit more time to hone their craft, leaving their shortest of three songs to end at five-and-a-half minutes. Either way though, the end result is a pretty muddled album full of forgettable metalcore.

So what I'm going to do, to save everyone involved time, is consolidate the bands, pretending they essentially weren't already. For the rest of the review, to let you all understand how I felt while listening to this, I won't name the band or any of the specific members, only song titles and their corresponding track numbers? Sound easy enough? Terrific.

"Immortal Fading" begins the record with the all-too-familiar metalcore practice of silence leading into what sounds like a large gust of wind before the music really kicks in. From there, it's nothing new either. Riff, riff, squeal, repeat. The occasional breakdown is thrown in, for you know, the sake of having a breakdown.

"Memento Mori" is where the album starts to pick up a bit, as this part of the album is thankfully a bit more technically proficient, though, the breakdowns are not done away with, and the average song length increases by about two minutes. It's something different, albeit very marginally so. As I said before, length is the only distinguishing factor between a lot of these songs, and the sound just grows stale and tiresome as it progresses.

Completely forgettable.