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By the End of Tonight, "Fireworks on Ice"
The idea of a hyper-quartet feasting on the remains of dead metalguitars, hyperventilating percussion, and over-romanticized melodiesmight, at first, sound like a fun trip through nausea. Due to a lack ofvision, however, the EP these four Texans have crafted becomes too dullafter its first half has expired to even be considered satisfyinglydizzying. Four tracks full of spinning drum sticks and convulsingguitar strings amount to a whole lot of yawning when they all beginexactly the same.Temporary Residence
Bits of vehemence become swallowed in layers ofpretty chords and moments of relative peace over and over again. Addunexpected time signature changes and stop and go dynamics andbasically every aspect of this EP has been covered adequately. Ifnovelty is found to be necessary, behold the furious slamming of adrummer playing behind a child's first trap set and be satisfied. Whilethe percussion does sound amazingly sharp and sits well with the wallsof musical whirlwind that move with it, the necessity of using achild's drum kit is questionable and stands out like a bad stage propmeant for audience amusement only. "It's Christmas Time Again...," theEP's final track, is an eleven-plus minute monstrosity composed of eachof the previous three tracks: this basically adds up to more of thesame. Instrumental passages of romping grind and heaviness juxtaposedby melancholy and riffs right out of 80's do not become more impressiveover time. This music is not like a good bowl of chili; it doesn'ttaste better the next day or after it's been sitting in the fridge fora night. After being offered song after song of repetitive andultimately uniform rhythmic torture, By the End of Tonight sounds likeit just doesn't have enough ideas for an EP, so the prospects of abetter full-length seem dim for this band. They're all technicallyaccomplished performers, but that doesn't make up for the lack ofsubstance that ultimately dominates their recorded performance.
Bits of vehemence become swallowed in layers ofpretty chords and moments of relative peace over and over again. Addunexpected time signature changes and stop and go dynamics andbasically every aspect of this EP has been covered adequately. Ifnovelty is found to be necessary, behold the furious slamming of adrummer playing behind a child's first trap set and be satisfied. Whilethe percussion does sound amazingly sharp and sits well with the wallsof musical whirlwind that move with it, the necessity of using achild's drum kit is questionable and stands out like a bad stage propmeant for audience amusement only. "It's Christmas Time Again...," theEP's final track, is an eleven-plus minute monstrosity composed of eachof the previous three tracks: this basically adds up to more of thesame. Instrumental passages of romping grind and heaviness juxtaposedby melancholy and riffs right out of 80's do not become more impressiveover time. This music is not like a good bowl of chili; it doesn'ttaste better the next day or after it's been sitting in the fridge fora night. After being offered song after song of repetitive andultimately uniform rhythmic torture, By the End of Tonight sounds likeit just doesn't have enough ideas for an EP, so the prospects of abetter full-length seem dim for this band. They're all technicallyaccomplished performers, but that doesn't make up for the lack ofsubstance that ultimately dominates their recorded performance. samples:
