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Inevitable End: The Oculus
 The Oculus is the second release by Swedish metalcore act Inevitable End. Released by Relapse Records in May, this album brings nothing new to the table and hardly ever differs from your normal run of the mill metalcore. Like most albums of the same genre, The Oculus runs a pretty short time, 35 minutes, compared to the number of songs on the album, 13. In a way this helps the album because if I had to listen to this for a longer time, it definitely wouldn't get as high of a score.
Right from the start of the album all the way to the end, Inevitable End throws everything at you, with heavy riffs, screaming vocals, and lots of distortion. After a while it's very easy to get tired of the album, mainly because all the songs sound similar and follow the same structure. First comes the screaming vocals, though sometime they are death growls, then some dissonant chords followed by distortion, and this trend continues throughout the whole album. I find myself wanting to turn it off by at least halfway through the album just out of pure boredom.
What saves this album is the musicianship, not the creativity. There is no doubt that Inevitable End has some very talented players in it, it's just that they need to branch off a bit, and do something that no one else has done before; then they will release something that is worth buying. But until then they get 2.5 stars for this release.
Track Listing
1. Tell Us, Parasites
2. Escaping The Black Hole
3. Zen
4. Dogmaties Paralies
5. The Supreme Treachery
6. The Oculus
7. While Surpassing Ether
8. Vergelmer
9. Chamber Of Apathy
10. Memento
11. Me Tem Psy Cho Sis
12. Cadaver Inc.
13. Of Sublime Dimensions
Added: August 19th 2011
Reviewer: Brian Block
Score:  
Related Link: Band Website
Hits: 2622
Language: english
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Inevitable End: The Oculus
Posted by Tom De Val, SoT Staff Writer on 2011-08-19 07:52:22
My Score:
This Swedish band apparently have their background in death metal, but this sophomore album is more in the mathcore vein of things, mixing ultra-fast and technical playing with pummelling rhythms and aggressive vocals, and not afraid to throw musical curve balls on occasions (witness the slow, sludgy and doomy riffs that open 'The Supreme Treachery' (a track which also manages to squeeze what sounds like a sitar solo in to the mix!) or the rootsy good ol' boy interlude that is 'Of The Well'). The band also know when to slow things down a tad and concentrate on crunching riffs, such as on 'Memento'.
Not all the rampant experimentation works, but more often than not this is both a challenging and invigorating listen. Of course in this genre a band will always be compared to the daddies of the scene, Dillinger Escape Plan, and whilst it's fair to say this album doesn't reach the heights of DEP's best work, neither is it a pale imitation. Definitely a band to check out and keep an eye on if you like you're metal aggressive, technical and boundary-pushing.
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Inevitable End: The Oculus
Posted by Jeff B, SoT Staff Writer on 2011-08-04 14:13:37
My Score:
The second full-length album from Inevitable End is one that, despite its excellent musicianship and eclectic sound, misses the mark significantly due to a few crippling flaws. Don't get me wrong - The Oculus is not a bad album by any means, and it's actually quite good at times. But, nonetheless, it is disappointing to hear an album with this level of potential left unfulfilled thanks to mediocre songwriting and generic riffs. Inevitable End shows plenty of potential on The Oculus, but it will certainly take a more memorable effort until I'm convinced.
Musically, The Oculus is a bit unique. Inevitable End's combination of post-hardcore, modern metalcore, and technical death metal is special in itself, but the way the band manages to blend all of these influences together in a dissonant concoction is arguably their biggest selling point. Although I wouldn't really say this is the most "inspired" effort I've ever heard, it's much less generic than most modern metalcore and that's a plus as well. The Oculus's main downfall rests in the hands of the unmemorable songwriting - it's interesting enough while you're experiencing it, but right when the album ends it becomes difficult to pick out more than one or two riffs. Inevitable End is so focused on creating crazy, dissonant songs that they seem to have forgotten to make the compositions feel even slightly coherent or decipherable.
The Oculus ultimately falls a bit short of my expectations due to the messy songwriting, but I will certainly applaud Inevitable End for creating something different from the norm of most modern metalcore. Unfortunately, that's only so important when the compositions are this forgettable. With a few improvements in the songwriting department, Inevitable End may have something great up their sleeves... but The Oculus certainly is not that. The most I can give here is 2.5 stars.
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