Y’know how the Book of Revelations dictates that the End will be signified by trumpets?
Scratch that. (Sorry, John- we know you tried). The End is nigh; the signal has been blaring, but it isn’t the triumphant bleat of trumpets that we’re hearing- it’s the violent, vehement, visceral bone-snapping roar of New Jersey metal outfit Ender’s “The Catalysm.”
Now, I know what you’re thinking: “Hey, that’s blasphemous!” Sorry, mates, but ’tis true, ’tis true. This shouldn’t come as much of a surprise, though, seeing as Ender has been brewing up to this point for quite some time, now (which begs the question, how did we manage to leave that out in Scripture?)
Ender’s value as a harbinger of The End of All dates far back into their inception in 2009, when they wasted absolutely no time in their deliverance of catastrophic musicality: armed with a handful of vindictive songs off of a freshly recorded demo, they quickly set out on a DIY tour called “The Bootyshorts And V-Necks Tour”. Translation? The Brutal Beginnings of the End of Days.
From there on out, Ender relentlessly spread their message of impending Doom by playing an innumerable amount of shows throughout New Jersey, building themselves a strong following. After extensive touring throughout their home state, a quick lineup change (replacing frontman Mike Newey with Joe Benducci), and signing to Eulogy Records Ender’s Dispatch of Devastation became incipient with the release of their first EP This Is Revenge in 2010. Shortly afterwards came a wrathful path of destruction as Ender embarked on a series of small-stint tours throughout the US, unleashing plague after plague upon every listener at each show with every torrential breakdown and blazing riff.
But Ender doesn’t stop there (there’s still a few Trumpets left to blow)- home for only a few weeks, the band hit the road with Legion and Demolisher in 2011 on the Devastatour, during which time the continues to rampage and plunder our ears with a series of brutalizing, malicious performances that left people bruised, broken, and drained of all blood.
Ender took a brief hiatus (we can only assume to allow their Wrath of Plagues to really settle in and eat away at our flesh for a while.) However, just as Scripture dictates, our Vessels of Ardent Violence returned once more to wreak havoc upon our miserable souls with their 2014 release Descolada, which deftly relabeled their brutalizing musicality from Incipient Destruction to In-Progress Apocalyptic Insanity. Packed with enough crushing riffage, pulverizing percussion, and ferocious growls to shred your skin and fry your optic nerve out, Descolada generated a renewed appreciation for the Harbingers of Awe-Inspiring Brutality in both press and in the blown-out eardrums of every listener.
The year is now 2016. And Ender is back for more.
If you thought that Ender had reached the height of their Deliverance of Annihilation with Descolada, then you were wrong.
So. Fucking. Wrong.
Ender would like to formally re-introduce your already bludgeoned faces to the concrete one last time with their release of their new sadistic single, “The Cataclysm.” And, oh, man, if this doesn’t signify that the End is ’round the corner, then I don’t know what does. Part groove, part crunch, and part chug, Ender’s penchant for wrathful, ruthless musicality is back one more time to make its rounds on our miserable existence. Vicious, seething, downtuned searing riffage, mind-bending growls, and grinding, rib-cracking breakdowns compose most of this unabating murderous track, which guarantees to crush the souls and spines of all Ye Who Dare Press Play.
It’s this continual strive towards ending the Human Existence via intense atmospherics and monstrous, bloodthirsty drive and composition that makes us proud to label Ender as our Rookie of the Week. Their ceaseless appetite for well-rounded, perfectly executed aural devastation earns them consistent high marks that are well ahead of most in their genre.
Mark my words, Ender is the Beginning of the End; our sworn Agent of Death; our Cataclysmic Leaders. And they will spare no one.
Ouch That Hertz! 