Album Review: The Fallen Prophets - No End In Sight
Reviewed by Paul Hutchings
When reading a band’s discography, the title of their previous releases usually gives you a clue what to expect. ‘No End in Sight’ didn’t really give the game away, but a quick glance at the Metal Archives found the debut album from South African four-piece, ‘Slaughtered at the Altar’. Ah, okay. Death metal it is then. In February The Fallen Prophets also released their second long-player, ‘Relentless Killing Motivation’. If you needed further confirmation, there it is.
I’m a newcomer to The Fallen Prophets, and my knowledge of the South African metal scene fits on the back of a stamp. What I do know is that the Cape Town band comprises Wian Bester on bass, Dylan Haupt on drums and the duel pronged guitar assault of Francois Van Der Merwe and Pieter Pieterse, who also handles the vocal duties. So far, so good. But what do The Fallen Prophets sound like? Well certainly nothing like any other band with the name prophets in the title, that’s for sure.
No End in Sight comprises six new tracks, all are blunt and bulldozering in style and delivery, and they all feature input from guests whose insane solo work is evidently an attempt to touch the extreme. Kriss Xen of compatriots Vulvodynia gets involved on the opening song ‘Dead But Still Alive’, a skull crushing punisher of an opener, huge slabs of riffs scrambling the brain in seconds. It’s relatively generic but the blistering salvos that rain down make generic perfectly acceptable. Underneath it all there’s a chugging groove more addictive than that last pint at closing. Xen fires out a ferocious solo that sits snugly inside the raging maelstrom. It’s a good start.
To be honest, the accelerator rarely lifts through the whole of this six-track EP. Pieterse’s vocals are a ball of guttural bile, the drumming is on point, the guitars scream like nails down the black board. The frenzy that is summoned on ‘Killing the Last Savior’, the clubbing punishment of ‘The Beast’ and the slower but no less brutal title track all combine into a record that deserves serious attention from those who enjoy the extreme. The inclusion of Blood Red Throne’s Ivan Meathook on ‘Believe’ provides further excitement and quality, with a grinding powerful track that utilises a collage of film samples, and which crushes with both intensity and also the melodic solo that soars from within.
The production is a bit choppy with the tracks brought to a premature conclusion at times but overall, this is a welcome addition to the death metal catalogue. If you enjoy a chunk of Aborted, Benighted or the Black Dahlia Murder, this should be on the list to check out.
