UMUR
"The Plague of Truth" is the debut full-length studio album by Danish death metal act Endarken. The album was independently released in September 2021. Endarken formed in Copenhagen in 2017, and features members (or ex-members) of several other Danish metal acts like The Kandidate, Billy Boy in Poison, Sinphonia, and HateSphere. The album track single "Insomnia" was released in August 2021, but other than that "The Plague of Truth" is the first release by the band.
Stylistically the material on "The Plague of Truth" is melodic death metal with both snarling aggressive vocals and clean/shouted melodic vocals. The tracks are relatively easy to follow and all feature energetic drumming, melodic guitar riffs, and well played lead guitar parts. The musicianship is solid and although lacking some bite and power the sound production is also decent. The tracks don´t really stick much though, and although the songwriting isn´t of a bad quality, it is pretty standard for the genre, or maybe even a little below standard in some departments. The clean/shouted melodic vocals are for example a bit questionable in quality and execution. It´s not that lead vocalist Tim Nederveen can´t sing or hit the notes right, but he just doesn´t have a particularly interesting voice, and while his snarling vocals aren´t the most interesting either, they are far better than his cleans.
"The Plague of Truth" is upon conclusion a standard quality melodic death metal release, and you´ll be able to find thousands of artists in this style producing music of this quality. Decent but ultimately unremarkable and forgettable. A 3 star (60%) rating is warranted.