J-Man
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.