UMUR
"To The End" is the 4th full-length studio album by UK, Birmingham based death metal act Memoriam. The album was released through Reaper Entertainment in March 2021. It´s the successor to "Requiem for Mankind" from 2019 and features one lineup change since the predecessor as drummer Andrew Whale has left and has been replaced by Spikey T. Smith (Sacrilege, English Dogs).
The material on 9 track, 44:46 minutes long album is a continuation of the old school death metal style of the three predecessors. Featuring members (or ex-members) of seminal British death metal acts like Benediction and Bolt Thrower, it´s no surprise that the music is slow-to mid-paced old school death metal with lyrics dealing with themes of war and death (or the prospect of death). Lead vocalist Karl Willetts puts on a strong performance here. His vocals are slightly more varied than before ranging from fully intelligible growling to shouting hardcore influenced vocals. The latter style is not the dominant vocal style on the album, and it´s more a touch of hardcore influenced vocals than actual hardcore influenced vocals (predominantly on "Failure to Comply" and on "Mass Psychosis"). When Willetts performs the latter mentioned vocal style I´m reminded of the very early Bolt Thrower releases, which also featured a hardcore edge.
"To The End" is predominantly an old school death metal release though, and the album features heavy dark riffs and equally heavy drumming. There are some great gloomy and atmospheric lead guitar work on the album too, which provides the music with an extra dark spice. There are only a couple of really slow and doomy tracks on the album, and while those tracks are both effectful and well written, Memoriam shine more when the pace is a little higher. "To The End" is never a fast played album, but Memoriam excel in mid-paced heavy grooves and majestic commanding moments (not completely unlike the best works of Bolt Thrower).
"To The End" features a powerful, heavy, and brutal sounding production, which suits the material perfectly and upon conclusion it´s a strong album release by Memoriam. After a career start which wasn´t 100% convincing, Memoriam seem to have picked up the pace and "To The End" follows up the high quality of "Requiem for Mankind (2019)". A 3.5 star (70%) rating is deserved.