THE BEAST

MDPR Clients: A VICIOUS END - The Hills Will Burn - Reviewed By Kobzr! Check it out here at this link: https://www.kobzr-magazine.de/cd-reviews/a/a-vicious-end-the-hills-will-burn/

From the first to the last second the steam hammer rules here, you can both be taken care of with the stick and listen with interest when surprising twists and turns and technical details increase the musical value of this wonderfully nasty breach of violence. The growls and screams penetrate your bone and bone, the guitars cut sharp edges into the smoothly ironed everyday life, the drums thunder the lime off the wall with precision, madness and double bass. "At Dawn We Ride", "Salt The Earth" and "Trail Of Tears" don't even give the impression that they know the meaning of the word grace. A VICIOUS END create on "The Hills Will Burn" what many bands would like to have: They combine playful class with an intense, dark mood,without having to resort to glossy production or sticky melodies. This gives the music the necessary portion of intensity to allow the listener to drop within the sound cosmos, but in the course of time it is a little at the expense of musical variety. However, this is not a problem, because tracks like "Insidious" or the calm "Behold The Archer" make up for it. A VICIOUS END really did a good job with "The Hills Will Burn". Hardcore fans should definitely risk an ear.However, this is not a problem, because tracks like "Insidious" or the calm "Behold The Archer" make up for it. A VICIOUS END really did a good job with "The Hills Will Burn".

A Vicious End Is a progressive metalcore band from the Bay Area, California. They are independently produced and are distributed through CD Baby. Founded in 2020, the band wrote and released the album “The Hills Will Burn” within a year of formation. In the face of a global pandemic, the band utilized the online platform “Fiverr” to bring together musicians from around the world for the creation of their debut album.

The “Hills Will Burn” features Igor Sokolov (St Petersburg, Russia) on vocals, Armando Diaz on Guitar/Bass/Drums, and guest performances by Christina Rotondo (U.K.- featured on “Fields Of Gray”), Daniel Picknell (U.K.- featured on “Without You”), Joylin (Ukraine- featured on “Behold The Archer”), and Carlos Carty (Peru- featured on “Trail of Tears”). The album was mixed and mastered by Filipe Gruber (Venezuela), the artwork was composed by Vhummel (Brazil).

The album features ominous, down-tuned guitar riffs paired with ferocious vocals centered around the growing social unrest spreading across America.

A Vicious End’s first full-length work starts off with the short instrumental “A New Beginning”, which creates an epic heavy metal atmosphere but is soon interrupted by “At Dawn We Ride”. Noticeably a lot heavier, the second song continues on a more melodic death metal / metalcore note. Next on is the gentler “Fields of Gray” where we can enjoy Christina Rotondo’s beautiful clean vocals, complementing the main vocal line just perfectly. Then we can hear “Smoke and Mirrors” and “Salt The Earth” – two more upbeat and energetic songs followed by “The Black Pearl”. The latter seems to be the heaviest piece so far – the slow and heavy guitar parts even set an almost djent-like mood – certainly a great genre development. The following “Trail of Tears” is probably the most unexpected track on the record, combining the metal and metalcore genres with Carlos Carty’s traditional music elements which showcases Armando’s more experimental side. The next one, “Don't Back Down” sounds more aggressive in its beginning but the hypnotizing clean vocals gradually make it more progressive and melodic. In turn, “Without You” and Dan Picknell’s clean vocals again make for an interesting addition to the album and create a great contrast to everything else we have heard so far which was mostly incredibly heavy - not that anyone is complaining! We also cannot fail to mention the magnificent guitar parts which are present all over the record and are the one consistent element that make it truly memorable and compositionally outstanding. “Let The Waters Consume” and “Insidious” are also great examples of Armando’s guitar excellence. The twelfth and final song “Behold The Archer” ends with a touching and kind of open-ended violin part descending into silence.

We can safely say that “The Hills Will Burn” is an intriguing and promising start to A Vicious End’s musical path!

Instagram- https://www.instagram.com/aviciousend/?hl=en
Website- https://aviciousend.net/home
Youtube- https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCpLo8E-mz_52Xat5kQZ8P-w