Way To End – Desecrated Internal Journey (2009)

As the album title states, this is a true journey into a very complex and multi-layered released that reeks of brilliance. Starting with a pretty weak intro I imagined I was in for another boring and pointless release, but once the first song it’s done, “A Step Into The Void” hits you in the face like a bag of bricks and the album never let’s go.

There are some many things going on at once to fully understand what’s going on, but once you settle with the bands sound (kind of like Deathspell Omega at points), you are ready to fully digest the complexity of this deranged trip.

The guitar layering in most tracks is superb and the minimalistic riffs on top of the regular distorted guitars are amazing. Also the somewhat jazzy bass guitar tracks stands out since the first song and never drops out of the picture, something really interesting with it comes to Black Metal bands.

The band does not rely on ‘we are faster than the speed of light’ technique to create aggressiveness, they just blow people away with a very interesting layering of melodies and some blast beats here and there, but never abused. The drum track is excellent in changing paces between fast-and-slow sections, and even the fast-and-fast sections.

“Desecrated Internal Journey” features a wide variety of contrasts between the songs (and inside the songs like in track 5) that will keep you guessing what’s coming next from start to finish. This combination of elements is brilliantly put together by amazing songwriting skills and excellent transitions that make the changes seamless. Only a few bands to my knowledge have the ability that Way To End has in creating such elaborated and complex music.

The vocals are probably the most ‘normal’ aspect of the music but they are pretty decent, but with the quality of the music I sometimes even forget they are there. The changes between shrieks and growls are well managed; also there are some clean chants and spoken parts that add more variety to this already highly dense mass of brilliance.

For a French band that formed in 2006 and has very limited information about its band members, I would assume this band features top notch musicians from other ‘big name’ bands from France, but as their promo info states, this is not relevant or necessary, since the music of the band speaks for it self.

“Desecrated Internal Journey” is by far one of the best Black Metal albums of 2009, and being the band’s first release I can’t wait for their next album. Until then, this release and all of its intricate elements will have to do for now.

Release: October 30th, 2009

Country: France