ONCE UPON THE END: The Next Chapter (DEATH METAL): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

Once Upon The End is a young hope of the French death scene, grandson of Dark Tranquillity, Carcass or Arch Enemy, heir of a melodic death music haloed by technique and vintage sounds. After the aptly named "Prelude", an EP that already revealed the band's power, they released "The Next Chapter", conveying a post-apocalyptic universe imagery, between "Mad Max", "Fallout" or "Postman", where rumbling guitars resound, topped with warm melodies and raucous screams.

Once Upon The End starts with rusty metal noises. Like a movie theme, 'Memories In Rust' gently immerses us in a world where delicacy has no place and where violence and fear reign. 'Overseers' opens the fall into a present between nightmares and hope. With a formidable efficiency, the track asserts the death melo label, perhaps reassuring the fan by its melody associated with the tenebrous power.

Although based on this melodic death with hoarse vocals, the record is difficult to categorize, because to the thundering guitars and melodic solos, the band adds thrashy touches linking it irrevocably to Metallica when the chord progression suggests 'Fade To Black', soft arpeggios reminding Steve Hackett's guitar, disturbing acoustic guitars ('Hollow') which induce an additional tension, harmonized six-strings evoking Iron Maiden, a fretless bass with a jazz color like in First Fragment or Beyond Creation and a vocal close to Supuration on the very immediate 'Demons In The Sky'.

The band forces the contrasts and thus blurs the tracks. Even if at first this fog loses the listener, once lifted, it reveals a very accomplished album with multiple facets between softness and devastating power. Finally, as an ultimate way to break the barriers, the band complexifies its music, not only by the length of the tracks, but also thanks to multiple ramifications. In short, it sneakily injects progressive where we didn't expect it...

From this first album, the quality is there as the personality of Once Upon The End explodes. Even if its music is difficult to define, "The Next Chapter" is a very accomplished record, whose recording quality is amazing. It has everything to become an a cornerstone of death metal. - Official website

ONCE UPON THE END

THE NEXT CHAPTER

SEASON OF MIST

DEATH METAL