Album/EP

Currents - The Way It Ends (Album Review)

Walladmin

Heavy Metal Wordsmith

Jun 3, 2020

7 min read

Currents - The Way it Ends
Release 5 June 2020

Line-Up:

Brian Wille - Vocals
Jeff Brown - Drums
Chris Wiseman - Guitar
Ryan Castaldi - Guitar
Dee Cronkite - Bass

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Modern metalcore band Currents have been injected into the scene over the past few years with epic singles, EPs and a debut LP. The band are kicking ass, and are set to release a blistering sophomore record which has cemented their place in contemporary heavy music and are becoming known across areas of the globe. Currents are rather eclectic as they bring technical progressive elements, with popular metalcore ingredients that fuse with their unique flavour to produce a refreshing sound for your ear-holes - let’s take a look.

Intro track ‘It Was Never There’ builds incredible suspense as vocalist Brian Wille belches into the front-line with an eerie instrumental, nostalgic to a more recent Dream on, Dreamer sound. This subsides to the band’s huge single ‘A Flag to Wave’ which is immediately fast and spits fire at you from the get-go. The riffs are like a level seesaw of heavy chaos with technical prog balancing it. The chorus is really catchy and gets you profusely banging your head in a way that screams ‘wow these guys are awesome’ - dare you not to think it.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hZnZ-CpX57Y&w=640&h=360]

The music video for 'Poverty of Self' visually showcases the heavy personality of this band, whilst keeping the softer melodic side of their personality at bay. The track is consistent, rhythmic and filled with passion. The breakdowns are delicious and the music video is dark and ominous - undoubtedly exactly what they had planned. Tracks like ‘Monster’ bring that crunch heavy sound with bellowing vocals and screeching riffs, fusing together to deliver everything the scene is dying to hear, as some of their influences evolve onto softer and more experimental sounds. The djent elements sit softly under the hood of many tracks in this record, without launching above the bonnet too rapidly or overly like bands like Periphery or Volumes might - which kind of works.

‘Kill the Ache’ is that Hollywood metalcore song you didn’t know you needed in your life. It’s that feel-good track of the album that’s highly emotive and takes you on this ups-and-downs journey, filled with breakdowns and explosiveness. Fast-forward to the back-end of the record, and this model is reminiscent again.

[wordads]

The band appropriately brings you back from that high to ‘Let Me Leave’, a softer melodic rendition of their musical delivery. Wille showcases his clean vocal capabilities in tracks like this, as he holds the high notes and deprives his growl that’s had a work-out already. The track builds up to a technical solo that progressively changes the whole tempo of the track. ‘Origin’ picks up the pace again with that tasty metalcore recipe of rhythmic growls behind a wave of riffs. Currents are having fun with this record, you can tell they’ve put a lot of thought into the way songs like this peek and fall, and where those places fit. There’s very much a start, a middle and an end to these tracks, which they deliver in the way they need to embody what their creative juices are feeling - that’s really clear to the listener.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Wxk3E84w4k&w=640&h=360]

‘Second Skin’ brings back those screeching guitars and blistering breakdowns that have stabilised Currents in their metalcore footstep. The remaining tracks combine the preceding elements to complete the record. The band may have pushed in one or two too many songs for the album, as the variation decreases, but this doesn’t stop the closing track ‘Better Days’ from being an absolute banger. Melodic choruses and heavy versus intertwine for the ultimate closer. That being said, this song could have come 1-2 tracks sooner to deliver a slightly more succinct LP.

Whilst the band bring in generic facets of the metalcore scene into their music that’s been heard before, they’ve evidently catered to their desired audience with their own unique talents and style, and this shows on The Way It Ends, where the band seem really comfortable with how they’ve grooved.