An Evening With Knives – End of Time

 

 

An Evening With Knives – End of Time
Argonauta Records / Electric Spark Records – 2025
Metal, Post, Sludge, Prog
Rated: ****

Two weeks from now the world will quake and tremble just a little bit more from all those stereos around the globe set to volume eleven! It will signal the coming of the End Of Time. And by that we do not mean the biblical end of times, but the new album by Eindhoven, the Netherlands metal trio An Evening With Knives. The first studio release with new drummer Jarno van Osch, who was already introduced to the world by that wonderful FNR Sessions from 2023. Which made clear the sound would be turning a more aggressive and even more turbulent corner. End Of Time is definitely that! Furious, fiery and ferocious. There are a few moments here and there where the vocals of Marco Gelissen sound a little less convincing than on earlier albums. As if he was searching for the right direction or sound to aim for. But those moments are quickly dispersed by the righteous roars that usually follow. Like a lion about to devour his competitors! Those are perhaps two of the obvious differences in comparison to the earlier quality releases. Another one is that not just the drums are more direct, so are the compositions. Not a note too much seems to have been the adagio and this gives the songs, paradoxically enough, more room to come into their own. Eight tracks with the perfect vinyl running time of almost 39 minutes. Singles Pride Of Lions, The Mistake and Voices have been out for a bit now and turned heads. But those heads will be needing neck braces after hearing the short deviously whirling Death and the final and longest track on the album S21. S21 with seven and a half minutes takes the listener to Cambodia and speaks of all the atrocities that went on during the reign of the Khmer Rouge. Slowly picking up the pace, grabbing back the most perhaps to the sound of earlier albums, they start out very atmospheric and with the malicious utterings of Gelissen, you can feel the disgust seeping into your veins. Beautiful guitar work later on, thanks to riveting bass that pushes those guitar lines towards the heavens. It’s one of the many highlights on the album. And all of it is sure to set off a seismic event…

(Written by JK)

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