Ov Sulfur‘s debut album The Burden Ov Faith never reached our review pipe. 2023 was a busy year and – I reckon – there just was no time left in our 24-hour workdays to stuff yet another obscure Extreme Metal outfit into the fray. Besides, ‘core-ish material isn’t necessarily our daily bread, so we gave it a pass. Little did we know that this band would bang up a ruckus in the heavy music world ever since.
Deservedly so or not remains to be seen. Opinions and gruff misunderstandings have been mixed ever since, after all. So, this time, the RMR crew decided to get its greasy little paws on their mighty sulfuric pulse. Corrosive high-speed fisting and acid-laced gurgling coming up.
Already, Endless‘ somewhat mystical album art caught our attention. And as we all know, just going for the cover to judge a record is bad for business. On the other side, the grumpy old geezers at the Review Desk like to use guts instead of brains, too, so here we are. Yet a thorough look at the artwork nicely prepares you for that onslaught of heaviness. One of Endless‘ thundering trademarks.
As of Seed,1 I couldn’t shake the feeling that this record longed to become some grimy underground version of Fleshgod Apocalypse. A 2.0 reiteration that would somehow surpass the original. Only this time, the focus is on blackened Metal Death Metal, and Deathcore with a few very sinister injections of Metalcore and Brutal Death Metal. The kind containing that abject gurgling that makes it impossible to discern whatever syllable these guys utter, nor did we really care. The lyrics sheet never reached us anyway.
As should be the custom in this kind of environment, the band would inject some clears or other into the fray.2 And Ov Sulfur indeed do this with abandon. A quirk that should not work, and on Endless, this theory is somewhat proven right. Put differently, the idea is great. Yet, the switch from blunt force to some sort of dynamism often comes across as overly abrupt. And that raw, disjointed, and grimy look and feel might have been the songwriter’s intent. But the outcome often is that sentiment of shredded elements thrown helter-skelter at the listener. An avalanche of miscellaneous items that change color at no moment’s notice. Meaning, the style suddenly switches from one direction to the other, like a rectangular turn at Mach 2 without a G-Suit. At one instant, melodics dominate for some instances, just to brutally descend into abject gurgling putrescence.
And all that hullabaloo of a wall of sound almost makes the axes disappear in the fray. Were it not for the rare lead or solo here and there, you’d have difficulties singling them out. The vocals, however, never fail to manifest themselves. An often uneasy coexistence between a blackened rasp and death-like growls trade places with often belted clears. And funny enough and despite the shortcomings mentioned earlier, things look a tad more lively on the A-side. Whereas the second half of Endless is way spottier than it should be.
So, where will this leave us? Endless stirred the pot over at the RMR review desk somewhat fierce. Some factions of the crew wanted to ban the acolytes of the hated ‘v’ to the deepest recesses of Hel’s domain. Others thought that there could never be enough of that hoarse screaming and thundering about the soundscape. Indeed, there should be MOAR! The moderates, however, finally won. For large parts and for all its shortcomings, Endless is a master class in how to construct blistering heaviness by kicking up a relentless and well-structured soundstorm (Seed, Vast Eternal, Evermore). Tracks that will offer some flow and – in turn – create that feeling of dread and impending doom. On the other hand, the ‘core-related pig-headed use of clears doesn’t quite fit the overall narrative (Wither, despite its stellar solo).
In the end, somewhat of a mixed bag, Endless may indeed be. But the good-to-great moments overwhelmingly dominate here. To achieve real greatness, however, the band needs to refine this messy jumble of disjointed soundbites and leave some room for coherence. Other bands already mastered this with bravado. So why not Ov Sulfur?
Record Rating: 7/10 | Label: Century Media | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 16 January 2026