Many bands don’t survive the death of a band member, let alone a brother. That Endon have made it back at all after the passing of noise artist Etsuo Nagura is heartening. With their fourth album, Fall Of Spring, they continue to stun, startle and surprise.
While earlier releases like Mama and Through The Mirror saw the band smash together noise, metal and hardcore to form a sort of fragmentary avant-grindcore; Fall Of Spring sees them recalibrate entirely. Rather than attempt to fill the void left by Etsuo or replace departed drummer Shin Yokota, the remaining trio have closed ranks and reconfigured, choosing to rethink their palette instead of repeating past sonic explorations.
Drones, synths and programmed beats now join the squall of tortured electronics. While Fall Of Spring might not hurtle like previous releases the results are intense and enveloping, and much like The Body or Full Of Hell the band remain capable of occupying a mutant ‘outsider metal’ headspace even as they travel far beyond traditionally heavy realms.
‘Prelude For The Hollow’ begins with a mangled, industrialised choral section and gradually morphs into the world of Blade Runner collapsing in on itself. Drones are emanated. Melodies fade or are repurposed, gradually fading and leaving just the dentist drill whine of feedback in their wake. ‘Hit Me’, by contrast, is shudderingly heavy, with vocalist Taichi Nagura (Etsuo’s brother) ululating wildly, sounding for all the world like he is being howlingly passed through the bowels of some vast, semi-organic monstrosity.
While the results are undeniably abrasive (‘Time Does Not Heal’ explodes into scrunched-up blurts of visceral noise, while ‘Escalation’ lives up to its name as it becomes an all-consuming blizzard of static-tattered howls…), they are also strangely meditative and even borderline pretty at points. The white-hot flashes occasionally give way to less hostile hues, putting one in mind of Fuck Buttons or Four Tet if they were to go full-on Hospital Productions.
Like Boris, GISM, Corrupted and The Boredoms before them, Fall Of Spring sees Endon continuing a wonderfully rich Japanese tradition for both boundary-pushing extremity and effortless reinvention. It’s painful, and cathartic and loaded with the kind of devastating sorrow you’d expect – but it’s also the sound of a vital if incredibly painful rebirth.
