71TonMan expresses itself again.
Since 2011 in Poland, the band composed today of T.G. (guitar), J.W. (bass), M.Z. (guitar), K.J. (drums) and J.K. (vocals) announces the release of its third album, Of End Times, which is the second release on Transcending Obscurity Records.
Four tracks with names evoking the four horsemen of the Apocalypse, and Conquest takes care of crushing us first with an oppressive feedback followed by some hits, then a thick and saturated rhythmic, coupled with those massive screams. The sound slowly progresses with heavy patterns while allowing a slight acceleration after half of the track, letting vocals and their unhealthy choruses terrify us, then Plague will take over with groovy and catchy Stoner influences which create a contrast with vocal parts. The strange atmosphere is fueled by those faded sounds in the background, but also by dark and impenetrable riffs’ dissonance that slow down to let noisy parts bury us before War takes over with soaring leads the band puts on a haunting and catchy basis. Saturation perfectly manages the contrast while linking the band’s different influences until the distant samples come to coat the whole to finally erase them, leaving Famine, the last track, spread its airy slowness with a touch of melancholy. This track is the softest and most accessible of the album, while also being the most sinister, bringing some typical Black Metal screams in this cloud of slow and heavy oppression that will be loaded with more lively elements to feed one last time this omnipresent contrast between all the group’s influences, including some peaks of energy before gradually dying.
71TonMan only knows heaviness. On Of End Times, the band fleshes it out with soaring elements, thick riffs, spikes of rage and massive screams, but it’s still the same heavy sounds which crush us from beginning to end.
85/100