Released back on February 24, 2023 on CDN Records, Buffalo grinders, Anthropic, are back with their latest album, End of the Bloodline. The album is unrelenting with 20 crisp, aggressive studio tracks and 1 live rehearsal track called, “Nothing Sacred”, unmistakably taken from one of the band’s final practices (October 2020) with deceased guitarist and founder, Brian Pattison (Glorious Times).
The 20 new, studio tracks on End of the Bloodline make up the most polished sounding recordings I’ve ever heard from this band. On the production side, this is a very neat and tidy album with crystal clear, balanced mixes. The drums have a very old school death metal and grind sound to them, particularly with drummer Jim Santillo’s hollow sounding, pinging snare blasting away through most of the record. The guitar and bass tones when intertwined are absolutely crushing, complimented by very clean playing from bassist Russell Kidd, and guitarist Matt Whissel (formerly of Organism). Furthermore, vocalist Chris Hull’s gutturals have never sounded more consistently powerful than on this album. And in addition to the brute strength put into the grunts and growls, Chris’s enunciation and diction have both improved immensely over the years. Most of the lyrics are intelligible or discernible throughout most of the record with little to no effort on the listener’s part. The backup vocal layering on select songs on the album is also very well executed, particularly on songs like “Glorious Times” – an ode to the time period Brian Pattison often wrote about in his magazine of the same name, and in reference to the death metal scene of the ’80s and ’90s, or “Anti-Social Media”, a concept I can’t help but identify with since even I remember the days of tape trading.
Musically, End of the Bloodline is a great blend of grindcore, crust punk, hardcore, and death metal riff writing and drumming styles. I hear a lot of Napalm Death, Cannibal Corpse, and Vader influence on most of these songs, though Anthropic’s label hails this album as an homage to bands like Terrorizer as well. Aside from the song, “Surrender”, a Cheap Trick cover (one of Brian Pattison’s favorite bands and songs alike), Brian wrote every song on End of the Bloodline. This album is every bit another step forward in Anthropic’s discography, as it is a tribute to the band’s fallen brother.
End of the Bloodline was recorded by Doug White at Watchmen Studios in Lockport, NY, and released on CD by CDN Records in February of 2023. Check out the official visualizer for the song, “Demons Inside” below!
welcometothemetal.wordpress.com 