Dead Harvest [Limited Edition]

Metalheads who are well-versed in underground extreme metal may already be familiar with a few members of the Swedish group This Ending, even before hearing their 2006 debut, Inside the Machine, because several members were previously heard riffing away in a little-known group called A Canorous Quintet. And on This Ending's sophomore full-length, 2009's Dead Harvest (and their first for Metal Blade Records), the group offers another slab of brutal he-man metal -- in other words, lots of growling 'n' grinding. In the same vein as the similarly styled Dark Tranquillity, This Ending offer an onslaught of metal from beginning to end, especially on such tracks as "Parasite" and the simply awesomely titled "Instigator of Dead Flesh." Straight-ahead, brutal metal is offered up by the bucketful throughout Dead Harvest. ~ Greg Prato