On the surface, there’s a lot to exited about this reincarnation of (the underachieving but respected in the Gothenburg scene of the early ’90s) A Canorous Quintet, who were briefly called The Plague before settling on the rather metalcore-ish moniker This Ending. However, even with a somewhat revered lineup that includes current Amon Amarth drummer Frederik Andersson, This Ending is a solid but ultimately unconvincing affair.

Well, produced, chunky, with a slightly modern melodic death metal vibe (semi futuristic tones and presentation, scattering of programming), the fact remains, throughout the entirety of Inside the Machine I kept thinking “those are castoff de-Viking-i-fied Amon Amarth riffs.” Don’t believe me? Just listen to the opening of the title track, “Lidless Eyes,” “Let the World Burn,” the end of “Plague Angel” or “This Ending” and tell me you don’t picture Johan Hegg instead of Marten Hansen belting out the vocals.

If you are OK with that fact, Inside the Machine comes across as stout, beefed up melodic death metal record at (again, much like Amon Amarth is), that does everything well, but certainly not well enough to revive the scene, or even rival bands like Mors Principium Est, Detonation or Omnium Gatherum. The taut, thunderous production give the tracks a certain appeal, and there’s a distinct lack of traditional Gothenburg noodling or dueling solos and artistic melodic, just driving, simplistic, almost thrashing, chunky aggression displayed on tracks like “Seeds of Destruction,” “Pitch Black” and “Armageddon.”

I’m not trying to be too awful negative here, I should stress Inside the Machine is a solid, excellently produced, competent melodic death metal record. However, I can’t shake the whole Amon Amarth (also on Metal Blade) cash in issue that simply won’t go away whenever I hit play.

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