Love it or hate it, Deathcore is here to stay, folks. You can not like that fact, but accepting it will make it far less frustrating for you. I make no bones about loving the genre and the city of sin, Las Vegas, which sports a nifty deathcore band, Ov Sulfur.

In 2021, they released their Oblivion EP, and it showcased the band being unafraid to toss in clean vocals, amongst the brutality. All of the brutality, cleans and bludgeoning breakdowns were furthered on their 2023 debut album The Burden ov Faith. A scorching debut album, but look no further, their sophomore effort, Endless, takes things further.

The band just had a pretty killer tour with Ingested and Distant, just to name a few of the bands, and Josh from Ingested and Alan from Distant do some guest spots here, as well as Johnny from Carcosa. What we see on this new album is, of course, the leanings toward the newest and most popular sub-genre of deathcore, and that is blackened symphonic deathcore. I actually like the clean vocals, for the most part, but on a song like “Evermore”, some of those moments come across as way toooo forced.

So while I just skipped around with songs, let’s go to “Dread”, the song with the new Ingested singer, Josh Davies. The opening beatdown slam is earth-shattering, then off to the races with the blasts, then the super clean vocal smatterings. Josh does some great lower register vocals along with the cleans. They actually work quite well. The blackened symphonic moments are all over this song. The beatdown slam at the 3.25 timestamp is how you do slams for 2026 folks. Tremendously heavy and brutal. As brutal as this moment is, it immediately shifts to an atmospheric symphonic moment. Don’t look now, but then some technical death metal guitar soloing takes us all the way until the end of the tune. So much is going on; however, it is cohesive.

Let’s rewind to the opener “Endless//Godless”. A deathcore opening instrumental, which is common for this genre. It’s one long breakdown with putrid, filthy growls, snorts, and pig squeals all over the place. I love it. This is the tune to open their live sets with. It sets the stage and tone. The opening slam has some of that newer Distant style slam djent tone. Suffocating, slow, massive, and will body slam you and your in-laws into oblivion.

“Seed” is next and has quite the epic buildup. Again, this should follow the opening instrumental to be the first two songs played live. The slam speeds up to a death metal pace, no blasting, but heavy AF. Symphonic and atmospheric elements erupt, and soon thereafter, the clean vocals rear their head,  which are most definitely emo, but I do not mind them. I truly love the abrupt vocal tone shifts, and the same goes for the tempo shifts. Excellent song. The moments of the clean vocals and arrangement have metalcore written all over it.

“Bleak” features the Carcosa singer and the symphonic elements, mixed with some of the blackish metal slams, works well. The symphonic elements are really taking things center stage. The slam at the 2.43 moment is vicious, as are some of the breee styled vocals, which will breee you to death! Really fun song.

Endless is the best release by Ov Sulfur. The band has upped their game with respect to the symphonics, blackened deathcore, as well as the slams. The slams hit hard on this album and are better crafted than previous efforts.

As previously stated, the band mixes up the vocal tones and tempo shifts quite a lot. It never becomes too much, and the band knows how to stay with a riff. The production is great, and the album cover is perfect for the evil and depressive atmosphere the band creates. A great way to kick off 2026!!!

[Visit the band's website]

---

Comments