Review by Felix on March 27, 2020.

When it comes to black / death metal, I mostly think of Necrophobic. Haunting melodies, satanic lyrics, profound vehemence, these are important ingredients of this style. But Basilisk do not share my point of view. Their only long-player in more than 20 years band history focuses on death metal much more than on its black half-brother. The guitar work avoids technical gimmicks, the dude at the six strings offers a relatively low-tuned, massive approach. The guitars are mostly like a tank that rolls over everything that stands in its way. End of Catastrophe does not lack brutality, but the profound morbidity that the Swedish role models create with great ease does not show up here. A few synthesizer sounds appear, for example in 'Suffer from Hallucination', but they do not generate an eerie atmosphere. The pretty dull sound and the growling of the lead singer underline the reign of death metal on this album, even though the vocalist performs no overly extreme kind of singing. Nevertheless, his very deep voice seems to be borrowed from a more or less typical death metal album – and unfortunately this statement implies that he delivers a pretty monotonous performance.

I already mentioned 'Suffer from Hallucination' and I do it again, because I want to warn you. Despite its titles, the lyrics are not in English. Okay, this is no big deal. I just wondered why I do not understand a single word of the snarling guy behind the mic. Of higher relevance is the class of the musical offering. Songs like 'Bethel Bleed' seem to be influenced by the classics that were bundled on albums like “Leprosy”. In particular the guitar work is very similar and marginally “progressive” elements show up as well (we know that Chuck – R.I.P. – also was not immune against these components). All in all, there are no songs that drive the album into the ground, but real jewels are conspicuous by their absence as well. Nothing keeps sticking in the ear, not only due to the linguistic barrier. The songs do not lack substance, but sometimes a clear direction is missing (parts of 'Nosferatu' sound like an improvisation on stage and that’s a pity in view of some real strong sections the piece houses).

Maybe it is no coincidence that the Japanese trio only released one album in all its years of existence. The song-writing skills leave room for optimization. The same goes for the pretty flat and relatively emotionless production. It creates pressure, it even features the bass guitar and avoids major flaws, but that’s not enough to push the album on a higher level. And so End of Catastrophe is doomed to failure, at least to a certain extent. The dudes from Japan show passion and determination, all songs are acceptable (or better) and I have no doubts concerning their metallic integrity. But either they have no outstanding ideas, or they were not able to bundle them effectively. Death metal freaks should check out this work and maybe they start with the fast-paced 'Lost Dimension', although it is well hidden on the ninth position of the track list. For dudes like me who prefer the insanity, the creepiness and atmosphere of black metal, End of Catastrophe is not more than a secondary supplement of the collection.

Rating: 6.7 out of 10