Endstand - The Time Is Now (CD)

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Endstand come from Finland. Purportedly they play passionate and sincere Punk/Hardcore for almost 10 years now. They have released several MCD's, two full-lengths, as well as some split albums and EP's. It is remarkable that they have played more than 500 gigs all over Europe and Japan…
The impression that The Time Is Now, their new musical trial released by Lifeforce Records, gave me was not that good. Even though the production is decent, it fails to find an ideal balance between the instruments, resulting in a rather weak mix with flat vocals, a bit too much in the front. I could not find any unexpected melodic part or something catchy that could help them leave their stain with this album. The vocals are exactly the same on every song, scratchy but screaming with no passion for art hurts… It could be said that the singer ,Janne, did not feel like singing for this album. In addition the guitars, even though there were some rhythmic changes and melodies, did not manage to escape from this boring path, making me wonder if I am listening a one-track album… just some patterns I have listened to over 325828538 times already. In contrast, Pekka's drums were not that bad. Powerful, polyrhythm, including cool complex beats. The album's high point seems to be the slow-burning final track Sometimes Dreams Might Come True, that comes with an interesting orchestration and change of tempo. Quite unusual for Hardcore to give some light before the end.
Unfortunately this can't be said for the rest of the tracks that are kind of stuck in the same form. I expected much more from a band like Endstand since I am a great fan of Hardcore music. If they focus more on their creative side and less on making noise, they might surprise us in the future. Try harder!