A friend of mine said End Of April was nu-metal-like music and contrary to what I usually do, I went with him and Friso to the band End Of April, who I think were the opening act for Stigmata that night. They have an American singer, two Dutch guitarists and two Germans. An original mix. As the band came on stage, the concert hall was filled with about twenty people, of whom seventeen of were sitting at the bar liquoring up. The singer told us –the three people in front of the stage- that he was going to pretend he was playing ‘at the fuckin’ Pinkpop in front of thousands of people’. Quite a good show followed with a blend of hardcore, nu-metal and maybe a little emo-core. Being the only three people up front we felt sorry the band had to play for such a pathetic audience, so we decided to try and create a good atmosphere and used up most of the floor while doing so. Afterwards we even came into the dressing room and bought their mini-CD ‘In Your Arms Like Chains’ for ten guilders and a free beer, while the singer kept backing his head into the sink accidentally. The man must’ve had a headache for three weeks. The mini-CD sounded quite alright and I hoped for them to get a record deal soon, for they seemed like good people as well as a good band.

‘If I Had A Bullet For Everyone’ has an absolutely beautiful cover, made by a man also responsible for artwork on albums of Fugazi and that band who’s only good song was ‘One Armed Scissors’. This, and the fact that they never gave up on their band and its future fills me with a degree of expectation and anticipation.

The first song is absolutely fabulous. ‘Crushed’ is a great mix of metal, occasional hardcore and some more melodic stuff. Low-key riffs, good lyrics and vocals who go along with the music’s pattern. This song is an anthem. The anthem for 2004 perhaps. Very nice. Plus of course double-bass drums. Always good. The first four songs continue in this fashion. ‘200%’ is a song that also featured on ‘In Your Arms Like Chains’, has been perfected, and just still is a great song. Then there is an interlude and from that point on the album loses some of its power.

After ‘G vs. E’ the album gets less heavy, and more emotional. At first I was disappointed, but the album has the strange quality that you want to listen to lots of times. And after various spins, songs 6 through 13 also work quite well. The album suits every mood, which is a very good feature.

Allen’s vocals remain powerful and angry pretty much throughout the CD. Only I feel ‘If I Had A Bullet For Everyone’, has two redundant songs. Thirteen songs is too much, because after 11 or 12, your concentration wanders, and you don’t want to hear no more of the same band. It goes that way with every band. ‘Ashamed’ is the worst song on the album: it starts off with some kind of happy face little riff I cannot appreciate in the slightest, and sticks with that for far too long. When the variation comes into the song (an alright variation), you most likely will have pushed the ‘next’-button already.

Then song 10, ‘Pimpin’ is Easy’. It has a good chorus, and the riffs around the chorus are nice as well, but aside from the chorus I feel the song could’ve been a lot better. It has mediocre lyrics and the worst part about it is that when you are really hoping it will end, they bring a new part to close out the song. It really, really doesn’t fit the song, and they should absolutely have stopped at 1:03 remaining. Too bad. Should’ve left it off.

Songratings: 1: 10, 2: 9.0, 3: 8.5, 4: 8.0, 5: -, 6: 7.0, 7: 8.5, 8: 8.6, 9: 5.0, 10: 6.0, 11: 8.3, 12: 8.4, 13-I: 9.1, 13-II: 8.0

Finally, the conclusion. The riffs on the album are quite good, they resemble a blend of nu-metal, hardcore and alas, sometimes a bit of punk-rock. This last influence needs to go. It undermines the weight of the album. The vocals are angry and range from slow to fast, screaming to singing. An all round performance. I never know what to say about bass-play, but I guess as long as I am not annoyed it’s good. And I was not. An overall good album, with 7 of the 13 songs being great, three of them good, one (number six) just alright and two that should’ve been left off. This album deserves a 7.9, but we can’t do that, so it’s an 8.0.