Saying goodbye can be a difficult thing, but I believe goodbyes on good terms are much better than memories fading into nothingness. THE OLD DEAD TREE releases their final EP, The End, as a final chapter to celebrate a twenty plus year career, and it is definitely a satisfying but concise ending.
This EP contains 5 tracks, all written around 1999, and all these tracks fit right in with their library of dark, beautiful and melancholic brand of progressive metal. The EP kicks off with ’Sorry’. A lite piano intro shifts into a very percussive riff, and then, breaks away to welcome in Manuel Munoz’s beautifully haunting voice. The song builds to an amazing crescendo with Manuel’s growls, visceral and powerful, fill your ear. The tension breaks to a beautiful chorus, that I’ll be humming for weeks on in.
The next track ‘Someone Should Know (The Truth)’, follows a similar bell curve pattern when it comes to the intensity through out the son. Third, ‘Kids’ is a much more straightforward track, with a fantastic riff at the beginning and the end that I cannot stop bobbing my head to. ‘Raise’, is definitely the heaviest song on the album musically, but it does not stray away from the overall sound to be distracting. The final song ‘The End Again’ serves itself as a fitting conclusion.
As the EP’s final words rung out, “To let your love. Resting alone. Six feet under”. I got a little catch in my throat knowing this truly is the end, but what a beautiful ending it is. The End seems like the end for THE OLD DEAD TREE, but I will always have memories of enjoying their albums and this EP for years to come. Goodbye
Review By: Robert Atkinson
THE OLD DEAD TREE
The End
Season Of Mist
5 / 6