An Evening With Knives – End Of Time
An Evening With Knives – End Of Time
Argonauta Records
14/03/2025
Review by Oli Gonzalez
7.5/10
An Evening With Knives. No, we’re not talking about Freddy Kreuger’s Friday night plans! Instead, we’re here to discuss the Dutch post-metal band who are poised to release their latest album “End Of Time” via Argonauta Records. A quick scan of their social media indicates that they had a busy summer of 2024 having scored slots on the likes of Alcatraz and Roadkill festivals. With festival season only around the corner now, will “End Of Time” provide a launch pad for more appearances this summer? The power trio – consisting of Peter, Jarno, and Marco – describe their release as “a powerful mix of psychedelic textures, thunderous riffs, and deeply personal yet universal lyrical themes”. How will this manifest on record? Let’s find out…
Having listened to “End Of Time”, it’s clear to me what An Evening With Knives are all about. It’s crazy how a trio can create such a vast sound with the limited number of instruments available to them. Talk about efficiency. Huge simple yet stunningly effective riffs dominate the mix, and whilst the production is more retrograde than pristine and sharp, this raw grit seems to work well for the band. Raw and gritty would be an adequate and succinct description of Marco’s vocals, stacked with angst and primitive emotion. Though I wonder if his voice sounds a little too thin at times and lacking the same depth of the bass and strings. A potentially easy fix with double or even triple tracking in the studio. I do wonder how this will all sound in a live setting, especially with the rumble and distortion of the strings.
The highlight of the album is…well, there is a risk of the songs appearing to be recycling ideas and riffs becoming too repetitive. If you listen to one, you’ve listened to them all. These were my thoughts until the final song, the exception to this, ‘S21’. This is a much welcome and much needed change of pace where the guitar reduces their distortion and offers a more clean and aesthetic approach. Likewise, the overdriven attack of the bass is switched to a more groovy and hypnotic walking bassline approach. This is nice. Very nice. I’d love to know how Marco crafted his guitar tone because that is tasty! Especially with those blazing single notes ringing elegantly above the mix! If the band were saving their best for last, mission accomplished. If you have time for only one song, make it this! An Evening With Knives will have done no harm to their reputation with this solid effort.
TRACKLISTING:
01. Pride of Lions
02. All They Need
03. Death
04. Old Man
05. End of Time
06. Voices
07. The Mistake
08. S21
LINKS:
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