Though they have been together for five years, Mississauga, Ontario’s The End remained firmly entrenched in the underground until Relapse Records came calling in 2003. After much buzz and a stint in the studio with producer Pierre Remillard, the group looks to make a statement with the macabre "Within Dividia". The album serves as an accomplishment for the Canadian quintet and a worthy successor to the head-turning "Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient". Where their initial opus relied sheerly on technical dexterity to overpower listeners, their Relapse Records debut instead takes a more pragmatic approach to aural devastation.

Conjuring up a self-described "film noir" set to nightmarish atonal destruction, The End continue to shed light on their fearsome musical abilities as well as their creative depth. What proves to be their most impressive aspect is how malleable the group seems to make such complex rhythms. By bending and twisting the extreme stylings to conform to their metal ideals, they just may actually be the first post-grind behemoth to emerge with as much emphasis on telling a story through lyrical content as they do through outrageous aggression. The incorporation of heightened atmospheric melodies aids in balancing out The End’s metal leanings quite effectively, smearing the album with a moody subtext that borders on the sinister. Newcomer Aaron Wolff seamlessly injects himself into the band’s aural debauchery, and though his volatile screams never quite paralyze with fear, they more often than not stun with blunt force.

This is clearly an adventurous endeavor for the quintet, yet they have handled such a task with an excruciating eye for detail. Whether it is a jagged metallic riff or a blistering low-end rumble, each piece of this puzzle is firmly locked in to form a labyrinthine maze of pervasive extreme metal. Drawing equally from the malicious tech/grind accoutrements of Burnt By The Sun and the more dynamic experimentation's of Neurosis, The End have built a looming chimera of the extreme. Few groups possess the rabid insanity that these men channel into surprisingly focused slabs of chaos, and when considering just how intimidating and cinematic this release is, one can only hope that this is only the beginning for The End.