ALBUM REVIEW: Endless Inertia – La Fin

Endless Inertia, the debut album from Italian post-metal beasts LA FIN, has been a long time coming. It’s four years since the band released their promising debut EP, Empire Of Nothing. The intervening years have seen them draw attention from some pretty cool names – touring with the likes of DEAFHEAVEN, TRAP THEM and DEVIL SOLD HIS SOUL. The band have also clearly spent a lot of time honing their craft. Endless Inertia was well worth the wait. It’s a record which is sure to scratch an itch for fans of some of the very best names in post-metal, including CULT OF LUNA and ISIS.

Arguably the centre-point of LA FIN is the group’s triple guitar attack. On Endless Inertia they make use of this attack to devastating effect. Unlike many bands with three guitarists, there are few points where any of them are doing the same thing. Often two of them will be playing harmonised riffs, with the third adding atmospherics or melodic clean parts on top. There are also multiple points where one guitarist will lay down a mind-bending proggy lead, while the rest of the band continue the oppressive crush beneath it. The standout moment of this comes early on, around seven minutes into the album’s gargantuan opening track, Inertia.

Impressive lead guitar parts aren’t the only proggy touches on Endless Inertia. Second track Zero sees the band play around with some odd time signatures, and firmly brings to mind the legendary GOJIRA. Elsewhere, eighth track Endless’ hypnotic guitar parts draw strong comparisons to bands like OPETH and MASTODON. Other songs like Hypersleep and Repetitia even have a tech-metal, djent-esque quality at points. Much like Empire Of Nothing, Endless Inertia also reveals some of LA FIN‘s black metal influences. Songs like Inertia, Disembody and Blackbody all feature blast beat led sections, although they’re more likely to draw comparisons to NUMENOREAN than they are to MAYHEM.

While such a combination makes for an unsurprisingly heavy release, LA FIN do give their listeners some moments of respite. Fourth track Memory serves as a minutes’ peaceful interlude amid the weighty heaviness. In addition to this, most songs feature moments of quiet, often with clean vocals or acoustic guitars. A prime example of this is on sixth track Disembody. After an intense opening, the song drops to an ominous, mellower section. This dynamic shift makes things hit just that little bit harder when the band kick back into full force a couple of minutes in. It’s a trick they make use of multiple times on Endless Inertia, and it pays off pretty much every time.

Such a command of dynamics is essential in post-metal. Not only does it serve to make heavy parts feel heavier, but it helps greatly with the flow of the record. Endless Inertia is 53 minutes long. By many band’s standards that would be too much, but in the hands of LA FIN it really doesn’t feel like it. It’s a rare skill for any band to keep listeners’ interest as well as they do. Add to that the fact that this is their first full-length album and it’s a truly staggering feat.

It feels like LA FIN save the best till last. After a good 40+ minutes of intense, impressive post-metal, the album closes on the nine minute epic, Eulogy. It’s another breath-taking tour-de-force: an expansive, weighty song with moments of post-rock-esque beauty and build. In many ways it feels like a perfect summary of the whole record. It’s forward thinking, crushingly heavy, and intensely atmospheric, but also often deeply melodic and beautiful at the same time. As the final song fades into a wash of noise, it’s hard to feel like doing anything other than listening to the whole thing all over again.

Rating: 9/10

Endless Inertia is out now via Argonauta Records.

Like LA FIN on Facebook.