The soundtrack to the apocalypse is something that’s constantly changing simply based upon what kind of cataclysm we’re dealing with, and that has inspired countless bands to create something that fits such a description whether they know it or not. Each approach is a unique one whether it’s a small change or a massive one, and it’s on their debut that All Are To Return sought to create something that was as gutting in its bleakness as it was all-consuming.

With a distinctly industrial approach the likes of which I’ve never really seen done well to a great extent in the world of doom, All Are To Return have certainly made something that’s no less than an interesting standout release that’s sure to turn the heads of people interested by well-known acts such as Godflesh, just to name one. It’s throughout this suffocating debut that this band has created a soundtrack to the End of Days the likes of which is slow, painful beyond measure, and calculated in such a way to make every single person who experiences it suffer through waves of devastating famines, swathes of miasmic disease, and the knowledge that life as we know it is grinding to a vicious halt. And it’s through all five tracks that All Are To Return present such a bleak future flawlessly! This is a work that took me quite some time to get into, even leaving it for over a month and then coming back, but it’s a real grower once you allow yourself to be overridden by what this EP has to offer, and what it can promise for future material from this act. We’re constantly bombarded by unrelenting doom of a truly rare breed that’s wreathed in an oddly befitting digital skin that adds a different level of terror that knows just how to burrow its way through your skull in no time, and it’s then between all the drawn-out riffage and undeniable dread that All Are To Return set in stone the magnificent terror that they were going for with it being all but achieved flawlessly by the time this effort comes to a defiant close.

I couldn’t tell you the last time I’ve come across a work that’s quite like this in a literal sense even though I could try and compare different elements that are presented to other acts like how it feels caustic somewhat like Primitive Man, how it’s an intriguing industrial work like what the aforementioned Godflesh has accomplished, or how it’s so oddly intoxicating to observe like any good experimental act in the underground (pick virtually any of them), but All Are To Return has certifiably made something that is unquestionably their own. This EP sets the stage for the next corrosive doom act poised to catch the attention of many in more ways than one, and I can’t wait to hear their next approach to the apocalypse.

LISTEN to “All Are To Return” on Bandcamp here.