Originally written by Dan Staige.
You have to be in the right frame of mind to listen to Rune. If you are diagnosed w/ bi-polar disorder it would be very helpful, as would good ol’ clinical depression. Rune represents the Willowtip sound quite well but in a whole new light (or, lack thereof, I should say). I don’t hear albums like this very often at all. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard an album like this. Rune thrives on the moodiest of moods. The darkest of darks. Like a giant deep sea squid, Rune discards the sun as a mere distraction, an unnecessary item in the continuance of it’s own existence.
This is by far some of the strangest metal I’ve heard in quite some time. Not strange in a sense that it’s overly technical, or that it’s in uncommon timing forms, but strange in a way that it’s so dark, bleak, and just downright depressing to listen to. Vox are delivered in a unique way. A very passionate and intense sandpaper type yell that at some moments sounds like they’re being captured through the cardboard tube in the center of a roll of toilet paper. Every second of the vox are focused on telling what the music to do. It’s screaming orders at it is what it’s doing. Some of the note and chord overlays sound rub against each other violently but somehow berth a listenable product of utter despair. This is not the kind of material you want to blast in your car while cruising by the beach. Take the most catastrophic and emotion inducing moments of your life and put it to music and you have The End of Nothing. “This Sorrow” is a perfect example of the manic depression this album displays. A nearly 10 minute roller coaster of emotional instability, it turns, dare I say, “beautiful” right before the 5 minute mark and symbolizes the most serene of human moods, only to explode into another devastating fit of doom that slowly disintegrates to close out the song. It is so full of emotion that it just bursts from the song barriers. “Wilt” forges on like a sloth w/ tears in it’s eyes, until the emotional decay reverses for a time into frantic Harakiri-type grind. The transitions in the songs are not “textbook” by any means. You wind up hearing something completely different and have to backtrack in your mind as to how you got there. The subtle additions here and there of the background noises and keys enhance the “dreararity” of it all. Not a single thing sounds forced or out of place. I’m actually at a loss for werds for most of the material because it is so consistent and effective at achieving it’s goals. Normally I’d complain about a “song” like the closer on here, “Ethereal Bleeding”, as it’s nothing but strange sub-sea beeps, buzzes, and echo type noises. In fact, I will complain about it, because it’s not a song. But something very odd has happened here: I’ve actually listened to it more than once. Voluntarily I might add. The gem here is the spoken word at the end. It is a total parallel to what the entire album has been.
Turn the lights out at 2am, light a candle, and put this album in. It’s a real mood-changer. Save it for the inevitable break-up w/ a significant other and it will drive you to suicide.
The album is heavy not because it’s got monster deathgrind riffing or because the double kick tenderizes you endlessly, because there isn’t either of those here to that caliber really. It’s heavy because it’s got substance that you can feel. Honestly, I hated this material on the first listen. I was fresh off of Leng Tch’e and I wasn’t exactly in the mindframe to recall my most tragic experiences or sorrow filled moments. I played it a day later and I wound up listening to it 3 times in a row. The next day was the same. It reveals more of itself as time goes by and you adjust yourself to it’s implosion-inducing sea bottom emotional pressure levels. Rune has turned out something very different & very effective here. Sooner or later you will sit comfortably in their corner and you will hear what they have to say, and chances are, you will end up identifying. It could be a long process. But for me it was well worth the wait.
