Scare
In The End, Was It Worth It?

The Canadian band Scare is on their second album, and after the 2019 debut "Not Dead Yet, Probably.." they return in 2025 with this new "In The End, Was It Worth It?"

This album, right from the cover, presents nothing but a bleak pessimism towards life and society at large, the anxieties, tensions, and fears that manifest in this modern reality. It's no coincidence that the opening track is titled "Nevermind If It All Explodes, I'll Die Anyway." Musically, there's a true sonic hammering based on metallic Hardcore closely related to Sludge, Crust, and Grind. So, we have tracks that last about two or three minutes and are always pushed to the max. Philip Roy's beastly screams fit well with the sound the band offers, acting as real thorns in the listener's side with tracks like "PMA: Pessimistic Mental Attitude," a true blow to the heart for nostalgics of early bands like Converge or Coalesce. Here, real rage is expressed, pure rage swollen with sweat and passion.

Explosive are the riffs of guitarist Gabrielle Noël-Bégin, featuring granitic palm-muting, vitriolic explosions, and searing solos that last only a few seconds. "Drifted Away" keeps the clock's hands consistently high with Sludge-flavored restarts and the drummer's powerful rolls. "The Black Painting" has a Crust-core and d-beat feel with Philip Roy's anguished screams. "Thrash Melrose" truly delivers excellent timbre thanks to a cleverly crafted guitar solo that fits perfectly amidst the chaos generated by the vocals and other instruments, just as "Crowned In Yellow" doesn't lose an ounce of its rage and power with those pitch-black riffs supported by rhythmic variations where the guitar creates undoubtedly appreciable solo textures.

In "Doomynation" and "Jeanne Dark," the opening features electro/acoustic instrumental parts (you can also hear a melody played by a piano in the second one), to then resume with the usual wretched Post-Hardcore from the abyss. There's a fury hidden behind bass, guitar, drums, and vocals that leaves you stunned on the ground for the amount of malaise that pours out from these songs. In "Midnight Ride" and "Turbograine," the pace does not slow down; rather, with all the distortions and acid screams, it's like witnessing a dense flow of blood on an open wound. "Harakiri Ton Industries" starts as a colossus with powerful Sludge Metal undertones, only to accelerate and continue to exorcise its inner demons with the HC formula tainted by the rawest and most violent Crust imaginable.

In the last two tracks, "Reality Of Death In The Maze Of Hope" and "Doomynation 2" (in the latter, you can hear electro/acoustic guitar sections before the HC explosions), the engine's revs do not experience slowdowns, with thick and dense palm-muting riffs, moving into whirlwind blast-beats and showcasing the full driving force the band is able to convey in terms of sonic impact.

"In The End, Was It Worth It?" shows us the dark side of the human soul, and it does so with thirteen tracks lasting a mere thirty-one minutes, truly mighty, reminiscent of albums that have made history in the genre like "When Forever Comes Crashing" or "0:12 Revolution In Just Listening," and does so with a unique identity free of clichés but with legitimate artistic maturity, now reaching its second album.

In the end, was it worth it? I'd say absolutely yes.