Style: Progressive Metal, Doom Metal, Death Metal (Mixed Vocals)
Recommended for fans of: Mastodon, Gojira, Morbid Angel
Country: Puerto Rico
Release date: 20 February 2026

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In literature, tunnels often symbolize a transformation: traveling through a dark and difficult place almost always changes one into a stronger person. Seeing the light on the other side of a tunnel, whether a physical or metaphorical one, gives one hope and the motivation to keep pushing through their struggles. Ender attempts to discuss this battle through adversity in their latest EP, Ender II: In Silent Throne. The album’s narrative describes a protagonist who “journeys into the collapse of faith and the unraveling of self”. By the end of the EP, our protagonist “travels inward…exploring what remains when silence becomes the answer”. In theory, experiencing a schism of faith and finding new purpose should be quite rewarding. His new purpose—or rather—the light at the end of the tunnel, is waiting for our protagonist should he choose to seize it, right? 

Not for this protagonist. The path to the light is riddled with holes and traps; Ender tackles this complex concept in only twenty-seven minutes, which is not enough time to allow for proper storytelling of a spiritual narrative. This time is not used efficiently in the slightest; the lyrics read as if someone threw a handful of spiritual terminologies at a wall and waited to see which ones stuck. I mean, take a look at the opening verse of “The Obelisk”:

“God! Ashen god, congregation of sin.
Deceiver! Crowned deceiver, pious tempter’s embrace.
Vessel! Sullen vessel, pallid torturous gaze.
Serpent! By ophidian’s tongue salvation denied.”

Did you get a heavy sense of spiritual betrayal from that? No? I didn’t think so. All of Ender II is written like the stanza above, and for someone who heavily values conceptual delivery in a progressive album, this is quite disappointing. Well, at least we can fall back on the music…

…Except you’d be wrong again. Even the greatest optimists are going to struggle to find many redeeming qualities about Ender II.¹ Its most egregious sin (and there are plenty) is the god-awful production across all five tracks. Ender II replaces the light at the end of the tunnel with the band, and the protagonist at the beginning of the tunnel with studio recording mics: it truly sounds like there’s a kilometer² of space between the band and the listener. What was supposed to be a beautiful acoustic intro in “Invocations” becomes a fuzzy, pizzicato mess as windy noise drowns out the music. For the rest of Ender II, the listener is forced to witness the drums and bass fight over rhythm section leadership because the individual tracks are not clear enough to separate by ear. If facing a “false and corrupt divinity” and coming into your spirituality means fighting against static and echoey tunnel noise to hear actual music for a half-hour, I’d rather be secular. The EP would honestly sound better if someone had recorded the entire thing on an iPhone. Seriously. 

Okay, let’s pretend for a moment that the production is decent enough to sit through. Each track—aside from the instrumental “Invocations”—follows a similar pattern. Heavily inspired Gojira-esque rhythm guitars sit behind less-than-average vocal fries and growls across the majority of Ender II. The distortion changes in the guitars often, leading to subtle mood changes that exist purely because they can, rather than serving a greater purpose within the composition. Alongside the screechy guitars and vocals, magnificently sloppy drumming further contribute to the ghastly listening experience. Every band worth their salt knows the importance of starting and stopping musical phrases together, so when the drummer cannot consistently keep time with the rhythm guitar or bass, it becomes an immediate turn-off for any listener with even an inkling of musical knowledge. 

Tracks like “The Obelisk” and “Veil the Sun” attempt to do the “let’s play our breakdown again but slower and heavier” trope that is so beloved in metal, but these breakdowns slog away rather than offer something to properly headbang to. In fact, I’d argue they make the tracks feel more disjointed; there are many musical ideas that Ender touch on, but they fail to properly blend them. I was fully convinced the last two minutes of “Veil the Sun” were a separate track during my first few listens because of how much they deviate from the track’s original theme. Ender II admittedly has some decent ideas sprinkled throughout, but the amateur skill level with which they’re executed makes it difficult to praise these musical breakthroughs. 

Now, we have to remember that there is always some good in music³. One of the very few redeeming qualities of Ender II lies in the (literal) hands of Carlos Maldonado’s bass. Hearing his melodic and rather tasteful basslines is like finding water in the middle of a desert—it’ll bring the listener back to life. Rather than playing root notes in “Unto Silence”, Maldonado contributes a run of eighth-note scales that becomes the most interesting thing in the track. He introduces a beautiful downtuned accompaniment to a decent guitar solo in “Martyr”, a track that borrows from the classic high-energy grooves of Mastodon. And I have to shout out the vocalist who did the cleans on “The Obelisk”; the middle clean section is easy to digest and showcases an almost beautiful rawness in the vocalist’s tone. Assuming the person singing the cleans is also Maldonado (Bandcamp lists both him and Juan Rodriguez as vocalists), someone should send a rescue team and get him into a better band. 

Ender II makes 27 minutes feel like an eternity. From the songwriting to the production, the EP presents itself clumsily. It is a slog to get through even the most interesting parts, and it becomes physically painful to listen to by the end. The concept is neat in theory, but any good lyrical execution is missed. Honestly, the best way to improve would be to find a producer who doesn’t live in a tunnel and could bring some light into the album’s mixing and mastering. Keep the tasteful bass, learn to start and stop together as a band, and perhaps something could come out of Ender in the future. For now, however, be sure to carry a heavy-duty flashlight in case the walls of Ender’s tunnel collapse and trap you in an eternity of subpar spiritual awakening⁴. 

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Recommended tracks: The Obelisk, Martyr, Unto Silence
You may also like: Anciients, Black Tusk, Obsidian Tide
Final verdict: 3/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Facebook | Instagram

Label: Independent

Ender is:
– Juan J. Rodríguez (Rhythm, Lead Guitars and Vocals)
– Carlos L. Maldonado (Bass and Vocals)
– Daniel Figueroa (Drums, Recording, Mixing)
– Tom McLean (Mastering)

1. I do consider myself to be one of these people—I desperately wanted to see the good in this EP. ↩︎
2. Or a mile for myself and my fellow Americans. ↩︎
3. So long as it’s human made! ↩︎
4.  If I wanted to listen to a spiritual album with an enlightened being on the album cover, I’d pick Transcendence by Devin Townsend. ↩︎