A Means to No End is the 4th release by Italian metal band Destrage.  The quintet consist of Paolo Colavolpe on vocals, Matteo Di Gioia and Ralph Salati on guitar, Gabriel Pignata on bass, and drummer Federico Paulovich.  This is a band with a lot of confidence; they take their time with every song – not always attempting to melt your face from the outset.  Songs like the 6 minute ‘Peacefully Lost’ uses the bridge to actually pull back a bit only to work itself into a frenzy again.

A Means to No End reminds me of the roughness of Alice in Chains with the stunted melodies of Korn and the curiosities of Primus; yet with those influences it doesn’t feel dated. Colavolpe’s vocals in particular have a very rhythmic quality that I remember from a lot of 1990’s hard rock albums; Faith No More in particular.  Everyone song on this album is different and Destrage seems to have fun experimenting with various sounds album creating a jazzy atmosphere.

These moody organic tracks build and climax brilliantly with a, dare I saw, dancy vibe for a backbone.  Songs like Dreamers blast off with a chaotic confusion of drums and screaming only to wonderfully settle into itself and find its rhythm.  At time I find the tracks a little too antiseptic and clean, a problem I had with metal albums in the 90s, especially for how ‘dirty’ the album attempting to feel. So while this album should be applauded for its experimentation, it suffers slightly under the weight of over-production.

You can stream and buy the album here and on their Bandcamp page.