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American death metal band Upon Stone wants to be some variation of Scandinavian melodic death metal or melodic black metal — I’m just not sure which, and I’m not sure that they’re sure which either. So let’s start from the top.

Upon Stone‘s 2021 debut EP Where Wild Sorrows Grow felt like Heartwork-era Carcass filtered through Slaughter of the Soul-era At the Gates. Then Upon Stone‘s 2023 full-length debut album Dead Mother Moon split the difference between At the Gates and early In Flames, with a heavy dose of 2000s American metalcore thrown in there. Think like The Black Dahlia Murder and Shadows Fall. Brian Fair, who fronts Shadows Fall, even made a guest appearance on Dead Mother Moon, which only really cemented that vibe. And before anybody points it out — yes, I know bands like The Black Dahlia Murder and Shadows Fall and Unearth and that whole deal were very much influenced by the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene that I referenced earlier. But you get what I’m saying.

Where Wild Sorrows Grow hinted at a band finding its voice and really leaning on its influences. But then you had Dead Mother Moon, which felt like a bit of a detour — a bit of a step backward. The production was dense. Everything was pushed to the front, which made listening to that record a bit overwhelming, and the songwriting really leaned super hard on its influences. So much so that it really struggled to carve out its own identity within the modern metal scene.

Now listen — I’m all for a bit of nostalgia and proudly wearing your influences on your sleeve. But Dead Mother Moon didn’t really add much that felt new or essential to the modern metal world. It just didn’t leave that much of a lasting impression. It didn’t really feel like it took the nostalgic sounds of what they were trying to draw from and present it in a way that, in 2023, 2024, 2025, you would listen to and think — my god, they nailed it. They’re on to something. This is the next wave of that particular sound. It just kind of… was a record that I really wanted to like and didn’t.

Now Upon Stone is back with their new EP End Time Lightning, which is another sonic pivot that finds the band exploring a more melodic black metal direction — and when it works, it really works. The production is a very big step forward. There’s actual breathing room between the instruments, and everything feels clean and balanced and far more listenable than it did before on Dead Mother Moon.

The songwriting is also a noticeable improvement. It’s not without its rough edges, as it does feel a little scattered at times — which is not really what you want when you only have three songs on an EP and one of them’s a cover. But it does reflect a band that’s evolving and clearly aiming higher. Upon Stone isn’t fully there yet. They haven’t fully recognized their sound, I don’t think, but the potential shines a lot brighter on this EP than it has before.

End Time Lightning kicks off with “Fury My Master,” and it’s immediately clear that the band is aiming for something darker and more atmospheric. The song occasionally incorporates these very ’90s sounding keyboard lines, but they’re never featured. They’re never a prominent fixture in this song — they’re just kind of tucked low in the mix like flavor text at the bottom of a screen, hinting at an aesthetic that the band doesn’t fully commit to throughout the song, and unfortunately in the next track as well. It’s a strange decision, especially given how deliberate the rest of the track seems to be and how deliberate the overall songwriting between the two originals on this EP are.

The other problem with “Fury My Master” is that it includes four separate guitar solos, and not one of them really builds on the last or recaps a motif or moves the song forward. They’re not bad, and they’re certainly keeping up the high-paced energy that Upon Stone is going for — or most of them do, anyway — but it feels like the band didn’t know how to transition between sections at times, so they defaulted to just adding another solo. And the end result is a song that should feel sharp and urgent and energetic — and it does — but it meanders and just lacks that one standout hook or moment that ties everything together. Instead, we just got four guitar solos.

Then there’s “Autumn Evermore,” which is easily the standout on the EP and is the track that should serve as the blueprint if Upon Stone continues down this melodic, pretty, blackened path. The songwriting is more focused, the melodies hit harder, and most importantly, the ideas on the song feel fully realized. It’s the clearest sign of what Upon Stone is capable of doing when everything clicks for them. That said, these synth problems do still persist on this song. Once again, keyboards appear just long enough to distract but not long enough to feel essential to the core of the song. If Upon Stone wants keys to be part of their sound, then they need to embrace that fully — because right now it feels like they’re halfway in and halfway out, which just muddies the aesthetic of what they’re trying to do rather than sharpening it.

And then the EP wraps up with the cover of Manowar’s 1996 deep cut “Outlaw,” and it’s about as faithful as covers come. You know — the structure, the riffs, the galloping rhythm are all intact, with the most noticeable change between the original and the cover being the swap from clean vocals to harsher screams. And normally I’d argue against such a faithful rendition of a song, but this one’s just super fun. It hits like a Viking metal anthem, and it’s the kind that would have every fist in the air if they started playing it at a live show. It’s spirited, it’s fun, and it’s a fitting way to close out the EP.

If Upon Stone can expand on the sound that they presented on this EP and figure out how to truly make it their own, they might be on to something. There are hints of potential throughout End Time Lightning, particularly in “Autumn Evermore” — though a lot of the riffs on “Fury My Master,” despite my problems with that song, if those riffs were tightened up and used in a different way, it could be pretty good. There’s a lot of good riffs on that song — it just didn’t come together.

And originally, I wanted to say that this EP as a whole feels more like a test run than a confident evolution, but I guess that’s kind of the point of an EP, isn’t it? To stretch out a little and see what happens creatively. The rollout of a new logo also suggests that Upon Stone is considering a shift in direction, but the music doesn’t yet back that up with a clear, focused identity. End Time Lightning ultimately lands at about a 6 out of 10 for me. It’s not essential listening in 2025, but it does make me curious to see what Upon Stone does next. The raw ingredients are certainly there — now it’s just a matter of whether they can pull everything into focus and do something really good on their next release.

And before I go — I know that I was a little critical of this EP, but it’s because I think that Upon Stone is capable of doing something pretty good. Nothing would make me happier than to review their next full-length in 2026 or 2027 or whenever it comes out and say, hey, you know, I’ve been pretty critical of this band, but I really like this new album. Here’s why. So here’s hoping they can do that. That would be awesome.