Spinal Tap — The End Continues

With The End Continues, Spinal Tap do what they’ve always done best: turn rock mythology inside out without losing their genuine love for it. Released decades after Break Like the Wind, the album feels less like a comeback and more like a stubborn refusal to ever stop—an intentionally absurd victory lap that’s self-aware, loud, and unapologetically juvenile.

Musically, the record leans into classic hard rock and metal tropes—big riffs, pounding drums, overblown solos—played straight enough that the jokes land harder. The humor isn’t just in the lyrics; it’s in the commitment. Nigel Tufnel’s guitar heroics remain gloriously excessive, David St. Hubbins still sings like he believes every word, and Derek Smalls continues to anchor everything with bass lines that take themselves far too seriously.

Lyrically, The End Continues skewers modern rock culture, aging musicians, masculinity, and legacy, often in the same breath. The jokes are blunt, sometimes ridiculous, sometimes surprisingly sharp—but always rooted in the same affection for rock excess that made Spinal Tap iconic in the first place.

What makes the album work isn’t nostalgia—it’s continuity. Spinal Tap haven’t updated their worldview to fit the times; instead, they let the times bounce awkwardly off them. The humor comes from that friction, and from the fact that beneath the parody, these guys still know how to write and perform a proper rock song.