None is still alive.
Created in 2015 in the USA by the alliance of two anonymous musicians, the band announced the release of their fourth album, Inevitable, on Hypnotic Dirge Records in 2023.
The band will begin by bewitching us with Never Came Home, a haunting track whose gentle introduction is revealed with a soothing melancholic clean sound before intensifying and then welcoming a first wave of raw heavy saturation. Vocals don’t appear until quietness returns, but abrasive melancholy and howls of despair soon follow, before an eerie final leads us to Alone, Where I Can See and its hazy haunting tones, within which ghostly lyrics emerge from time to time. The track is strangely relaxing, even when the suffocating riffs are at work, and the sound gradually dies into nothingness, leaving A Reason To Be to take its place with a sorrow-filled melody leading us into its visceral hurricane of sadness. The eye of the storm briefly allows us to catch our breath before making us sink back into its ocean of madness in the company of that tortured voice, which eventually leads us to that minimalist keyboard and then to My Gift, the next composition, and its eerie sounds. No saturation this time, but the musicians still envelop us in their dark but relatively simplistic veil of airy notes, distant voices and oppression, before Locked, Empty Room adds its own touch of suffering. Nor does the track rely on saturation to amplify its anguished tones, but only on a few snatches of voices or laughter populating this frozen landscape of crystalline keyboards that gradually fade to lead us to Rest, the final composition, where the wrenching guitars once again kick in. Vocals also resurface to let their lament accompany the flow of creeping sorrow, giving it a visceral strength right up to its final moments.
Although very mysterious, None handles despair with a masterly hand. The band’s fans will continue their progression into sorrow and sadness with Inevitable, while novices will discover a fascinating ocean of abrasive melancholy.
95/100