Though they’re a new band, Guiltless are no strangers to the worlds of post metal and artsy rock. A collaboration between A Storm of Light members Billy Graves, Dan Hawkins and Josh Graham plus Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable, the band members draw upon their shared love for noise rock, sludge and heavy experimental music on their debut EP, Thorns.
Releasing on February 23 via Neurot Recordings, Thorns fits snugly into the post-metal category. Thunderous low-end, deep, roaring vocals and rhythmic, almost tribal at times, drumming are on display here, along with dark, crushing guitar leads. Graham, who handles guitar, vocals and noise, puts down a mighty performance as frontman; on third song “Dead Eye,” he sounds menacing.
Dunable plays bass in Guiltless, a fresh change from his 20-year tenure as the guitarist and vocalist of Intronaut. It’s interesting to hear his performance take the supporting role this time, especially among band members who have worked together before.
“Thorns is our first collective journey as Guiltless,” says Graham, “And we’re all happy to finally have these songs out in the world. We are hard at work on our first full-length now and looking forward to playing live. Big thanks to Neurot Recordings, Earsplit, Rarely Unable, and Brad Boatright at Audiosiege.”
If you’re familiar with Neurot Recordings or their parent band Neurosis, you probably have an idea of what to expect on the EP. In addition to a full stream of the album (listen below), Graham gave Decibel a track-by-track breakdown of the EP.
Guiltless – Thorns Track-by-Track Breakdown by Josh Graham (guitar, vocals, noise)
“Devour Collide” was the first and last song in the writing process. The first half was among the first explorations for the sound of the band, and the end took three weeks of battling to make it work – stripped down evolving collision.
“All We Destroy” is the song that set the tone of the band overall and defines a large portion of this first release. It’s a stripped-down arrangement compared to the other tracks but has a clarified pummeling energy/driving force. Lyrically bleak, it feels like the current state and trajectory of our planet, and is influenced by the short story by Margaret Atwood, Time Capsule Found On The Dead Planet.
Sacha calls “Dead-Eye” our ballad, which the rest of us thought was pretty funny. This is one of my favorites – there’s a lot of open space and some Sabbathy moments before the end picks up. The title refers to Dead-Eye in the sense of memory – as in the ability to hold in the mind.
“In Radiant Glow” was the last song to fully come together on the EP. It has some more variation and complexity in the arrangement than “All We Destroy,” but still carries that same kind of heft – for me – there are some Godflesh moments, some Jesus Lizard, and even a brief Slayer breakdown. Lyrically, it’s a sarcastic, surreal, post-WWIII worst-case-scenario story, and now that I think of it, subliminally influenced by both Kira Jane Buxton’s Hollow Kingdom and Jeff Vandermeer’s Borne.
