How surprised would you be to wake up tomorrow morning and find yourself in the midst of a post-apocalyptic world, your life completely undone, and survival is something that doesn’t come naturally. Yeah, not sure how you slept through that, though I get it. I’m a heavy sleeper. How do you proceed? Do you give up? Do you make the best of a horrible situation and try to scrape by no matter what?

Guiltless is a new project that brings together members of bands such as A Storm of Light, Battle of Mice, Generation Vipers, and Intronaut, and their debut EP “Thorns” imagines a world that follows a society that follows a mass extinction event and what follows. Yeah, it’s bleak, and if you look at that list of other bands in which its members are involved, you have a good idea of what to expect here sonically. The band—vocalist/guitarist/noise master Josh Graham, guitarist/noise maker Dan Hawkins, bassist Sacha Dunable, drummer Billy Graves—immerses you in darkness and chaos, bringing along with them a doom-infested, post-metal assault that isn’t run of the mill and feels like a gathering a subgenre powers looking for new ways to expand this sound into a world on the brink of collapse.

“Devour Collide” dawns amid thick fog and sludge, gruff howls turning into full-throated cries, the heaviness rumbling the Earth beneath you. Sounds scorch and pulverize, menacing and bludgeoning, Graham wailing, “Devour! Collide!” as the power finally dissolves. “All We Destroy” brings atmospheric pressure, battering as the vocals corrode, bringing total devastation. Sounds ache as scathing howls ripple with energy, leveling with weighty chaos, delivering a calculated beating on its way out. “Dead-Eye” opens in decay, pained howls leaving bruising that cuts deep, the synth storm coming to a head. The might is punishing, slowly crushing with enormous gravity, a doomy cloud cover blanketing everything with darkness. Closer “In Radiant Glow” is immersed in noise buzz, moody playing stretching, growls dragging you over hot coals. The tone is ominous and violent, drubbing mercilessly, bringing insurmountable pressure, the sounds ricocheting, guitars dropping the final curtain.

Picking up the pieces of a global extermination isn’t the far-fetched idea it might have seemed at one time, and Guiltless plaster those harrowing ideas all over their debut EP “Thorns.” You can feel it packed into these four songs and in the heaviness both musically and lyrically, and nothing is bound to feel the same when it’s all over. This is but a start for this band, and already they have set the bar high, the mood violently low, and where they morph from here only can live in our imaginations until that time comes.

For more on the band, go here: https://www.facebook.com/guiltlessband

To buy the album, go here: https://neurotrecordings.merchtable.com/?

For more on the label, go here: https://www.neurotrecordings.com/