Gone Is Gone - Gone Is Gone

Supergroups can be really amazing, or really really really freakin bad.  Gone Is Gone is a Metal Supergroup made up of Mastodon's Troy Sanders, Queens of the Stone Age's Troy Van Leeuwen, At The Drive In's Tony Hajjar, as well as Mike Zarin.  Overall, that's a huge lineup, and my expectations were pretty damn high.  I wasn't expecting a full length album from Gone Is Gone for quite some time.  Then we got this Self Titled EP, which is seriously almost as long as an album.  So let's not waste any more time shall we. 

This not-so-short EP starts with “Violescent”.   I know this is a metal album and all but there has to be a more graceful way to ease into the track.  Right off the bat the guitars are doing close to nothing to me, hell they almost sound flat.  A lot of these tracks have the same Sludge/Stoner metal feel that you would expect to hear from these artists, but there also just happens to be a hint of doom metal in there as well.  Sadly, just from the intro alone it’s obvious that we’re diving into one of the tamest metal releases of the entire year.  There are instrumentally some highlights occasionally, and Troy’s vocals sound solid.  But as a whole, “Violescent” just sounds so incredibly uninspired.  The bands that these boys come from: Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, At The Drive In, are all known for having very ambitious works.  “Violescent” on the other hand just sounds so soulless.   The track as it goes on continues to have very tame instrumentals, and even worse little to no chemistry between anyone.  And this is supposed to be a single?  Whoa nelly. The guitar solo towards the end brings back a little heaviness, but even that is tame when you look at Troy’s older solos.  Up next we have “Starlight”, which right off the bat sounds darker.  At least it’s trying to be much darker, but it doesn’t work at all, it just ends up sounding goofy and sort of cliche.  While the drums pack a punch, Troy’s vocals I’m not feeling in the slightest bit.  Here Troy sounds like he’s going for this huge over the top theatrical sort of metal sound, and it’s far from what I want to hear.  Then we have the lyrics, holy shit the lyrics.  There is not a single lyric here that isn’t a gigantic let down as well as being filled to the brim with a laundry list of the worst cliches in metal.  On top of all of that, the production on this just sounds freakin awful, and when the chorus rolls around it’s one of the most depressing metal moments I’ve heard in a very long time.  “Starlight” once again also shows that there is literally little to no chemistry between any of these men, and when it comes to everything else I just can’t for the life of me take anything seriously.  When I hear the intro to “Stolen From Me”, I can’t help but perk my ears up a little bit, the guitars and drums here sound instantly better.  Then out of freakin nowhere these keyboards pop in and absolutely throw all of that away.  And because I wasn’t already digging these vocals, the moment I hear Troy’s vocals here I lose it.  These are borderline crappy Nu-Metal vocals.  Overall, “Stolen From Me” sounds just as safe and “factory made” as some of the last few tracks here. There are a few moments that give you a taste of something heavy, but as a whole there’s nothing remotely exciting going on.  Even the post-chorus which kind’ve helps make things more interesting is instantly watered down by this production.  This really isn’t good man.  On “Character”, Gone Is Gone once again are trying their hardest to force an atmosphere.  When you think about the bands that these guys came from, you really would think they’d succeed.  The reality is though that “Character” goes absolutely nowhere.  Then we have this ridiculous voiceover that pops in. It’s insanely cheesy, and one of the most cliche things I’ve heard so far, but it kinda works.  I wouldn’t mind it at all if there was actually something else going on on this track.  There are some cool guitar tones here and there sure, but outside of that there’s nothing.  These guys seriously need to hunker down.  

Once “One Divided” starts, things actually start to look up a bit.  The drums here sound legitimately heavy, and while the guitar intro is absolutely awful the later guitar work sounds just fine.  As far as vocals and lyrics go, “One Divided” picks up the pace just as much, with over-the-top lyrics that are so out there that they actually work just fine.  This track takes a hard left turn though towards the end.  It’s really weird, as soon as I get comfortable with enjoying this track, Gone Is Gone drop everything and get all experimental for the rest of the track.  It’s a start, but I can enjoy most of “One Divided”.  Then we have “Praying From The Danger”.  Right from the intro we can tell this has some nice bite to it.  The vocals here pull off that slight doom metal feel they’ve been toying with quite well, it almost sounds like something you’d hear on a black metal record.  There’s some serious darkness here, but then we get to that main guitar riff, man that is just so bland.  Once the verse starts though things pick up, it’s nothing unbelievable but it’s much more tolerable to say the very least.  It is however the sludgiest thing I’ve heard here so far, and that chorus is one of the heaviest here as well.  “Praying From The Danger” at its core does what it’s supposed to do, and shows that Gone Is Gone can indeed show signs of unity.  Then we have “Recede and Enter”, which definitely keeps with the tone of the last few tracks.  But at it’s core it’s just more of the same rehashed.  I do like the background instrumental, it gives me that slight chill that I look for in metal, but in the minute and a half this track sticks around I'm ultimately left unaffected.  Then we have the EP’s finale, “This Chapter”.  Right from that opening riff I am 100% not feeling this at all, this sounds like a metal song that takes itself entirely too seriously.  When things speed up and start going, it does improve, but it’s only ok at best.  As far as vocals go, I’ve never been a fan of Troy’s softer material, and this is no different.  This project is messy as all hell, there are a few moments of unity though which make me think just maybe these guys can pull something great off someday.  

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2lCaxOUNpcI

Rating: 5.9/10

Give A Listen To: "One Divided", "Praying From The Danger", that's about it.  

Overall Thoughts:  This thing is meessssssssssyyyyyy.  Half of these tracks have little to no unity between the band members, and sound more like a messy jam between a bunch of guys who just met.  For every genuinely cool, heavy moment here, there are plenty of cringe worthy moments that feel so safe and "factory made".  There is however a track or two here that makes me think maybe Gone Is Gone can have some chemistry at some point, we shall see.