The album starts off with “Sentient”, one of the first tracks I heard from this album, and to be honest it certainly gave me a lot of hope. Or at least enough hope to make me not completely skip over this release. Instantly, I hear something that I really needed to hear from Gone Is Gone, and that’s atmosphere. One of the major issues I had with their self titled EP was just how unbelievably lacking the atmosphere was. On “Sentient” though, at the very least it’s obvious that Gone Is Gone is seriously putting in an effort to get their atmosphere where it should be. Now when it comes to Troy Sanders’ vocals here, I’m not completely into them. In whatever act he’s in, I’ve never been a fan of Troy Sanders more softer performances, I just feel like his voice translates better in rougher passages. However, because the atmosphere is just that much more dark, I can for the most part forgive him on this. As far as lyrics go, Gone Is Gone still have a ways to go, just like on their EP from last summer a lot of these tracks here are filled to the brim with every metal cliche in the book. While there are cheesy moments on here, they do work a little bit better mostly because Troy Sanders sounds a little more sure of himself. To bring the focus back to the atmosphere, no it’s not perfect, but it’s a gigantic improvement. Those distant, desert rock influenced guitars are actually chilling, and with the inclusion of those backing vocals Troy Sanders vocals actually get more believable. “Sentient” is far from perfect, not even close. But at the very least, it shows some unity between Gone Is Gone, and it’s easily the most recognizable thing I’ve heard from them. Up next is “Gift”, which starts off with a much more funk driven riff. Sadly though it doesn’t even come off well, more than anything it comes off very stiff sounding and and almost robotic. However, there’s at least just enough oomph on this one to wake me up a little. Troy’s vocals here are much harsher sounding, and I’ve always loved that. The chorus here is pretty darn solid too, it’s certainly not the best metal chorus I’ve heard recently but it sticks with you. While Gone Is Gone still have a ways to go, at the very least here I can say they’re coming into their own. My only real issue on “Gift” is that pre-chorus which literally takes the steam out of everything. The album though take a sharp turn for the ugly the moment “Resurge” begins though. Here, Gone Is Gone go for a little bit more of a sludgy sound, and it just comes off so muddy and awful sounding that I can’t take it seriously. When the verses start rolling on this one, man am I ever starting to get some nasty flashbacks to their self titled EP. Between the drum performance, Troy’s vocals and that riff, nothing is connecting here. I feel like nothing here was even discussed between the band, and everyone sort of just played their own part and slapped everything together. Troy’s vocals here are a little more theatrical sounding, as if he was trying to do his best Ghost imitation. All of this just comes off so messy to be anything memorable. If you even want to consider the “chorus” here a chorus, it’s laughably bad. Everything here is SUPPOSED to come off intense with tons of buildup, but the fact is that most of “Resurge” seems so forced. The pacing is way too sluggish to be interesting, even the genre that Gone Is Gone are going for anymore is questionable. This album got ugly fast. Up next in the tracklist is "Dublin" and at the very least it’s good to hear that Mastodon are going back to going for a more atmospheric sound. Troy’s vocal performance here is a little more gimmicky than usual, like I said I’m not usually a fan of his softer work. The backing vocals once again save him here, and make things a bit more enjoyable. The atmosphere on “Dublin” is good and all, but I seriously am in dire need of another heavy upbeat track. Gone Is Gone on this track are going for a “slow burner”, but it doesn’t even come off that way. There are some decent elements overall but at the end of the day, it’s just not good. I like chugging, slow metal tracks that test your patience, but “Dublin” just made me want to get a cup of coffee, metal shouldn’t make me feel like that.
After the sluggish and dare I say boring “Dublin”, “Ornament” at the very least sort of livens things up. Troy Sanders’ opening vocals are far from pretty, but after “Dublin” I’ll literally take anything. As this record goes on and on, I feel like Gone Is Gone get closer and closer to a *shudders* mainstream rock sound. Thankfully for Gone Is Gone, they keep just enough grit to keep them from that horrid label, but you better watch it boys it’s getting close. While on earlier tracks the backing vocals complimented Sanders’ vocals really nicely, here they actually make his performance a whole lot more goofy. In an attempt to make all of this come off as eerie, they actually end up just making everything sound really cheesy. The chorus is solid though, and at the very least Troy Sanders sounds himself there. “Ornament” IS an improvement, but it’s still deeply flawed, which seems to literally be the theme of this entire album. But I think the most agitating flaw of this album is just how good this COULD be. It’s obvious what Gone Is Gone are going for, but it continues to be just OK. Up next, “Pawns” actually has a ton of potential. especially when it comes to those drums. The drums here are easily some of the most intense drums here, but that riff man, there is no excuse for that. I get it, Gone Is Gone are going for a little more of a muddy sound but that is just an UGLY riff. But everything that’s promising about this track is quickly deflated as soon as the first verse hits. Instantly, this is just more and more of the same garbage. Once again, we’re dealing with these incredibly sluggish verses that leave me desperate for any shift in tone. We’re slowly getting further and further away from what Gone Is Gone is trying to do. The chorus here I actually don’t mind at all, as simple as it is, it works. But that’s literally probably only because of just how desperate I am for a change of pace here. I mean at this point we’re halfway through the album, you’d think Gone Is Gone would have their footing by now. But it’s seriously been just a downward slippery slope since the halfway decent intro track to this album. That being said though, I seriously do enjoy the guitar solo about halfway through this track. No, it’s not reinventing anything, but it’s one of the only moments I’ve heard here so far that doesn’t feel forced. Then Troy Sanders just has to come back in and finish “Pawns” off with a handful of cringe-worthy metal cliches. Yuck. “Colourfade” is up next, and I seriously wish I could enjoy these vocals by Troy Sanders. But come on, his vocals in his youth were so wild and fresh, these are just safe in every sense of the word. While there’s so much that I seriously hate about “Colourfade”, the instrumental IS still on point. As a matter of fact, there are quite a few things about the instrumental on this track that are pretty fantastic. Once again we see them embracing these guitars sounding right out of the desert, and to be honest they freakin’ nail it. This is TOTALLY a road they should be going down. The guitars here sounds so distant, and every other instrumental on this track make “Colourfade” actually pretty tragic. The bass here though is a little frustrating, it’s not necessarily bad but c’mon it literally sounds like they’re ripping off Tool. Once again, we have a track that’s a huge improvement but still VERY flawed. Up next, “Roads” once again gives off so much of the same vibes. We have another seriously unsettling start, but what genre are these guys even going for anymore? This entire first minute here is borderline industrial, which is cool, but c’mon guys take a sound and stick to it. As far as the instrumental goes, it’s alright, I guess? Where Gone Is Gone really trip though here are the lyrics. Here, I feel like Gone Is Gone have rolled up every awful metal cliche in the book and are presenting it in the worst way possible. As far as the rest of the track goes, Gone Is Gone try their best to impersonate everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Deftones. So many of these tracks have moments of sheer brilliance, but at the end of the day all of these tracks come off so safe.
Ughhh this album is draining me. “Slow Awakening” sees Gone Is Gone trying to be super scratchy and harsh sounding, but it just comes off completely laughable. In the entire first minute, barely anything happens, and when Troy’s vocals come in finally things seriously don’t get much better. The lyrics here I feel like have been recycled from every classic moody sounding metal track. At least on other slow tracks here, we see Gone Is Gone go ham on the atmosphere, but I can’t even say that about “Slow Awakening”. Instrumentally, everything here is supposed to be all artsy, constantly crashing into one another, but MAN does it ever fail. Once again, this honestly sounds completely unrehearsed in the worst way. Moving on! “Fast Awakening” is certainly a wakeup, and it’s probably the heaviest track on the album. Hell, it may be the heaviest track Gone Is Gone have recorded altogether. You can seriously hear the QOTSA influence here, it actually comes off pretty darn well overall. No, it’s still not perfect. But it’s VERY refreshing to hear Gone Is Gone on a balls-out metal track with no gimmicks in sight. Hell, I wouldn’t mind hearing more tracks like this! But wait! What’s that! Right when I’m all pumped up Gone Is Gone is going to hit me with an acoustic track? They can’t be that foolish. Oh wait, they can. “Resolve”, which starts off with the cheesiest acoustic intro you could imagine may be the most insufferable acoustic intro’s possible. At this point in the album, I can assure you it’s the last thing I wanted to hear from Gone Is Gone, but here it is anyway. Now if I couldn’t take some of Troy Sanders earlier softer vocals seriously, how the hell am I supposed to take these whisper quiet vocals seriously. This one has a HUGE classic rock vibe to it, picture one of Sabbath’s softer tunes, but this fails in every way possible. The acoustic plucking here sounds lie it was lifted kicking and screaming out of any “Unplugged” album from the grunge era, and the other instrumentals that float in to accompany it sound like they were recorded for another song altogether. I’m gonna move on before I get frustrated any more. The album finishes off with the title track, “Echolocation”. And to be perfectly honest, it’s certainly not that bad. Here, Gone Is Gone sound like they actually have a motive, that’s bizarre. This doesn’t even sound like it should have been recorded on this album, it actually sounds like if down the line Gone Is Gone actually got focused. Troy’s vocals are much more comfortable, and everything else just works. It’s frustrating though to hear such a decent track after all the garbage we had to shift through.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBz7_yWqVXo
Rating: 6.0/10
Give A Listen To: “Sentient”, “Gift” (Kinda?), "Fast Awakening", "Echolocation"
You know what, just go listen to old Mastodon, you'll probably be happier
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cBz7_yWqVXo
Rating: 6.0/10
Give A Listen To: “Sentient”, “Gift” (Kinda?), "Fast Awakening", "Echolocation"
You know what, just go listen to old Mastodon, you'll probably be happier
Overall Thoughts: Gone Is Gone still haven't really got the ball rolling on their career. Their EP was a mess, and this is certainly a mess too. However, there are a few really great moments here that can potentially some day lead to something great, you just seriously have to go through a whole lot of garbage to find it.
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