Review: Guiltless – Teeth to Sky
Guiltless summon a sound steeped in sludge, noise, industrial depth, and elemental dread. Their debut album does not collapse into chaos but holds its composure even when unleashing brute force, playing like a weathered promise. It’s a heavy, reflective, unwavering wall of sound.
The opener does not begin subtly. It crashes in like a detonated storm, pulling the listener into feral landscapes fractured by feedback and grim resolve. It sets the tone: no concession to comfort, only front-line immersion. Vocal delivery ranges from guttural roar to haunted cadence, grounding the abstraction in human exhaustion.
Melody finds its place amid discord; riffs churn with Meshuggah-like stare but remain anchored in emotional grit. On “One Is Two”, propulsive rhythms couple with lo-fi abrasiveness, revealing the human contradiction: beauty in our nature framed by destruction. “In Starless Reign” breaks open like venom-dripped sludge, shards of blackened tone piping urgency amid existential collapse.
The title track swirls with grunge-tinged groove, a menacing ascension that channels chaos as both prophecy and indictment. Lone Blue Vale plunges deeper into saturated, oppressive weight, suffocating and splendid. Even in this descent, melody winks through, as a grim lighthouse refusing extinguishment.
Yet “Teeth to Sky” is not without restraint. Some passages lean into sameness, and the dense atmosphere can feel relentless across its nearly forty-minute runtime. The immersive approach risks flattening peaks into plateaued savagery. Closer Illumine drags its dirge into an opulent haze, grand yet resistant to catharsis.
Production is clear yet brooding. Each instrument ranks in the mix: drums hammer with impact; guitars crunch and sustain; vocals emerge from shadow. Ambient noise leans not toward artifice but as atmospheric debris—sensory impressions scavenged from our collective fracture.
Lyrically and thematically, this is a record of conscious ruin and rare introspection. It veers away from spectacle, choosing instead to embody apocalypse as a daily ritual. There is an underlying hope in its call, which is much-needed in this sonic assault.
“Teeth to Sky” succeeds when allowed to unfurl on its own terms. It demands patience and yields an almost physical resonance. While not endlessly varied, it’s consistently intense, consistently thoughtful.