There Is No Us
Farewell to Humanity
Release Date: 30 August 2015
Review by Matt Bolton
As stated on their bandcamp site “There Is No Us is a social movement to expose the failure of the human race.” Andy Gerold is the mastermind of the group playing all instruments, something he is familiar with after filling in for Twiggy on bass with Marilyn Manson while he took to the guitar in 2009. Also providing guitar for Billy Howerdel’s Ashes Divide, it is in his own band where Andy really shreds. This is a riff heavy EP and Andy really shines especially with his flawless guitar solos throughout the six tracks we have here.
Kicking off with title track, Farewell to Humanity and ending with A Letter to the Loved Ones, Jim Louvau really doesn’t give us any time to breathe, with non-stop screams, sounding metalcore at times. He pulls it off nicely with the use of samples of news excerpts and solos which space out the music. Industrial sounds also help create the atmosphere.
The upbeat In Violence We Trust reminds me of industrial metallers Dope, showing the diversity of the band with not all songs sounding the same like you would hear with most metalcore bands. Terrorism, ISIL, poverty, corruption, drugs and suicide are all issues the band is not afraid to explore. My personal favourite is Reasons to Start a War, however all tracks have their strong points with the endless guitar solos and riffs. For an up and coming band with strong views on society I look forward to the release of a full length and more of those killer solos.
