Guiltless are coming out guns blazing with debut album, Teeth to Sky - though it’s not exactly their first rodeo. This album follows last year’s EP Thorns, but on top of that, much of Guiltless’ line-up have decades of experience in other sludge metal bands (A Storm of Light, Generation of Vipers and Intronaut). That - combined with influences from no-wave and industrial metal outfits such as Swans and Godflesh - guarantees an interesting listening experience, even if the musicality doesn’t match those two bands genre-wise.
Those bands’ attitudes towards music are very visible though, and shine across Teeth to Sky - their approach here results in some of the most visceral and arrestingly noisy music in recent memory. The album opens on ‘Into Dust Becoming’, starting on sustained guitar feedback before kicking into gear with this distorted, dissonant riff that wouldn’t feel out of place on a Chat Pile record. It creates an unsettling feeling of claustrophobia, and that’s before the vocals have even started - the drums pick up the pace as lead singer Josh Graham screams “Til time’s arrow strikes my throat”, a perfectly apt line to describe the themes of the finality and nothingness of death littered throughout the rest of the album. It’s described in a way that puts this violent imagery into the listener’s mind while still being extremely poignant, with lyrics throughout the album managing to achieve a similar effect.
One such case being the next track, ‘One is Two’, which presents this idea of the duality of the human condition. Lines like “are we beast, are we man, or are we both, saved and damned” display the concept unequivocally. This lyrical motif appears again on the back half of the album, on ‘Lone Blue Vale’ - one of the more doom-oriented cuts on the album. In fact, the slower moments on here are where it seems to shine through the most. The sheer amount of power felt on tracks like ‘Our Serpent In Circle’ and closer ‘Illumine’ cannot be understated, particularly on the latter.
Closing the album on possibly the most intense note so far, and the longest song on the record, is already a great sign. But the song is defined by the underlying distortion that permeates throughout almost the entire track. Keyword being almost - the middle of the song takes everything out of the mix other than drums and a guitar in the left ear, briefly turning quieter as it builds to the conclusion - it’s worth noting that the vocals feel very quiet in this section. It’s slightly jarring, but the band manage to make up for it with a masterful display of dynamics, building up towards a brutal outro section to the song, the perfect way to wrap up the album.
Teeth to Sky is an album that manages to consistently impress the listener, despite some songs feeling similar at times - the slow and methodical approach they take at points on this album is deeply cathartic to the listener, and rewards them at almost every turn. Guiltless are definitely a band to look out for if this debut is any indication, and this album is well worth a full listen.
Score: 8/10
Teeth To Sky will be released on March 7th 2025 via Neurot Recordings.
Words: Jake Leonard
Photos: Guiltless
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