Released: April 25, 2025
UNATØNED doesn’t arrive as a comeback or a statement. It behaves like a controlled withdrawal. From the opening seconds of “LANDSCAPE ØF THØRNS,” the record establishes distance as its operating condition. The intro isn’t cinematic or teasing—it’s functional. When the full weight drops, it does so without ceremony, signaling that this album will advance through alignment rather than surprise.
“ATØMIC REVELATIØNS” reinforces that posture immediately. The riff cycles with mechanical certainty, drums stay locked, and the song refuses expansion. Nothing escalates. Instead, repetition is used as pressure, and familiarity becomes the primary tool. The album doesn’t build momentum; it sustains it.
By the time “UNBØUND” settles in, UNATØNED has already defined its internal logic. Groove replaces volatility. The track doesn’t open new space—it confirms existing boundaries. Each return to its central pattern feels intentional, as if variation has been deliberately filtered out.
“ØUTSIDER” and “NØT LØNG FØR THIS WØRLD” continue without reframing. Their placement reinforces the album’s commitment to containment. These songs don’t contrast one another; they stack. Time on the record is measured through duration rather than movement, with memory forming through persistence instead of highlight moments.
“These Scars WØN’T Define Us” introduces clarity without rupture. The vocal lines are more direct, but they never pull ahead of the instrumentation. Accessibility appears briefly, then folds back into the grid. The song doesn’t widen the album’s emotional range—it proves how narrow that range has been by design.
Mid-album tracks “DUSTMAKER” and “BØNESCRAPER” maintain the system. Riffs repeat with purpose, drums strike with uniform force, and transitions remain strictly functional. Aggression is present, but regulated. The record continues to favor discipline over volatility.
“ADDICTED TØ PAIN” and “BLEEDING ME DRY” slightly reduce density without changing direction. The pullback feels technical rather than emotional, like a recalibration inside the same framework. The album never gestures toward release. It stays sealed.
“SHARDS ØF SHATTERED DREAMS” stretches time again, allowing ideas to circulate rather than progress. The song doesn’t summarize what came before—it holds it in place. Nothing is resolved, nothing reframed.
“SCØRN” closes the record without finality. It doesn’t escalate or soften. It simply stops. The album doesn’t conclude so much as disengage, leaving the structure intact even as sound cuts out.
Production across UNATØNED is tight and deliberate. Guitars are layered but compressed inward, drums are exact and forward, and vocals function as another structural element rather than a focal point. There’s little unused space in the mix, reinforcing the album’s sense of containment. Everything feels placed, measured, and intentional.
UNATØNED doesn’t evolve through reinterpretation. It reinforces itself through return. Each listen confirms the same distances, the same limits, the same controlled weight. The album matters because it commits fully to constraint, trusting repetition and alignment to do the work excess once handled.
When it ends, it doesn’t resolve. It shuts off. That refusal to overstate is the album’s defining move. UNATØNED holds because it never breaks its own system.
Written by Rob Joncas for DeadNoteMedia.
Artist information and music courtesy of the band.
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