Band:	Guiltless
Album:	Thorns
Style:	Doom metal, Post-metal, Sludge metal
Release date:	February 2024

01. Devour Collide
02. All We Destroy
03. Dead-Eye
04. In Radiant Glow

A Storm Of Light lie in limbo: is this an indefinite hiatus or ‘peace out’? Whether or not this project returns, many of its former members aren’t waiting around for it; with Guiltless, they have a fresh outlet for grim sludge/post-metal.

Guiltless is one of those splinter projects, like The Otolith in relation to SubRosa, with so much overlap in personnel and style that one wonders what the exact need for the rebrand was. Comprised of A Storm Of Light founder, vocalist and guitarist Josh Graham, along with recent A Storm Of Light alumni Billy Graves and Dan Hawkins, Guiltless (whose line-up is completed by Intronaut’s Sacha Dunable on bass) don’t stray all that far from where ASOL left off; however, after an initial drone-based single in 2022, what they’ve produced with debut EP Thorns is a bit of a departure.

Coming courtesy of Neurot Recordings, the sound of Graham’s new project has drifted closer in line with the sound that was defined by said label's founder Neurosis (for whom he was a visual artist); it’s intriguing that Guiltless is described in the promo descriptions for Thorns as being born from a love of experimental rock, as this EP sounds more similar to other established artists than much of what A Storm Of Light produced. With a strong percussive presence, one that regularly explores tribal sounds, along with brooding, lumbering riffs that throw their weight around and a gruff half-growled/half-shouted vocal approach, songs such as “Devour / Collide” and “All We Destroy” bear a strong resemblance to the likes of Neurosis and Minsk.

Still, neither Neurosis nor Minsk have released anything in close to a decade (and at least one of them is unlikely to do so ever again), so there’s room for newer acts to conjure up that kind of menacing heaviness, and Guiltless do scratch that itch quite effectively. The drumming is typically the MVP for music in this style, and Graves accentuates the bleak atmosphere on “Devour / Collide” with a fascinating tom workout, bringing the energy as the riffs lurch to and fro. The production doesn’t necessarily allow the drums to shine to their fullest; there’s a slight dullness to the sound of the toms marching listeners into war in the opening of “All We Destroy”, although once this song gets going with some grim, mechanical sludge riffs, the weight of the music comes to the fore.

The formula doesn’t undergo much in the way of variation across the four tracks of Thorns, but “In Radiant Glow” offers most of what is the limited exploration of more muted and introspective sounds on the EP, with ambient noise and sound effects adding to the ominous feel of the song’s opening and closing clean guitar tones. Still, while the record is short enough to sustain itself on pure misanthropic bleakness, it does slightly lack in standout moments that rise above the general level of enjoyment that the band’s fundamental sound offers. Guiltless is a project to keep an eye on, but Thorns will elicit murmurs rather than cause a stir.