Album Review: Nothingness – Godslaughter
Reviewed by Sam Jones
Our latest record to look upon is Nothingness’ third full length: Godslaughter. Formed in 2018 out of Minneapolis, United States, following the release of their 2019 debut album The Hollow Gaze Of Death, the band have enjoyed a slew of releases as per the last couple of years. With Singles preparing audiences for their 2023 sophomore album Supraliminal the band enjoyed a new wealth of fans in their midst and, with another batch of Singles released earlier this year, Nothingness seek to do the same again with Godslaughter come its July 31st release date. Returning once more alongside Everlasting Spew Records and featuring grotesquely vibrant art by Adam Yates, Godslaughter looks set to be another punishing release from the band.
Many bands would use an introductory piece or provide something lengthy to give audiences an extensive idea of what their record is all about: Nothingness launch into a track less than two minutes long with tone and virility akin to repeatedly dropping cinderblocks on your face. The guitar tone is enormous, you can feel the encompassing scale their riffs possess. What is curious however is whilst the band play at speed, where drums keep the pace rolling and momentum is continuously kicked up, the riffs with their spatial mass seemingly ground the record as a weight. As a result your attention will never leave their songwriting or what they’re looking to do next because the guitar work is so monstrously heavy. There’s no chance the band will take flight herein, they’ve been given one hell of a paperweight.
The guitar work may be a dominant feature throughout this record but thankfully Nothingness did their time during the mixing process, for the drums still bleed through with another audibility you can follow their developing movements.in addition things like blast beats and the subtler cymbal strikes are just as noticeable. A less keenly aware band would have thrown all their weight and hopes behind the guitar playing alone, so to acknowledge the drums at all behind such a deluge of tone is noteworthy. As drums are struck you can feel the split second resonance emitted as the skin, demonstrated as taut, blows out and through the track you’re presently experiencing. Instrumentally it’s this subvert of drums and riffs that delivers the crux of Nothingness’ rabid fervour in this instance.
Supraliminal was a quality step forth for Nothingness but I feel like Godslaughter will be looked back on with delight given the band’s heightened rampancy embedded within the songwriting. In an off comparison it reminds me of Pantera in the 90s, where the band just kept going heavier and heavier until they reached a state of power fans of the time hadn’t dared believe the band were capable of; that is where Nothingness are now. It’s like they looked on their last album and thought, and knew, they could go one further resulting in an unapologetically blunt, utterly unrepentant record. There is hardly a barrier between yourself and the songwriting for the band have stripped any niceties back to give you songwriting at its most primal and hideous.
In line with the band going one step further we must discuss the vocals. Where Nothingness’ vocals have always been great they’ve been taken to that next degree of savagery; they’re heavier, filthier, wilder, they’re the most merciless and sure of death they’ve ever been. I couldn’t think of a more apt vocal performance for such a belligerent record. There are sequences where frontman Barclay Olson strings numerous techniques together to create this successive train of slaughter; there are only a handful of instances where his vocals aren’t in play so not only are you bludgeoned by the band’s instrumental brutality, but your nerves and sinews are constantly torn and ravaged by a vocal delivery that refuses to cease. It certainly underlines the feeling that escaping the band is a bygone dream.
In conclusion, Godslaughter is as ruthless as its namesake would suggest. I feel like Nothingness have now reached a new and punishing level in their career, as I would be more than happy to see future releases by the band in line with Godslaughter’s crushing strength. If their last releases have been strong stepping stones then Godslaughter sees Nothingness truly arrive into the world metal stage as a legitimate presence in today’s extreme metal. It’s the kind of record you’ll put on for a burst of seething and unquantifiable violence. Yet as heavy as it is it’s never so total you can’t follow the band’s direction or feel like their performance feels lost on you. Nothingness have arrived in earnest.
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