The first thing you notice about ‘Endless Disconnect’ is the use of electronics. Obviously there are scores upon scores of bands these days that use some form of electronic element and for a group of young, clean cut guys to throw them into a modern metal album should be far from surprising. And yet, somehow, it is. Whether it’s surprise at the tastefulness of how much they are used, or surprise that a metal group are using string sections playing a theme that wouldn’t sound of place as the backing to a film set in Ancient Egypt, it is a surprise nonetheless.
The next thing you notice is how good the band sound. The clean, modern production values that No Sin Evades His Gaze use perfectly suit the drop-tuned, almost djent style that they play, which is less surprising, but it’s the vocals of frontman and ex-Ravenface singer James Denton that slam into you. No Sin Evades His Gaze have a sublime grasp of dynamic variance, capable of disgustingly heavy riffs and serene, almost beautiful clean sections, often within a few breaths of each other. Occasionally these clean sections do start to veer off into wishy-washy ambient sections, almost like The Contortionist but not quite as deliberate, and bordering on self-indulgent – however they do serve to make the heavy sections feel that much more impactful when they do rejoin.
It is unquestionably the skill of Denton and the guitarists that they are able to balance the heavy and melodic sections in such a way, and even when the rhythm section is throwing out a faster section or a Periphery-esque polyrhythmic beat, there is still usually some form of melody over the top holding it all together. Whether it’s a melodic vocal, lead guitar line, or electronic overtone, without the melodic leads there wouldn’t be much else to separate this band from those who delve far too deep into loads-of-breakdowns territory.
It is these melodies where the true strength of the album is. Songs like title track ‘Endless Disconnect’ and especially ‘Doomsday Generation’ are so catchy whilst retaining a core “metal” sound that it’s a genuine wonder that radio stations across the land haven’t picked them up. No Sin Evades His Gaze are clearly as influenced by Killswitch Engage as they are by Meshuggah, and it is this that lends so many of the songs (‘You Can’t Save Me’, ‘Heavy Days’ and ‘Feels A Lot Like Hell’ in particular) an accessibility whilst also still making them Metal As Fuck.
‘Endless Disconnect’ is a huge step up for a band that were already head and shoulders above many of their peers. More releases of the same quality as this will see them following their peers in Periphery, Tesseract and Devin Townsend right to cult fame.
ANDY LEDDINGTON