Band:	Lost Society
Album:	No Absolution
Style:	Metalcore, Groove thrash metal
Release date:	February 21, 2020
Guest review by:	omne metallum

01. Nonbeliever
02. No Absolution
03. Blood On Your Hands
04. Artificial
05. Pray For Death
06. Outbreak (No Rest For The Sickest)
07. My Prophecy
08. Mark Upon Your Skin
09. Worthless
10. Deliver Me
11. Into Eternity [feat. Apocalyptica]

On their fourth album, Lost Society change direction, shedding their thrash metal style and moving in a metalcore direction. Such abrupt changes require a band to either nail their new sound perfectly or provide a bridge to allow old fans to move with them. Lost Society fail to successfully do either, and as a result you have album that ends up pleasing few.

It is the guitar work that serves as the bridge between their new sound and the thrash roots of before, playing riffs that are heavy but with just enough groove to enable fans of old to follow in the transition to their new metalcore leanings. This is highlighted in the first three tracks, relying on the riff to hold your attention and lead you through the song, whilst replacing the thrash energy of before with a more intense but slower rhythm (just listen to the riff in "No Absolution"). Had the band managed to continue to replicate this throughout the rest of the record, it would have been a whole different story.

However, it is with the fourth track "Artificial" that No Absolution takes a nosedive that it doesn't pull out of. This aforementioned track gets too close to Bullet For My Valentine worship, coming off as a second-rate attempt at catching their sound rather than creating their own. This comes to be the theme with the rest of the album; it plays as a who's who of metalcore and abandons what was the slim amount of originality that opened the record. "My Prophecy" is While She Sleeps and "Worthless" is Asking Alexandria amongst others; grab yourself a bingo card, people. Wearing your influences on your sleeve isn't necessarily a bad thing, but couple that with the change up in direction this album represents, and the band lose all traces of what makes them unique, becoming just another band in an overcrowded genre aping other established acts.

The production is the highlight of the record, as everything sounds crisp, sharp and powerful; it's just a shame that it ends up being a fantastic coat of paint on top of something that is broken. "Into Eternity" for example sounds perfect; everything is crystal clear and arranged well, but this ends up backfiring, as such production highlights weaknesses such as the vocals rather than compensating for them. Elbanna's vocals come off as forced rather than emotive, having nowhere to hide being pushed so far forward and clear in the mix. While passable on other tracks, they do not fit the slower nature of the song.

Hopefully the band can maintain enough momentum that they can get a second swing at this, as their previous albums show that they have the talent; it's now a case of being able to channel it properly. As for this record? Hopefully it serves as the misfire in their catalogue rather than the starting point of where things went wrong.