What do you get when you combine the essences of Mastodon, Queens of the Stone Age, and At The Drive In? You get something larger than life in all aspects of musical wizardry. Gone Is Gone is very much that. As Tony Hajjar (At The Drive In) and Mike Zarin were working on music for film trailers, they discovered that their own sound had outgrown boundaries and needed to be unleashed into the world. Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age) and Troy Sanders (Mastodon) joined quickly afterwards, and what we have is a sound that can only be described as absofuckenlutely astounding.

“Violescent” brings forward the initial feeling you experience when seeing a band play live: a little feedback, little uncertainty, a little trepidation, and then it all falls into loud and dirty sludgy riffs and open vocals that are visceral and evocative all at the same time. The refrain of “Say Goodnight” implores you to sing along as the beat beckons you sway your head in abandon.

Slippery and slinky, “Starlight” creeps over us as the beat offers foreboding rhythms until we fly into an emotionally charged refrain. Plaintive and haunting with a psychedelic undertone, “Starlight” is a progressive song that ignites the synapses in the brain and overcharges the system with colorful sounds and yearning for more.

A rolling and upbeat “Stolen From Me” changes the pace with quicker upbeat, as Troy’s unmistakable voice pushes the song, and we become one with the music that ultimately moves into grainy and harsher rhythm, and guides itself back to where it began, but taking trips into secondary and tertiary styles that still support to overall motif. “Character” whispers in over undulating guitars, dripping with intrigue and mystique radiating into a fluctuating guitar moan, and tenebrous deep spoken words, and ultimately a gorgeous cacophony of warped guitar tones that flitter off as if they were never there to begin with.

Anthemic in character, “One Divided” languidly flourishes into a guitar beat driven vocal stanzas. Rhythms and interest take over and become a true standout on the album, as it incorporates all musical aspects and styles the bands the supergroup individuals are known for, and becomes a sonic piece of art that yearns for tangible qualities.

Gone Is Gone – Stolen From Me (Official Music Video)

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“Praying From the Danger” pushes with waves of guitars along an organic and natural heartbeat of a drum that waxes and wanes to finally fall into a vocal flail. Twinkling guitars dance across the backdrop whilst the melody is enveloped and developed by the vocal tenacity Troy has coined and perfected over the years.

A short and deliciously crepuscular “Recede and Enter”, murky and cautionary, breaks up the sonic space, allowing the passage into the conclusion to this audial treat, “The Chapter”.

Sweetly and precociously entering into existence, “The Chapter” commences with entrancing synths backgrounds that envelop and unfold to reveal a soft chant and guitar that unwinds and unfurls into plaintive recants that back and forth into the amazing sound that Gone is Gone is blossoming onto our horizons with.

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by Alice Roques, RockRevolt Managing Editor