No Trust: Unfound
There are lots of these two-piece bands around nowadays, maybe because talent is getting thin. And it’s not an easy thing to achieve, for a very simple reason. Without some sort of depth, whether it be via samples, synth, orchestra, various layers over several takes, whatever it is, it often only survives a single listen or two unless the riff action is beyond comprehension. No Trust come from East Bay CA, and they’re brothers; one on guitars and vocals and the other on drums, very simple. This sweet digipack came to us with stickers even, a strong recommendation for everyone out there, even bands that suck, and absolutely killer artwork. Seriously, this is one of the cooler covers we’ve seen over the years. The color scheme is simple, and biting, and the imagery awesome. Does it represent the band that is fond of the sending of the stickers? Are their riffs like a fine blade decapitating a snake? Well, sometimes, yes, sometimes no.
Unfound is a great listen, at first. No Trust do a great job on the production end, something typically lacking for self-released albums, so it’s stellar in comparison to the usual. The amazing thing here is this was all created with only two instruments; guitars and drums. Usually, you either have to pull out a hell of a lot of effects, and use them properly, in order for this to work, as we saw with a band from last year that we reviewed, Indian Handcrafts. That’s a totally different type of music, however, and in the context they’re playing effects are a definite requirement, otherwise forget it. With metal, however, this is extraordinarily difficult, because without bass you’re going to lack that punch and heat that harder styles require. No Trust, however, have done an above-average job of finding that tone where you wouldn’t know there wasn’t a bass on this even if you turned down the bass the entire way on your stereo. Singing, works, no problem there. But, the real impressive feature is the bass they captured here, all via guitar; sick, and nice and beefy for their sound. Another feature of Unfound that’s important to note is No Trust’s usage of the repetitive, meaningful riff. A few of the songs have some highly memorable passages you could listen to forever.
But that’s the important thing here, a few. Unfound is a great listen the first time through, probably even the second, and maybe even the third. The second track, “Darkness Reaches”, being the clear winner out of all of them and our suggested starting point (listen to the entire album via Bandcamp below). After that, however, those that stand out by virtue of how they had to be constructed overshadow the rest. Your mind begins to focus on them alone and skips the others because the riff quality is so much higher when they hit a good groove, and this is largely because No Trust is relying on only two instruments with barely any additions, as far as we can tell. When a song doesn’t catch a groove like the others, it drags, and one song in particular, “Nameless”, lasts far too long for the kind of song it is, a slow, dreadful dirge with very little of note, requiring us to pull out the word ‘boring’ for simplicity’s sake. Unfortunately it isn’t the only song like this, and Unfound goes from killer awesome riffage to “blah, where’s the next one” track-button pressing. Don’t get us entirely wrong, though, the songs that kill, kill, like they kill so much your target of said killing is complete nothingness afterwards. And it’s impressive because they’re rather basic in essence. The one thing this duo is going to need to work on in the future, however, is simple. They either have to keep doing what they’re doing and absolutely destroy with every riff they write, or they’re going to need to incorporate other layers to their sound so the listener isn’t left skipping over the fodder to get to the mother. Samples, more effects, more singing, whatever it may take.
Written by Stanley Stepanic
No Trust: Unfound
Self-Released
3 / 5
