“We all grew up playing heavy music. For me personally, listening to artists like Swans, Godflesh, Neurosis and Kiss It Goodbye in my 20s was cathartic in a lot of ways. Identifying with people that have a similar world perspective, who are channeling their angst and frustration into the creative outlet of art and music — that was important.”

Josh Graham isn’t just talking about his decades-long career in heavy music, which has included A Storm of Light, Battle of Mice, and many years as the one-man visual department for Neurosis. He’s also talking about the formation of Guiltless, his new band with bassist Sacha Dunable (Intronaut), drummer Billy Graves (Generation of Vipers) and guitarist Dan Hawkins (A Storm of Light).

Guiltless released their debut EP, Thorns, via Neurot Recordings in early 2024. Crushing and cheerless, it seemed to welcome the apocalypse looming on our collective horizon. “The EP had a pretty narrow focus starting from my ideas,” Graham explains. “I wrote the basic outlines for the songs and then reached out to the guys to see if they’d actually want to play on it. With this record, my main goal was to really collaborate with Sacha and Dan and Billy because those guys are great songwriters. The new album is meant to open up the sonic palette and explore more territory.”

That new album is Teeth to Sky, the band’s first full-length. Even more pulverizing and focused than its predecessor, the album’s collaborative songwriting approach was paired with an adjustment to the lyrical content. “On the EP, the lyrics are as bleak as possible,” Graham points out. “I wanted to try to turn that around a little bit for Teeth to Sky. It’s a more introspective record. The overarching theme is taking advantage of your life while you have it. It's a crazy thing to really just be alive, floating through space on this little planet. Of course the lyrical content is still dark in nature, but somewhat less bring-on-the-apocalypse.”

You can hear it on “One Is Two,” which channels a tightly controlled Meshuggah churn through the more visceral lo-fi approach of Kiss It Goodbye or Swedish noise rock legends Breach. “The song explores the duality of human nature and how it relates to our time on Earth,” Graham says. “We are inherently moral as individuals, but as a species we bulldoze through everything we can get our hands on or drills in. Our species is both good and bad, one and the same.”

On “In Starless Reign,” Guiltless blend dissonant black metal and thundering doom while Graham invokes humanity’s inability to see the forest through the trees. “The rich focus on getting richer as the planet becomes less habitable from year to year,” he says. “No concern for the wellbeing of others, just, ‘Let’s cut more jobs, maximize profit and buy another superyacht.’”

Then there’s the bruising title track, which combines the gnarled sensibilities of The Jesus Lizard, Cherubs and Barn Owl into a rumination on Mother Nature’s revenge. “The title track represents a surrender to nature’s unstoppable force,” Graham says. “As climate extremes continue to grow and impact virtually everyone on earth, we are now facing the impact of our forefathers’ actions, and our children will live through a new and unprecedented future.”

Teeth To Sky was recorded remotely by the members of Guiltless—except for the drums, which were recorded by Travis Kammeyer (Generation of Vipers) at Fahrenheit Studios in Johnson City, Tennessee. The album was mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City in Salem, Massachusetts, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon.

The album will be released by Neurot Recordings in early 2025. - J. Bennett

GUILTLESS
Billy Graves: Drums
Dan Hawkins: Guitar, Noise
Sacha Dunable: Bass, Noise
Josh Graham: Guitar, Vocals, Noise

Tracklist: 
01. Into Dust Becoming
02. One Is Two
03. In Starless Reign
04. Teeth To Sky
05. Our Serpent In Circle
06. Lone Blue Vale
07. Landscape of Thorns
08. Illumine