NPON "UNKOWNS & ABSOLUTES" E.P review
NPON or otherwise known as Nothing Positive, Only Negative is a three piece out of Denver, Co consisting of members Laddie Savage (bass, vocals), Brandon Artus (guitar, vocals) and Mike Dread (drums). I honestly believe this band has a very strong future in the Denver metal scene. NPON plays a distinctive mix of funeral doom and drone, but with a touch of suicidal depressive black metal primarily in the vocal department. This band is crushing and depressive and they seriously make you feel the pain that these songs are about and it can all be heard on their latest release UNKNOWNS & ABSOLUTES. The 3 track E.P shows the great ability that NPON has at mixing extreme genres into one cohesive band. I can hear hints of funeral doom acts like Evoken or Loss, but I also hear influences from bands like Silencer which I think needs to be mixed more into modern metal. These tracks make you feel like you slit your wrists and you're never going to die so you're just sitting in pain for eternity. One of the standouts on this E.P are the back and forth vocals from Laddie and Brandon. Both give these painful screeches over crushing drums and I believe that this is one of those bands that use two vocalists in a perfect way to where you forget that there are two because they work so well together. Another highlight on UNKNOWNS & ABSOLUTES is the mix in of soundbites that really give each track more atmosphere. I believe this E.P is at its best when its goes from heavy drone to a almost softer doom sound specifically on the last two tracks. My personal favorite song would be “A B E R R A T I O N”, the song begins with the sounds of crows and starts slow with some simple guitar, but quickly turns to a fuzz filled descent into the melancholy. The song is over 13 minutes long, but doesn't get boring which is a hard thing to do in this specific style of metal. One of the best parts of the song would be around the 6 minute mark where everything almost becomes silent with some very quiet background noise and you think the song is over but then the drums and vocals come back harder than ever and knocks you to the floor. Overall NPON’s “UNKNOWNS & ABSOLUTES” is a great E.P from a very promising and new Denver band and I personally am looking forward to seeing what's next for this trio.
https://npon.bandcamp.com/album/unknowns-absolutes-2017
