Requiem

I’ve found with a few acts from France, notably in the death thrash field, that they have a sense of melody in common. I could choose a simplistic explanation and say that No Return just sound like that because melodeath occupies a neat in-between position for those 2 genres, and although that’s kind of true it also hides the blending of a few metallic styles in their main chassis. It’s worth noting that No Return, despite a history much longer than I thought, have a similar artist rating that sets them alongside the likes of Dew-Scented rather than more typical death thrashers like Possessed or even the old-school German thrash groups. In any case, European elements are combined to great effect on Requiem, impressively the quintet‘s 11th album, the distinctive enraged momentum from post-At The Gates projects hovering over proceedings in addition to the tropes mentioned above.

In this vein, the element I’m often left searching for is identity, since it’s practically a given that No Return will hammer riffs down from all directions and sound incensed but not overly brutal. Indeed, the guitarists keep the hit rate high, just as the drummer does with the pace, mainly staying in the upper and mid speed categories despite no frantic thrashing like early Slayer. Evident more so once out of the verses, cuts like ‘Affliction’ double down on melody, sometimes using standalone layers to add contrasting juice to the dry-voiced Steeve Petit, then playing leads in a manner somewhere between melodeath and power metal, taking certain sections in a very accessible direction, though not at the expense of speed or loss of technicality. While No Return do remind of Legion Of The Damned and Hatesphere rather in the bulkier main structure, these melodic highlights leave a gap of distinction, which I view in the favour of the Frenchmen.

One of the most frequent downsides with this genre often comes in a lack of diversity. Requiem skirts that issue somewhat because of the altered intensity of their lead work, but cannot entirely sidestep accusations of similarity during the 47 minutes. Pacing really starts to become an issue by the halfway point, very few moments dropping more than about 10bpm from the standard speed. The changes that do arrive are quite little and kind of late, ‘Survival Instinct’ allowing a marching beat and decorative soloing for a while, then ‘Lies’ using a longish sample to begin, which could have provided a much needed break 10 minutes earlier. Ditto the cool synth intro on the closer.

Ultimately, the high pace isn’t an insurmountable problem to most regular listeners of semi-extreme metal, since No Return change their angle of attack a little more often than their speed, even without altering the rhythms a great deal. Equal parts flat out smacking riffs, catchier parts, and grooving momentum do much of the heavy lifting, leaving the deep growls as probably the most consistent feature of the album, if a little overwhelming when present. Requiem is skilfully performed and pretty satisfying, but could use a bit more work on the composition side.