Published: June 2, 2023

Already, I wasn’t expecting myself to be here given how little I find myself within the reaches of depressive black metal. Just the other day, I found myself before a work that I was damn near convinced was going to be most of my exposure to the sound for many months to come, but leave to None, a band that has become damn near synonymous with the style itself since its inception, to change that. It’s been a long four-year silence from the secretive act that was known for pumping out three albums in three years, but it’s clear that a retreat was needed for one reason or another. In that solitude has been crafted an album that shows a maturity that None has been hinting at for years now with the mastery to make it work many times over throughout the whole of the 56-minute effort.

For a little while a few years ago, it really felt like you couldn’t go two feet without there being news of a fresh creation from None, but be it for creative reasons or pandemic-related complications, None seamlessly slipped back into their native shadows to us hanging for a surprising four years. As one of the few acts that I was keenly aware of throughout the whole of depressive black metal, I was curious as to when the name would return and in what form, yet I don’t think much could have prepared me for the macabre beauty and heartache of “Inevitable”. Already, None was a certifiable masterclass of what it means to the take the sound its very best lengths with incredibly few names able to hold a candle to their power to the best of my knowledge. Everything that None has ever brought to the table has been summoned forth for “Inevitable” to make it both the longest creation from the band to date and arguably its most potent. Just as capable of showing us the futility of trudging onward when you’ve been caught at every turn as it is capable of presenting to you the majesty and dark beauty of such realizations, this is a work that really strikes to the very core of both the soul and what depressive black metal is able to be when put in the most competent of hands. Paired with a haunting dirges that find the darkest corners of our minds alone with nothing but guilt and self-inflicted torture to keep us company, the black metal that’s at play here is nothing short of what we should come to expect from the likes of None as the instrumentation is impeccable at every turn, the atmosphere is nigh on impenetrable, and the musicianship downright untouchable.

I will never claim to be an expert in any style especially one like depressive black metal where it just simply is not my cup of tea, but there’s a reason why everytime None puts out an album that there’s an excited rustling throughout the scene. They’ve long been an act that is not to be denied or underestimated in any form as their craft cannot truly be compared to anything else with their knack for the style something that extremely few others can ever hope to come close to. There was no need for them to prove themselves as they crafted “Inevitable”, but that didn’t stop them from putting together what might be their most imposing work yet.