EP Review: One Gone Thus – Impermanence

There’s a teaching in Buddhism of no physical or mental objecting being permanent, and desires for or attachments to either causes suffering. This teaching, known as impermanence, can be a stark reminder that all people are caught between the ever changing cycle of life, from praise to blame, gain to loss and more. Using this ideology, newly formed post hardcore outfit One Gone Thus have created their debut EP, Impermanence, around this concept in hopes of conveying an explicitly stated message to anyone who gives them a listen. With a particularly engrossing theme that lives behind the music and a heavily influenced, yet altered style of post hardcore, does this newly create duo offer a sound and message worth paying attention to?

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Genre: Post Hardcore
Label: Independent
Release: June 3, 2016
Connect: Facebook | Twitter
Purchase: Bandcamp
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One of the more immediately noticeable elements found within the sound that creates Impermanence is the amount of variety it has. While the base of the music stems from the post hardcore genre and the influence of Underoath can be found throughout the tracks, there’s a larger amount of experimentation which gives it a more varied and technical driven sound. The opening track, “Self & Soul” is driven by its progressive guitar riffs and hurriedly paced programming that creates a synthetic sound inevitably drowning out some of the vocal quality. Next up, “A Girl Who Turned To Stone”, showcases the vocals better as the electronics take a backseat and lets the instrumental ability the duo have shine. The remaining three tracks all continue to show off One Gone Thus’ ability to be experimental and varied – something they have made known repeatedly. “I Disappear” melds a modern rock and alternative metal sound together to make a fierce sounding, yet overly indulged track while “Porcelain” opens up with a somber piano and trepid singing before it explodes into a fury of intense drumming and hammering guitars completely changing your expectation of the song. The final track, “Watch Me Change” is perhaps the hardest hit by the experimentation as it’s constantly switching up stylistically, which ends up ruining the overall flow of the track and leaves a feeling of overextending its stay.

Porcelain

Just like porcelain clay that shatters to pieces upon the floor/ Every heart’s made the same with endless desire, always craving more/ Though we know that nothing lasts, like a promise bound to break/ We bury the truth to keep hidden away just to spare ourselves the pain/ Of falling

From the opening track, “Self & Soul” to the last, “Watch Me Change”, One Gone Thus showcases their musical ability with progressive driven riffs and technical leads and fills that ultimately offer a unique take on the post hardcore genre. While doing so, they unintentionally start to over-saturate their sound with a smattering of variety and experimentation that abruptly hurts the flow of the music and inevitably disguise what could be a great sound. With Impermanence being a debut, it was expected to be a little bit rough around the edges – and it ultimately shows within the total package. If they rein it in a bit with their next release and refine the variety and confine some of the experimental aspects, there’s no doubt the gem hidden beneath the chaotic sounds will shine through.