EP Review: Without Belief - The Parting Gift (2020)

The EP "The Parting Gift" by Ralph Brown and Jake Kershaw is no laughing matter. As last year both of them had to experience terrible losses within their close family, standing together and helping each other out was a highly important good for Jake and Ralph. On April 1, 2020 the EP "The Parting Gift" by their project Without Belief will be released as a display of how their collaboration helped them through the five stages of grief. Music of course, plays a central role for the two men from Melbourne.

Similar to Grief Collector whom I reviewed recently, Without Belief have produced a musical presentation of the five stages of grief and the band members' experiences while going through those stages. Different to the concept album by Grief Collector, Without Belief are not playing Progressive Doom Metal but an intense and melodic mix of Metalcore, Post Hardcore and Emotional Hardcore.
The EP commences with hoarse moaning and an air that could almost fit DSBM. But from then on Without Belief play loud, somewhat stomping, intense but melodic Metalcore. Except for the last track 'Acceptance' every song on "The Parting Gift" features a guest singer.

The atmosphere on "The Parting Gift" fits the concept of the EP very well. I would go even further and say, every stage of grief is displayed and musicked extremely comprehensible. From the lamenting introduction Without Belief directly hammer into the brachial track 'Denial' which features a chours by Lizi Blanco. Following up, the song 'Anger' featuring Mitch Rawlings is a pure wrecking ball that makes Hatebreed's 'Destroy Everything' sound like Harry Styles. Impellingly and pushingly Tom Armstrong and Without Belief seem to rise up in 'Bargaining' which features very interesting electronic glitch sounds. Obviously, it takes to fall into another hole which is musicked by shifted drums and melodical vocals by David de la Hoz in 'Depression'. This songs shows the strongest impact of Emocore on the whole EP and finlly leads into the re-enlivening song 'Acceptance'.
"The Parting Gift" is an impressive work of selfreflection and intense display of feelings. As producing this EP has hopefully helped the musicians to cope, I also hope that more people will find themselves within this work and make use of its salutogenetic character.

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