No Return – Requiem
Release Date: 21st October 2022
Label: Mighty Music
Bandcamp
Genre: Death Metal, Thrash Metal.
FFO: Dew-Scented, Testament, Dark Tranquillity.
Review By: Andy Spoon
French Death/Thrash powerhouse No Return has returned (pun intended) with their eleventh, yes eleventh studio album to be released on October 21st, 2022 on Digital, CD, and limited LP through Mighty Music. Newer additions to the band’s recent line-up include the recent return (pun intended) of vocalist Steve Petit, who has been on hiatus from the project for around 20 years. Requiem is his first full length album with the band since the early 2000s. The band is claiming that after a “coming of age” period, they still have not yet stagnated, hoping to wow audiences further with one of their most assaulting and intense albums to date.
If I were to take a wild stab at trying to describe No Return’s sound on Requiem, I would absolutely try and liken them to some of the more serious Death Metal projects out there, but also mix in some of the older school thrash and heavy projects with origins back in the 1980s and 1990s. There is a huge amount of guitar lead goodness in almost every single track. I think of the release this year from Voivod, which was so guitar-heavy, but never managed to get to this level of heaviness. Requiem is a release which is absolutely about as heavy as it gets, featuring scathing blast beats, trills and riffs, grinding and crushing vocals, but also hints of the early thrash metal influence a la Megadeth, Testament, and Exodus.
Guitars are heavy and deep, leaning into the “triple-Rectifier” metal sound that seems to have become the standard sound of metal acts in recent decades. One of the things that makes certain metal artists simply intolerable is that tinny, hollow Boss Metal Zone tone, which is hackneyed at this point, unless it’s designed as a throwback to the old “chainsaw” Swedish metal days. No Return has absolutely brought the modern and prolific sound to Requiem, showing they absolutely know what is working right now, not regressing to earlier days, or transforming their sound to new generations of Death Metal, something that deserves respect, for sure. Pay attention to whirling and trilling guitar leads, as so-few death metal acts have at this stage in the game. Maybe it takes some of the veterans of thrash to bring some of the 1990s back into death metal, at least properly.
I think that the vocals are one of the highlights of the album, as Steve “Zuul” Petit’s growls and screams are absolutely perfect for the tone of the album. While he doesn’t screech up into the higher registers (except on The Black Wolf’s Kingdom), he absolutely carries the rhythmic and tonal “Feel” of the album with his intensity and power. I enjoyed his vocal performance and technique on each and every single track. For a band who is pushing 30 years as a performing act, No Return is absolutely as relevant as they’ve ever been, not losing out on the ever-evolving sound. If anything, it makes me want to dive further into their discography to hear how their sound has evolved. Even more, I’d like to know how long they’ve had this sound, as they seem to really understand what death metal fans want at this exact moment.
Recording and performance-wise, everything is produced and made with expertise and finesse. I don’t really think that any of the tracks were too long, too short, or poorly-performed or engineered. I think that the mixing is fairly well-done across the board, not leaving anything more “forward” than others, at least to the point where it was noticeable. I believe that there is absolutely a space for No Return right now in various metal scenes, including thrash death, ODSM, and even brutal death, as these guys seem to have a good grasp on everything right now. Perhaps it’s the process of refinement, like a fine wine; No Return has made an album that is appealing, well-made, and still exciting to experience in today’s world where the market is as bloated as-ever. 
(3.5 / 5)
