Supergroups. They always bring lots of promises but fail to deliver them almost every time. Anyone remembers SuperHeavy, a project consisting out of Mick Jagger, Joss Stone, Dave Stewart, A. R. Rahman, and Damian Marley? When you look at the members you’d thought they would make magic, but the album itself was pretty disappointing. It seems like every time superb musicians get together, their egos prove to be just too big to cooperate and make music that isn’t just an unfinished mess of various ideas but a work with a head and a tail, a record that encompasses the prowess of all musicians that are a part of it.
Gone is Gone is a classic supergroup. Made from Troy Sanders (Mastodon), Troy Van Leeuwen (Queens of the Stone Age), Tony Hajjar (At the Drive-In), and Mike Zarin. Gone is Gone plays a mix of stoner rock, alt metal with a hint of savannah sludge. Last summer the band released their eponymous debut, containing eight songs and spanning just over half an hour.
As soon as the album starts, the whole atmosphere reminds quite heavy of Baroness and their last couple of records. Similar riffs, comparable pacing, and almost identical vocals paint the music in various shades of yellow, green, and violet. There are some Mastodon influences (after all, Troy is one of the founding members of Mastodon and his vocals dominate the last couple of albums), but the music itself is way more simplified, with easy to listen to riffs, drumming that’s miles from the psychotic performance of Brann Dailor (quite odd since Tony Hajjar was a proper beast on each At the Drive-In record) and none of those trippy multilayered vocals.
The two best songs on the record are the album opener, Violescent, with its catchy leading riff, and the doomy and gloomy Starlight. Other notable compositions include Stolen From Me and This Chapter. The record isn’t stellar, but it is a solid offering that’s fun to listen to and worthy of a couple of hours of your time.
The band released their first full-length this February, dubbed Echolocation, and I had high hopes for it. Unfortunately, Gone is Gone went the usual supergroup direction. Instead of building upon the solid foundation laid by their debut EP, the band made a mediocre album filled with filler songs and without any sorts of originality. I expected much more, but to be honest, was anticipated for the Echolocation to end up as a disappointment.
In the end, Gone is Gone EP is a solid listen that will add a couple of songs to your everyday playlist. One the other hand, Echolocation is a letdown that becomes tedious after just a couple of spins. It’s a shame Gone is Gone haven’t managed to deliver, since the EP had lots of potential. Oh, well, another supergroup ended in the rut despite being made out of proven musical talent, a story I saw too many times already.
