Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia, four-piece emo outfit Blis. build on the themes of loss, conservative Christian overtones and abuse, and condensed them into 11 immersive tracks.
Following on from 2015’s ‘Starting Fires In My Parents House’ EP, ‘No One Loves You’ instrumentally shies away from previous twinkly, upbeat riffs into much moodier and heavier territories. Often shifting into post rock-esque walls of sound at the end of cuts such as ‘Old Man’ and ‘Ugly’.
Vocalist/guitarist Aaron Gossett’s lyrics deal with life-changing issues head-on with little to no metaphors to pad out the emotional rhetoric, which is made clear on opener ‘Dumb’. Starting in a low vocal register, Gossett quickly erupts into action as he reflects on his disconnection towards the Bible; “An old book that my parents forced on me, that built the separation of what’s right and being happy”.
While Gossett’s experience of being a father is touched upon, it is engulfed by the toxic experiences of his ex-partner’s parents, and ultimately the suffering this caused him. Arguably ‘Christian Girls’ and ‘Pathetic’ hold the most emotional weight, despite being much quieter and less grandiose dynamically.
Stand out tracks ‘Stale Smoke’ and ‘Take Me Home’ are defiant in their blistering guitar work, contrasting with Gossett’s delicate to rivetingly pained vocals refrains. ‘Servant’ serves as a semi-interlude and lulls us away with its haunting ambient textures. Buried under the lush instrumentation, we can make out Gossett’s painful revelation as a victim of abuse; “You don’t realize just how big of a part you played in ruining my life”.
Overall, ‘No One Loves You’ is an emotionally draining rollercoaster from start to finish. It sees Blis. mature as songwriters to create a stunning debut LP.
4/5
‘No One Loves You’ by Blis. is out now on Sargent House Records.
Blis. links: Facebook|Twitter|Bandcamp
Words by Ashwin Bhandari (@GIVEUPOX17)
