Album Review: Turin – The Unforgiving Reality in Nothing

Formerly known as This is Turin, Turin has been making waves in the UK underground for many years, presenting an interesting mix of modern metalcore and intense death metal. The pandemic was a rough time for the band, bringing along with it feelings of hopelessness and deceit, impacting each and every member deeply. Apart from the existential dread it surely caused everyone, it also ended up planting the seed for what would be the band’s unrelenting return – a rebirth of sorts – The Unforgiving Reality in Nothing. It is with that grim backdrop that the -core outfit has released arguably some of their best work, that showcases a great deal of evolution, both sonically and personally, making a case for one of the best deathcore releases of the year.

Compared to the band’s previous album, 2015’s Cercis, their musical evolution is palpable, with their self-titled presenting better, heavier tones(both when it comes to guitar and drums), more complex compositions, with more variety in between them and less cliches – a biggerwillingness to experiment and subvert expectations. Turin still does bring stellar, “safer” tracks, such as “Apostate”, which executes the modern symphonic deathcore formula incredibly well, with macabre strings and horns backing tremolo riffs, blast beats and machine gun kicks, all wrapped up by Darryl Jones’ sinister growls and gutturals. “I Am the Truth”, track that precedes the previously mentioned “Apostate”, brings an unparalleled heaviness, kicking down every door right from the get-go, featuring a truly nasty, “stank-face” worthy breakdown.

One of the highlights of this new LP is the sequence of “Ghosts” and “Reflections”, with the former being a calming (but still incredibly dark and somewhat unnerving) post-metal effort composed of exclusively atmospherics and the latter being one of the most punching and no-nonsense tracks so far. The simplicity of “Ghosts” allows the listener to quickly take a step back and really reflect on and abosrb all of the – controlled – chaos that has gone on, bracing for “Reflections”, which is hard-hitting through and through, from beginning to end. “Reflections” is then followed by the track that shares the album’s name, which fittingly encapsulates very well what the band (of the same name) was going for with this new direction for their sound, sporting both nasty breakdowns and deep, huge choruses – a generally very appealing mixture.

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From this back end of The Unforgiving Reality of Nothing, there are two more tracks that stand out among the rest, “Loss” and the closing track, “Our Reality in Nothing”. “Loss” has Travis Worland of American deathcore giants Enterprise Earth lending his vocals alongside Jones. Without losing any of the essence of the album’s sound, Worland’s vocal style complements that of Jones’ perfectly, offering a bit of contrast and creating a unique experience, uniting an established force in the genre with a band that will surely come to have a major impact in the scene. The closer, on the other hand, is an outstanding display of emotion and deep feelings, without losing power at any moment. The stunning symphonic section at the start may deceive some listeners into thinking it’ll be a calm track, but it is quite the contrary, donning machine-gun kicks and an amazingly powerful riff yet again. It is impressive how this one song can stir up as much melancholy as it does, given how harsh it may sound. The album as a whole does leave the listener with a pretty bleak worldview after its 10 songs, but this closer shows that although our world may be going down the drain, it can be a surprisingly alluring process.

All in all, this album stands out as a beautiful, genre-bending piece of metal, blending the deep, abstract soundscapes of post-metal with the beauty of symphonic death metal with the devastating aggression of deathcore, while still being able to express a staggering amount of emotion. For every nasty breakdown, there is a beautiful symphonic section, and every downbeat riff is accompanied by a huge dose of atmosphere. Not only is it a major evolution point for the band itself, acting as a true rebirth, a reformulation of their sound, but it shows how the stalwarts of the scene continue to push the boundaries of the genre, managing to surprise listeners on every turn, so to speak. In spite of all of the themes touched on in the album, the future is surely bright for the band, even if hope for the future may be fleeting.

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The Unforgiving Reality in Nothing is released on the 12th of July.

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