While this may be their debut full length, the fact that Breaking The Day have been plying their trade since 2007 has no doubt helped to make this such an impressively accomplished first effort.

This six piece plunder an expansive, dynamic sound that has more in common with the likes of Neurosis, Shels and other bands who take the metal genre somewhere a bit more interesting than generic metalcore. The strongest moments here are when the band go for the jugular, with screaming over massive rolls of intense riffing, no doubt added to by the frequent drawn-out scections of downbeat melodicism. Cracking stuff. (Nick Mann)

Opening on an intro that instills a sense of foreboding Survived By None erupts with colossal power into'The Streets Will Rain Blood'. It is heavy, imposing and covered in blackened clouds of driving bleakness, but is also wonderfully stirring. The crushing guitar riffs are interspersed with skilful, engaging, lighter underlying flows, well light for this heavy weight band, the bass deeply growling alongside hard impacting drums, all surrounding great, scowling aggressive vocals. Into a smothering oppressive blanket of suffocation, the album turns next with 'Leave A Blanket Of Ash On The Ground'. An almost instrumental piece, apart from the grizzled, brief repeating phrase 'Burn Away' it leaves nothing but barren smoking senses.

It is no exaggeration to say each and every track is as aurally intense, but they also have a vibrancy that ensures that the destructive attack never becomes one blow too much; the smart and countering progressive melodic intricacies, though many times behind a heavy veil, expand and grace each song. 'Pretty Girls Makes Graves' epitomises this more than any other song, darkening from a light drum intro, it swerves through many transitions as the passion dripping desolation of the lyrics and tone leaves the listener the victim of emotional consumption. The duo of 'A Murder Of Crows' and the instrumental 'Nightmare Dependencies' also challenge as the most impressive moments on Survived By None, the first with a gentle guitar beginning that misdirects until the explosion of viscerally flailing terse abuse hits hard, and the latter a haunting sorrowful blaze of mellowness that is just as powerful without the aural violence.

The album ends just as intensely and impressively as it started and continued, with the awesome power of 'No Love Lost, Just Forgot' and 'Till Death', confirming an album that is satisfyingly consistent and impressively effective. The closest comparison to their sound is Neurosis blended with Tombs, but they bring a uniqueness that takes it down another path that they own alone. From the great artwork and the strong and striking lyrics to the last stinging note, Survived By None is an album to succumb to and the drained empty state it leaves you in by its end worthwhile. The band may have taken a long time to deliver this, but the punishing result proves that things happen when they should and that now is the time of Breaking The Day

SOUNDS LIKE: Neurosis, Tombs, Black Tusk

YOU'LL LIKE THIS IF: lying shattered under an oppressive intense wall of noise lined with progressive creative intricacies is your pleasure

Survived by None doesn't require excessive gore- or indeed excessive anything- to get this point across to us; which makes it all the more worthwhile of a listen. The pace doesn't break suddenly into a gallop as you might expect from other branches of modern metal, yet the lack thereof does not make it a linear listen. The songs are extremely well put together musically, and on a structural level are enough to keep attention from lapsing, From the ominous rumble of the Intro into 'The Streets Will Rain With Blood Tonight.' to- well, 'Till Death'.

Standout Track:- Hours (Broken Clocks)- I enjoyed this track thoroughly live, and instantly recognised it upon reaching it in the album. In addition to having riffs that are set apart from the others up until this point, the middle section contains a somewhat middle eastern flavour in the guitar progression and especially in the tribal style drumbeat that accompanies it. This idea recurs in the subsequent track 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' but here it is stronger. Although I would recommend (as ever) that you listen to the whole album- If you are testing the water with one track- spend some minutes on Hours.

In Conclusion:- The source of the vast amount of praise and reaction they have received in press and at shows is evident in this album. They have captured the colossal live sound which is a task for a band. They have developed a sound all their own and demonstrate it in spectacular fashion. Among Britain's rising stars, this six piece burn brightly, and (if you'll forgive a further pun) if this is the 'dawning' of Breaking the Day' I look forward to what comes next.

The oppressive momentum gathered by this band is most easily recognisable in centrepiece Pretty Girls Make Graves (no, not that one), blending the concussive force of Neurosis with the clipped precision of hardcore drumming before infusing it with a near-religious even-handedness, but the same effect is shown off readily and confidently throughout. Only moments like Nightmare Dependencies dare to break the chain of brutality by allowing a measure of restraint but it's this album's bluntness that makes it what it is.

Formed some four years ago in Chatham, Kent, a place where many seem to believe that the term 'chav' originated, Breaking The Day are a six piece outfit who are happy to allow themselves to be tagged with a sludge metal label yet sound more at ease by escaping from the mould and creating a dream- (possibly nightmare-) scape that stomps through many genres, plundering their finer moments. The press release - this is rare, seriously - nails the band's sound, remarkably. They cite Cult Of Luna and Neurosis as major influences and, for once, I find little to argue with, the bleakness of the former being the spine of this band, of this album.

Nihilistic, more so hopeless, 'Survived By None' is an album that, and this has to be noted initially, sounds amazingly confident and assured. There doesn't appear to be a moment housed within its digital walls that doesn't sound completely and thoroughly mapped out, dissected and reassembled into the darkest excuses for songs possible. The production, the playing, all make this seem like the perfect crime, the blackest act committed yet gotten away with.

The bleakness suffocates. The heaviness pins you to the wall, aurally and thematically. A spiritual cousin of 'The Downward Spiral', 'Survived By None' edges into black metal territory at times, yet remains firmly rooted in doom country. 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' may be a title already familiar to you, whether it be from the mind of Jack Kerouac or the mouth of Morrissey, but rather than throw flowers it throws mammoth guitar at the listener, an assault reoffended by 'Leave A Blanket Of Ash On The Ground', a song whose title should confirm the subject matter dealt with here.

There are moments of menacing subtlety layered over the cracks, 'Nightmare Dependancies' for example, the opening of '...And In The End What Is Love Without Loss...', yet they only add to the sinister element rather than offer respite from it.

As bleak an album as they come, 'Survived By None' may only be able to be devoured if in a certain mood but, God help us, if you find yourself in that place then this album can be your companion, stirring thoughts that you may wish you never had.