No Funeral - "No Funeral" Album Review!!

It's now time for our 168th monthly CD review at The Sault Metal Scene, as we're taking a look at local/Edmonton noise punk duo No Funeral's self-titled debut album! Released to their Bandcamp page on March 5th, this is the newer project from two former bandmates in the Edmonton noise punk band Flint, including guitarist Connor O'Brien and bassist Jamie Vincent (ex-AlgomA/Bad Back). With No Funeral, Connor sings lead vocals too, while Jamie also handles drumming duties. The album was quickly recorded locally at Unsalted Audio last fall with producer/ex-Id Iota/Free Beer guitarist Dustin Goodall, who also provided backing vocals, additional bass, and "musical saw" on the final product. Mat Laporte, who designed the album artwork, guests on saxophone on the two final tracks. "No Funeral" is on sale on a "name your price" model, so while you can stream/download the album for free, consider buying it to support Connor & Jamie's work!

With 10 tracks running for about 28 minutes, let's begin this review with the opening track, "Smear Campaign"! Running for an album-low 80 seconds, this song is basically an explosive anti-smear campaign track. Musically, this is a chaotic post-hardcore-tinged song that fans of Flint will be right at home with (local fans will identify most with Bad Back despite Jamie not being the frontman here). While the lyrics are mostly shouted spoken word, the intensity and directness is to its benefit, and it gets in & out with precision! Second is "Morning Gong" (a metaphor for the sun), which appears to be a reflection of how your current situation is perceived. A much longer and more substantive track, this is less explosive and has more of a discordant deliberation to it that would be easy to scale down to a 1990s alternative/grunge sound if that's how they wanted to go about it.

Connor again more shouts in an intense spoken word than sings or screams, but it works for the aesthetic here, which slowly builds in aggression without getting too hardcore, and I like how this one was laid out as a composition! Third is "Swing Song", which has Connor dressing down someone for a hinted-at transgression that slowly gets clearer as the song progresses.  Shorter but much wordier, the title "Swing Song" is apt, as the structure has a swing-ish riff to it while still harbouring their noise punk tendencies, especially on the more disarranged choruses. and the more pained bridge at the end, with Connor screaming in increasingly passionate ways. He and Jamie meld their sound together well here, but as a pure composition, it's messier than I like compared to what came before. That is followed by "Bad Country" (not "Bat Country"), which is about increasing malaise with life on a long road trip.

Opening with a pounding distorted riff, this alternates between low monotone spoken word and pained post-punk wailing, both doubling up at points, which is an interesting contrast! The song is fairly chaotic when it gets going, but I like the intensity of the guitar work, and the rhythm section fits well, so this is one of the better tracks despite its short length! The first half of the album ends with "Agent of Failure", which feels like (to me) a depiction of being sent to Hell. A very prominent bass riff from Jamie dictates the pace of this song, which feels the most like something AlgomA may have recorded thanks to it's deliberate doomy progression (though most of their songs greatly exceeded 3:17). The dark atmosphere and pointed vocals are to this song's benefit, but I do prefer my noise punk to be faster and more free-wheeling than this. AlgomA fans will absolutely want to take a listen to this one though!

Song #6 is "Spirit Wife", which seems to be about longing for a relationship, toxic as it may be. This ramps the speed back up and again has the vibe of 1990s alternative/grunge but with the noise rock dial cranked to match. Connor's vocals are a little too layered in the mix compared to preceding tracks, but it gets in and out without overstaying its welcome, and it has a good punk aggression without going overboard! Next is "Gag", which is about how bad memories linger and don't just go away. To me, this reminds me more of old school 1970s-80s punk rock early but the second half is more doomy, so it's a tale of two songs in that respect. Honestly, this feels like less effort was put into it than its contemporaries on the album, as it just coasts along at two different speeds, but if you wanted No Funeral to play something a little less noise-influenced, you may feel different about this!

Eighth is "Kiss", a lyrically simple number about what one wants his lover to do to, for better or worse. The third song here to very much remind me of 1990s grunge rock, it arguably captures that style the most without dipping into their noise punk wheelhouse. No Funeral acquit themselves well here, and while Connor's speak-singing may not be ideal for the whole runtime (not to mention the ultra-abrupt ending), it's one of this album's better pure compositions! The penultimate song is also the longest on offer, namely "Storyteller", where Connor makes a graphic request before it's too late. Mat Laporte makes his first guest appearance on saxophone from the start here, adding some background melody as that feels out of place on the slow quieter verses, yet gets largely drowned out on the heavier choruses. The song would be emptier on the verses without the sax, but they still don't feel natural here.

I found the verses as they were to be too drawn out and slow, and while the choruses correct that, they stay on the same track, so this kinda meandered to me in spite of everything. Not a bad song, just not how I would have approached it. "No Funeral" closes with "...And Into The Jungle", which is the most symbolically cryptic song on offer, so read the lyrics tab on Bandcamp to try and read between the lines. This track is essentially a twisted version of beat poetry, with Connor reciting the lyrics in dark, ominous ways while he, Jamie, and Mat play backing instrumentation and effects to match. I won't tell you that this is the best song on offer (it's barely a song), but I admire it as a composition and I admire the choice to end the album with it, and it's a very interesting way to cap things off while also sticking with their prior stylistic choices more often than not!

So, what are my final thoughts on No Funeral's (allegedly) only album? While inconsistent, it delivers enough noise punk goods to leave a strong first/only impression, while also harbouring enough links to both Flint and Jamie's local band work to please fans of their prior back catalogue! Connor's vocals often reminded me of Henry Rollins in approach, if more experimentally applied, and he and Jamie had obvious chemistry that was resurrected in kind on album highlights like "Bad Country" and "Morning Gong", while "Kiss" effectively showcased how well they could replicate 1990s grunge and alternative sounds. For an album allegedly recorded in a few days, it hardly shows, but it's not a perfect product. From the too laid back "Gag" to the sometimes tedious "Storyteller", and even the messier "Swing Song", it wasn't universally to my tastes, but it mostly hits!

"No Funeral" covers a lot of ground in pursuit of their noise punk ideals, and there's a little something for everyone, even if you missed their Outspoken Brewing show last fall (or aren't familiar with Flint), so give this album a listen above, and I hope you guys liked this month's album review! Our next review will be of Handsome Sandwich's debut album "Deconstructed", so look for that in July at some point, and for more news and notes on The Sault Metal Scene later this week! Thanks everyone!