GUILTLESS – teeth to the sky – CD digisleeve

Born from a love of experimental rock, noise rock, early industrial, sludge, and doom, Guiltless (featuring members of A Storm of Light, Intronaut, Generation of Vipers and Battle of Mice) heralds the coming of a heavy music which looks both inwards and out to convey the encompassing mixture of hope, despair and determination which comes from observing life as we know it today.
“We all grew up playing heavy music. For me personally, listening to artists like Swans, Godflesh, Neurosis and Kiss It Goodbye in my 20s was cathartic in a lot of ways. Identifying with people that have a similar world perspective, who are channeling their angst and frustration into the creative outlet of art and music — that was important.”
Guiltless released their debut EP, Thorns, via Neurot Recordings in early 2024. Crushing and cheerless, it seemed to welcome the apocalypse looming on our collective horizon. On March 7th 2025, Guiltless shall release their debut full-length album Teeth To Sky via Neurot, a record more pulverising, focused and introspective than what came before.
“The EP had a pretty narrow focus starting from my ideas,” Graham explains. “With this record, my main goal was to really collaborate with Sacha and Dan and Billy because those guys are great songwriters. The new album is meant to open up the sonic palette and explore more territory.”
On Teeth To Sky, as Josh explains, the overarching theme is taking advantage of your life while you have it. It’s a crazy thing to really just be alive, floating through space on this little planet. The idea that Earth is already living well into its sixth extinction is an idea which has run through Josh’s work (in particular) for many years. Its wider acceptance into cultural conversations made the band want to look further afield, and to include elements of light on the album alongside humanity’s propensity for chaos which still colours the music.
Opening track, « Into Dust Becoming » is a maelstrom of a track that sonically plumbs more depth and grit than the band have ever done before. But this excavation is also a shock tactic – the physicality of something so intense is intended to shake the listener out of stasis, urging us to fully embody our role in the world we live in, and the choices we make with the time and resources given to us. “Til time’s arrow strikes my throat… I will look skyward with no malice” proclaims the lyrics of this album opener, serving as a kind of oath in song form, a promise never to take any moment on this earth for granted.
This more nuanced take can also be heard on “One Is Two,” which channels a tightly controlled Meshuggah churn through the more visceral lo-fi approach of Kiss It Goodbye or Swedish noise rock legends Breach. “The song explores the duality of human nature and how it relates to our time on Earth,” Graham says. “We are inherently moral as individuals, but as a species we bulldoze through everything we can get our hands on or drills in. Our species is both good and bad, one and the same.”
On “In Starless Reign,” Guiltless blend dissonant black metal and thundering doom while Graham invokes humanity’s inability to see the forest through the trees. “The rich focus on getting richer as the planet becomes less habitable from year to year,” he says. “No concern for the wellbeing of others, just, ‘Let’s cut more jobs, maximize profit and buy another superyacht.’” The duality of “One Is Two” is carried through to this track, with Graham observing that “we are the slayer… we are the victim” – an astute reckoning of humanity’s culpability in all of its own self-imposed suffering.
Then there’s the bruising title track, which combines the gnarled sensibilities of The Jesus Lizard, Cherubs and Barn Owl into a rumination on Mother Nature’s revenge. “The title track represents a surrender to nature’s unstoppable force,” Graham says. “As climate extremes continue to grow and impact virtually everyone on earth, we are now facing the impact of our forefathers’ actions, and our children will live through a new and unprecedented future.”
Teeth To Sky was recorded remotely by the members of Guiltless—except for the drums, which were recorded by Travis Kammeyer at Fahrenheit Studios in Johnson City, Tennessee. The album was mixed by Kurt Ballou at God City in Salem, Massachusetts, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege in Portland, Oregon.