Old School Hardcore, New School Hardcore, a bit of Metalcore and influences from bands like Slayer, Hatebreed, Madball and maybe even a bit of Obituary. That is None Shall Be Saved. The band started out when some ex-band members of, for example, Disturb and Working Through got together in 2002. After putting out some demos and MCDs, they now finally have a full length, “Those Days Are Gone”.

The twelve track full length starts out with a sample. And it’s not the only sample that is used on the CD. The second sample is in French though, a bit hard to understand for me so I couldn’t really figure out what the relation was to the song or the music.

The first sample is followed directly by the first song, an instrumental intro. This makes it quite easy to listen to the guitars, bass and drums. The music is played nice and tight but not very original. Of every ten bands I listen to, at least three play this style and type of music. No variety and nothing new.

The singer of None Shall Be Saved, Ju, grunts and screams through the entire album, but the first song. At some points I really wonder if he is grunting or just abusing his voice. He really sounds frustrated. The backing vocals are a bit more clean, but still angry. The backing vocals do have much more body then the vocals and I really think it’s a pity they didn’t let that guy do all the vocals.

The production of the album is quite alright but this too does not make a big impression. I heard albums of French bands with a much better mix and much more body.

One thing I like about this album is the artwork. The picture of the prison on the front cover has a good connection with both the band name, the album title and the songs. Too bad the doors of the cellblock are all open. It is in contrary of the band name, it does give a bit of hope.

The album cover is probably one of the only things I like about this full length. The rest does not have any body and as I said before, there are too many bands that play the exact same music.