It’s striking how forward the guitar is on All Are to Return‘s new single ‘A State in Fear.’ The screams buried beneath the initially drumless/beatless morass of riff, echoing cavernous and lonely, speak to the two-piece’s abiding experimentalism and extremity, but there’s less of an industrial style to the four-minute piece than one might’ve expected after their most recent EP, II (review here), which came out late last year.

That’s kind of a thrill, to be honest. A programmed-feeling drum progression does take hold in “A State of Fear,” and those screams resolve themselves into a pattern of lyrics I’d just about love to read, but as they seem to be reconciling with contemporary reactionary conservatism — which is nothing if not nostalgia for a time that never actually existed and terror at an unknown future — the fact that they turn the amps up here makes them a less predictable band in my mind, richer in sound and able to cover a wider swath of stylistic ground. No gods, no masters, no borders, no wars. Maybe no genres?

If only. They liken it to a combination of elements from their first two EPs. I’ve been wondering if after the two short releases All Are to Return might’ve put themselves this year to the task of writing a debut full-length. Listening to the aurally fucked sensibility of “A State in Fear,” I’m even more hopeful for such a thing to manifest in 2023.

Links, a brief description, and the song stream follow:

ALL ARE TO RETURN – A STATE IN FEAR (SINGLE)

https://open.spotify.com/track/5IYEND0h15VPDJ0bowelkJ?si=dd7a0f3225a24070
https://allaretoreturn.bandcamp.com/album/a-state-in-fear

Two-man formation All Are To Return presents extreme, experimental music with an urgent sense of dread.

“Perpetual dread unhinges us. Threats real and imagined Indistinguishable. The multitude stirs – and it hears the siren call, but not the alarms that sound. Enthralled by the specter of a life brutish and short. The deal with the Leviathan has been remade. We are right to fear – the many and the one.

“[A State in Fear] is a track that was born from the spirit of our debut, but with the musical nuance of the second EP. We present it on its own as a complementary track to these first two releases. The background-themes here are of course not unknown to many listener; worrying trends of fear infiltrating the imagination, of multitudes lured into online bubbles of festering hatred, furthered by the existential angst of pandemic life – and clearly for us Europeans – the renewed reality of war.

Released as digital only track on November 28th 2022. Music by All Are To Return. Produced, mixed & mastered by All Are To Return.

All Are To Return is:
F: Bass, Drums, Guitars, Vocals, FXs
N: Synths, FXs

https://allaretoreturn.bandcamp.com
https://soundcloud.com/allaretoreturn
https://allaretoreturn.tumblr.com/

All Are to Return, “A State in Fear”