A NAMELESS DREAD is a four-piece Extreme Metal band from Johannesburg, South Africa. Their influences range from cosmic horror to gore. With very little information on Facebook, and no entry on Encylcopaedia Mellallum, we are going to have to let the music do the talking here. "The First Nothing" is their latest album, and contains seven tracks.

"The Great Unclean" leads off the album. Following some bass notes, the song enters with a dark and heavy riff, with guttural vocals. There is a little bit more going on in the chorus, but the riff stays pretty even throughout. "Enter Chaos" features a similar sound, though the pacing is a bit quicker. The vocals vary just a bit here, going into some higher areas, but the core of their sound remains the same. "Rot with Me" is more of the same. Downtuned guitars and guttural vocals. They have to try to at least provide some variance here in how they deliver the tracks.

"When God Blinks" is the first song to feature just a chord of variance...in the form of a clean guitar chord in the opening. The band relies way too much however on open notes. It can muddy things up pretty quickly, and make the songs run together. "Bleached Bone" features a little more vocal presence as well as some chaos in the guitar riffs, but it doesn't sound that different than previous tracks, yet again. "The Ressurectionist" is a shorter sing that gives us our first real break from the chaos. But, it doesn't last long. The riff this time is not done based on the open E chord, so that's a good start.

"Cold Black" closes the album. Here come more open notes, with a few lead guitar notes as well. It builds to a quickened pace, with again the riffs predicated on the open notes. There is only so far this kind of approach can take you. You can't begrudge a band for making the style of music that they want to make. But seven songs that are nearly identical is a tough pill to swallow. If they want to make a name for themselves, they have to find a way to separate themselves from thousands of other bands trying to do the same thing that they are. There is only so far down you can go.