Album Review: False Gods – Lost In Darkness And Distance (Self Released)

Long Island’s False Gods are back with a new album titled Lost In Darkness And Distance set for release on the 25th of July 2025.

Formed in 2015 in New York, False Gods are a genre-defying force in modern heavy music. Blending sludge metal’s crushing weight with post-metal atmosphere, NYHC aggression, and the bleak intensity of industrial and post-punk, the band carves out a sound that is both emotionally raw and sonically brutal. Their music shifts seamlessly between towering heaviness, haunting melody, and punishing noise, always grounded in lyrical themes of isolation, grief, and existential dread. False Gods do not offer escapism. They reflect reality—unfiltered and unrelenting.

False Gods have built a reputation for cathartic live performances and uncompromising songwriting. They’ve shared the stage with heavyweights like Crowbar, Eyehategod, Conan, and From Autumn To Ashes, and have appeared at festivals including Maryland Doomfest, Grim Reefer Fest and Ohio Doomed & Stoned. They have amassed a dedicated and loyal following in the US and beyond and with Lost In Darkness And Distance, the band will be looking to cement that reputation and grow further with an album that is their most dynamic and personal work to date, pushing beyond genre lines into something darker, deeper, and more vulnerable.

False Gods is Mike Stack on vocals, Greg March on guitar, Devin Stracuzza on bass and Josh Harrison on drums.

Kicking things off with Voice of Treason you get an early taste of some of what False Gods are bringing with Lost In Darkness And Distance. It’s an intense song with vocals that feel very rooted in that cross over thrash and hardcore style. The riffs and rhythms are crunching and repeating, worming their way into your mind with wave after wave of attack. It’s a dissonant song, one that feels angry and desperate at times, and as the song evolves and grows, the post atmospheric style from the guitars adds more depth. Vocals start to change in style, what more metal edge and you even get tasters of a sludge/stoner style riff pattern. It’s certainly genre bending, but it works.

The mix of styles continues, and grows, throughout the whole of Lost In Darkness And Distance. There are common threads across the release. The most prominent vocal style feeling more in the hardcore world, the riffs are huge and twist from sludge to grind and beyond and the general feeling you get is one of frustration and an emotional disconnect. Lyrically, those feelings are backed up to with raw and honest passages that bring forth thoughts of human disconnect and soul scarred societies.

It’s a dark album, in that sense, but it is very listenable. The riffs really add a bit of cement to things to keep you feeling a bit of groove and pattern. To keep your head moving and nodding along. Little twists and turns in genre and style then add moments of excitement. The back and forth vocals in Enemy That Never Was are great, while the drums absolutely cascade around you. The bass is so important to the weight and tone of False Gods here, it works wonders. I love the catchy as hell groove section with the quick picking and intermittent shouted vocal pattern. The moments of singing work well, and the guitars, occasionally adding atmosphere, sometimes melody and sometimes just adding to the distortion, it all fits.

Lost In Darkness And Distance flows well too, with each song sounding very unique, but belonging to the bigger picture. Having so many genre influences, it probably helps with the freshness of each track as you can really just lean more, or less, on different styles when you need to. It’s a talent, making sure you get your point across without it just becoming noise and chaos. I love the slowed down Imposter. The singing is great, it suits the style, the desperation, the frustration perfectly and the guitars just smother you in post-metal melodies and atmosphere.

Suffering in a Strange Land has a wicked bass and drum intro. The riffs come in, the vocals join and you are in a mid tempo headbanger of a track with a massive bass sound. The drums are cool, moving between paces but their sound in the mix is spot on. There are some nice pace changes in the song too, with a really neat melodic and melancholic guitar passage. That also acts as a nice contrast to bring back the filthy riffs and frustrated vocals.

Worldless brings a bit of pace and fire to the album with the hardcore styled shouts coming back. It’s not fast, exactly but it raises the adrenaline and when the drums kick in, it feels like rage boiling over. I love the smooth guitar lines, the pace changes and despite the fact that it is another pretty damn miserable track. It’s so damn listenable.

So Lost In Darkness And Distance comes to a close though with the 7th and final track, Death is Listening and once again we see False Gods flex their creative muscle. Making sure they don’t raise our spirits with false optimism, it is a lyrically charged track and emotionally raw. The music suits that style so perfectly, really reflecting the inner turmoil and anger the band are projecting. The riffs are powerful, the drums intense and the vocals are real. Movements in tempo, changes in the guitars from moments of melodic dissonance to distorted filth. It’s a song that will have your head moving and have you grimacing as you listen. It’s heavy, but even moire so in the weight of emotion and atmosphere than it is in the weight of those drums and bass lines.

A fitting end to an album that flows, blending genres perfectly and showcasing False Gods as a band that can’t be put in a box. It’s also a really good example of how heaviness can be achieved using intelligent song structures, tones and emotional rawness. It is traditionally heavy too, with the riffs, the drums and the tone really adding that in but it is far from extreme, in speed or style, but manages to leave a lasting impression, and a lasting mark on your soul.

Tracklist:

1 – Voice of Treason
2 – Straw Dog
3 – Enemy That Never Was
4 – Imposter
5 – Suffering in a Strange Land
6 – Worldless
7 – Death is Listening

False Gods Links

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