Review: “No Gods No Loss” by Sterile Jets

There are many things in life as a young person on this planet where every single one of us has had this excruciating experience. One of them no matter where you come from, your gender or your belief, at least once in your lifetime, you have been in the dreadful friend zone.

If you have never been in the friend zone, then, you must look like Idris Elba, Brad Pitt, Kerry Washington, Priyanka Chopra. I mean who would place them in a unreciprocated romantic realm.

If you’ve been on this boat before, the song “Fireside Drive” by Long Beach California’s Sterile Jets, encompasses the feeling of being in this unusual position.

As Robert Bly Moore discussed their first single from their upcoming album No Gods No Loss: “Fireside Drive is a song about a girl B.ILL was really into, but when he found out she wasn’t into him, the song took a darker turn.”

I have to admit noise rock is not really a genre I’ve heard or explored before, so I really had to push myself to listen with an open mind. As I searched more about the genre, in need of an auditory point of reference from bands of the past,  I completely hear the guitar distortive influence of groups like Sonic Youth, or vocal styling of The Melvins with Sterile Jets.

Singer/guitarist Robert Bly Moore, singer/bass player Wm. Partnoff and drummer GS Bean, who composed and arranged every song to bring out its best elements, delving deeply into punk, post-rock, jazz and metal. The result is a combination of noise rock and melody, romanticism and irony, love and anger that captures the complexities of everyday American life. Those looking for music steeped in the courage, honesty, and energy of punk’s primal explosion will find it in the uncompromising sounds of the Sterile Jets.

No Gods No Loss was co-produced by audio engineer Bil Lane. “We wanted the raw sound of a live show,” Moore continues. “Except for the vocals, the album was recorded over a long weekend, with everything stripped down to the basics.

The uncertainty, the chaos they mentioned can skillfully be heard and even seen in their video for their latest single “Fireside Drive”. My favourite part of the song which does give the perfect sense of liking your friend a lot more than they like you when Robert Bly Moore sings:

“even in the gloom / the light in the room / the sun in the day
my heart runs wild / hopeful smile style / now that we’re on to stay”

Let’s just say this, Sterile Jets “No Gods No Loss” is not for everyone, but is a definite go-to album to play whenever you need to exert every kind of feeling you have when you’re in a complicated relationship or a song track like “Olive Spoil” which is about the tension between the 1% and the United States working class provides a sense of loss and frustration in their music. So if you are into Noise Rock, Old School Metal, Punk, Post Hardcore music this album is for you to turn up in your ear buds.

Purchase the newest Sterile Jets album now available on Bandcamp.

And for more on the band visit their website sterilejets.com