Review | Or Not – Violence & Grace

No Dust Records

The epic thrash metal album ‘Violence & Grace’ by Dutch band Or Not is a project born from the shared love of father Dolf Blomhert and son Daniël Blomhert.

The roots of the band lies in two crises. The midlife crisis of founder Dolf Blomhert and the Corona crisis that dominated the world a few years ago.

At some point in your life, you may start to wonder what you still would like to experience or achieve. In case of male individuals, many start to work on their golf swing, buy that classic car or motorcycle they always dreamed about. This was however outside the field of interest of singer-guitarist Dolf. There was however still another unfulfilled dream.

Making a full length album that really met all qualitative criteria became the mid-life project. The money otherwise spend on the car, motorcycle or a younger wife was now the budget for this. With the Corona crisis limiting many other distractions, this seemed to be a perfect time to start writing, playing and recording. Meanwhile, Dolf his son Daniël had transformed into a fierce, metal drummer. Together they wrote all the songs and played all the instruments on the double album ‘Violence & Grace’.

ENERGY4ALL

Or Not are also committed ambassadors of Energy4All, a foundation that fights the battle against mitochondrial diseases. Up to this day, children still get born with this illness, having to live with only a very limited amount of energy to get through the day. Using their musical platform to create awareness and funding for this cause fits perfectly to this mission. Next to that, Or Not donates a large part of their benefits to Energy4All, contributing to find a cure on short term.

So much for some background info on this project. Musically, the description epic thrash metal is certainly very apt. The orchestral elements in the songs are normally familiar to us from symphonic metal bands such as Epica or Nightwish. But in terms of foundation, we are really dealing with a classic thrash metal album here. Father and son have an above average instrumental talent and there is also enough talent to provide the songs with beautiful bombastic elements. Which again are not typical thrash metal.

TALENT

Fans of the genre are also presented with above-average music on this debut from Or Not. No fewer than 16 tracks, accounting for an hour and a half of listening material.
Is it all equally catchy? Not really, as far as I’m concerned. When I listen to the entire album in succession, I tend to skip bits here and there. And I wonder if it wouldn’t have been smarter to be a bit more frugal and more critical in selecting which songs would end up on the album, in order to keep the quality at the same level.

Production-wise, Or Not certainly has their act together. ‘Violence & Grace’ features a wonderfully detailed and balanced fat mix. Vocally, daddy Dolf has a fine voice and the drumming of son Daniël is already of a level that I think we will hear a lot of this young man in the future. What a talent.

OR NOT – THE CONCLUSION

This ‘band’ or project managed to deliver an above average record. I am curious to know if it will also make the step to the stages with a complete live band lineup. Unfortunately, I can’t find any info on that. I can conclude that the midlife crisis of father Dolf has resulted in a fine debut. I would love it if a follow-up album would contain a song that grabs me by the throat and will not let go, because I miss that on ‘Violence & Grace’. For fans of the thrash metal and symphonic genre, however, I can only recommend a listen.