EP Review: Virtue In Vain-Nothing Is All I Am

Virtue in Vain releases their much-anticipated, emotionally heavy-hitting EP, Nothing Is All I Am.

Nothing Is All I Am

There is a moment in every band’s journey of evolution where the band stops sounding like an external expression and evolves into an internal excavation of the things one has kept buried within the deepest part of their memory. Virtue In Vain’s Nothing Is All I Am is one of those excavations, one that feels intimate yet capricious. A work that is at the complicated crossroads of self-interrogation and catharsis, Nothing Is All I Am shows a band that has reached this moment, one that has not been brought about quietly or neatly, but with a kind of fine-pointed honesty that feels earned through experience.

From the EP’s opening moments, Virtue In Vain wastes no time posturing. “Split” and “Blood Eyes” set the EP ablaze with chaotic intrigue. These opening moments don’t try to inflate darkness, nor do they try to romanticize collapse. Instead, one finds oneself in the milieu of identity and its absence, between the person one believes oneself to be and the paranoia that sets in from the monster one has the potential to become. It is in these early moments that Virtue In Vain flexes their creative muscles, balancing melody, atmosphere, and aggression; this balance becomes parochial to the themes that continue to be expressed throughout, as the EP pushes and pulls between self-destruction and a yearning for a sense of purpose.

Virtue in Vain

“Between Reflections_Silence” and “Echoes” sonically continue this journey, as their guitar riffs churn, spiral, and fracture; the rhythm sections feel like surface ruptures, giving way to the ground beneath you. As this sonic hailstorm continues to emerge, every scream submerges whatever armor these gravid instrumental energies hold in doubt, its melodic lines serving as the only sense of solace the band can muster as the atmosphere allows the listener to live in the emotional architecture Virtue In Vain has built, allowing many of the moments on this EP to feel heavier with each passing track.

Virtue In Vain

“The Wilt” ends this tale of identity, dissolution, and the quiet terror that lurks within from being known. As its haunting melodies dive into the dark recesses of a wild, uproaring pandemonium, Virtue In Vain ends its EP with the realization that selfhood is never stable, a concept that is unpredictable and constantly reforming without warning. Nothing Is All I Am becomes the title of a long, exhaustive thesis: the fear that there is nothing at the core of our existence, yet with nothingness stems a blank page to where one can create one’s own existence, rather than it being a void that consumes us. As the EP piggybacks on the conflicting notions of wanting to disappear and wanting to be understood, in between, there is a safety net in which not feeling anything is better than feeling at all. Between the comfort of old, scabbing wounds and the terror of healing, the band finds repose. While Virtue In Vain doesn’t resolve these deeply seated tensions, Nothing Is All I Am is filled with such emotional turmoil. Because of this, Virtue In Vain serves up a satisfying EP, its emotional gravity making it a great listen and a solid step in the right direction for the band.