Talk about mood music. When I suggested that I keep this, the debut full length release from Breaking The Day, to review myself, the severely arched eyebrow of my fellow UR scribe spoke a hundred words.

Formed some four years ago in Chatham, Kent, a place where many seem to believe that the term 'chav' originated, Breaking The Day are a six piece outfit who are happy to allow themselves to be tagged with a sludge metal label yet sound more at ease by escaping from the mould and creating a dream- (possibly nightmare-) scape that stomps through many genres, plundering their finer moments. The press release - this is rare, seriously - nails the band's sound, remarkably. They cite Cult Of Luna and Neurosis as major influences and, for once, I find little to argue with, the bleakness of the former being the spine of this band, of this album.

Nihilistic, more so hopeless, 'Survived By None' is an album that, and this has to be noted initially, sounds amazingly confident and assured. There doesn't appear to be a moment housed within its digital walls that doesn't sound completely and thoroughly mapped out, dissected and reassembled into the darkest excuses for songs possible. The production, the playing, all make this seem like the perfect crime, the blackest act committed yet gotten away with.

The bleakness suffocates. The heaviness pins you to the wall, aurally and thematically. A spiritual cousin of 'The Downward Spiral', 'Survived By None' edges into black metal territory at times, yet remains firmly rooted in doom country. 'Pretty Girls Make Graves' may be a title already familiar to you, whether it be from the mind of Jack Kerouac or the mouth of Morrissey, but rather than throw flowers it throws mammoth guitar at the listener, an assault reoffended by 'Leave A Blanket Of Ash On The Ground', a song whose title should confirm the subject matter dealt with here.

There are moments of menacing subtlety layered over the cracks, 'Nightmare Dependancies' for example, the opening of '...And In The End What Is Love Without Loss...', yet they only add to the sinister element rather than offer respite from it.

As bleak an album as they come, 'Survived By None' may only be able to be devoured if in a certain mood but, God help us, if you find yourself in that place then this album can be your companion, stirring thoughts that you may wish you never had.

www.myspace.com/breakingthedayx