Null-O Band & Jeff Vicario - Tales From The Day After

Review by Karl Magi

Overall Album Impressions

Null-O Band & Jeff Vicario’s Tales From The Day After explores the aftermath of a dystopian digital disaster. The way in which Jeff Vicario’s superb vocal performance mingles with darkly affecting lyrics and a sonic background that seethes and rages, full of lurking danger and imminent destruction, creates a compelling exploration of the dangerous digital brink on which humanity hangs.

Jeff Vicario's performance on Tales From The Day After is a major reason for its success. His vocal range and ability to capture raw emotion, transmitting the intensity of the lyrics, allow the album's messages to permeate fully. The lead singer fills the music with anger or simmering tension, sometimes touching on deeply painful feelings. The end result is a performance that enhances the darkness and desperation filling the music.

In terms of songwriting, Tales From The Day After delves deeply into themes of digital peril, human blindness and the potential dangers of uncontrolled artificial intelligence. The writing is clean, sharp and uncompromising, telling a story while leaving a cautionary message for listeners about the folly of descending too far down a digital rabbit hole. I appreciate how the songs deliver their message with punch and without hesitation.

A mixture of uncomfortable synthesized sounds, ferocious guitar slashing through the music and a pulsing low end creates an environment that emphasizes the shadowy, dystopian nature of the world that Null-O Band has crafted in Tales From The Day After. The soundscape is unsettling and full of rage, ideally complementing the lyrics and vocals that transmit the cautionary tale within the music.

My Favourite Tracks Analyzed

"The Future Is Bright" starts as a nervously twisting synth quickly bends through the music while the drums and bass trip along. The lead synth carries an uncomfortable quality as Jeff Vicario’s voice captures the tension and anger of the lyrics. The battering percussion and rattling, slashing sounds tearing through the music add another layer of discomfort.

Metallic synth ripples in trembling lines as the percussion shatters and vibrates. The haunted vocals call out with ominous emotion, while growling guitar twists in the background. The entire track begins to seethe with rage as Jeff Vicario channels all the subversive emotion in the lyrics.

The track transforms into a roaring storm of guitar and battering percussion. A glimmering synth vaults through the music, emanating wriggling sensations. Grating noises lacerate the soundscape as dramatic lyrics resound, and the low end taps and throbs. The vocals exude an unsettling intensity as the guitar slices in with angry strength, while the pounding drums and bass persist underneath.

Jeff Vicario amplifies the dramatic sensations in the music as a steadily writhing synth pulses, leading to an explosive finale. The song ends with Vicario’s threatening voice as the guitar climbs into bizarre, howling heights.

The storyteller speaks of "another node in the network" which is growing more rapid and louder as the "pile of digital junk" approaches critical mass. He points out that the idea of art is now obsolete because "all you need is content." He mentions seeking shares, likes and follows as people "buy, sell, cheat and rent."

Our narrator states that "the best of the worst are the worst of the best" as they take over the stage. He adds that "the new enlightenment is generated outrage." He goes on to say that the future is bright "because of the fires" and they must "cut down more trees" for the funeral pyres. He speaks of minting new NFTs, adding that the future remains bright because there's fuel for the fires.

The storyteller continues, saying there’s "another jolt in the mainframe," which is getting louder and faster. There is "a jumble of zeros and ones, generating negative sums." He explains that fresh water is needed to cool "rows of CPUs" warning that heat death will follow and no one will escape.

A maelstrom of guitar and steadily throbbing drums kicks off“ Control.” Jeff Vicario’s distorted voice echoes with manic energy, expressing madness and a lack of control. The guitar descends in rapidly charging lines and the drums burst while the bass and drums pop.

There's a hypnotic, chanting quality to the vocals that captures the darkness within the music. The guitar uncurls in jagged motion as the drums pulse and Jeff Vicario’s voice is twisted and full of threat. The massive guitar surges with dangerous energy and a twisting synth wobbles through the music.

The drums are a steady pulse as the guitar tears its way through the music above the relentless bass. Shadows surge as the rough-edged guitar drives through the music and the drums continue to pulse before silence falls.

Our narrator addresses the listener saying, "You might cling to our sense of empathy or let go and simply wallow in misery" because as World War Three begins, "there’s only too much shit to cause you grief." He reflects that if he were to let go, it wouldn’t matter and no one would ever know. When everything is "on the brink of total catastrophe" he says "they got a choice few words for little ol' me."

The storyteller reveals that those words are: "I control the message, I suspend the memes," as they talk about their power over recession and their ability to suspend the populace's disbelief. He continues, "I control the public, I suspend disease” as they assert their control over people’s emptiness and their demand for a suspension of disbelief.

“Our Last Sunset” starts with humming, mechanical sounds moving alongside a ringing, metallic glockenspiel-like tone and the rich vibrations of a hang drum. Wordless female vocals drift with the clicking, ambient sounds as Jeff Vicario’s gently caressing voice evokes melancholy tenderness. Extended, crystalline notes revolve above the gently ticking drums.

Jeff Vicario’s vocals are aching and enveloping, carrying a tentative melody enfolded by the surrounding thumping and ringing. Dangerous-sounding notes echo in the background, mingling with flickering chimes and computerized noises. The spectral vocals trail through the music as the background wriggles and twists. I’m drawn to how this song combines unsettling and fragile sounds, with the hang drum-like synth calling out softly in the background.

The vocals roam through the music with diaphanous light as the slowly shimmering synth weaves through, guided by the steady drums. Sweeping sounds in the distance are touched by ethereal notes floating above them. A darkly rising mood fills the composition while flashing chimes add illumination. The percussion rebounds, metallic sounds ring out and silence falls.

The storyteller discusses the song's subject, saying they are “painting the world while it is burning outside.” He describes the other person painting all the “beauty and horror” as shadows challenge the light. He urges them to “paint it dark in the colors of midnight” and speaks of the prophet’s twisted smile, “draped in shreds of moonlight.”

Our narrator continues, describing an insane prophet dancing in the street, “right on the corner where we used to meet.” As the brushstrokes are finalized, the last sunset fallsand the narrator reflects that the song’s subject “still can’t comprehend the prospect of an endless night.”

Heavily heaving drums and bass move with a trumpeting, gnarled synth that shivers through the music to open “Happy Machine.” The guitar and drums shatter with the colossal bass that smashes into the music as Jeff Vicario chants with great power, capturing every ounce of threatening feeling in the lyrics.

The drums and bass are a raging storm that tears its way through the track. The chugging guitar is angry and full of muscled strength as Jeff Vicario’s voice carries the distorted lyrics, full of ominous life. The synth in the background bends and howls as the grinding guitar rams through the music with rough energy.

Now a rebounding synth adds with surprising delicacy as the drums tick more slowly. Jeff Vicario sings the words with a deadly shadow filling his voice. The guitar is a roaring force that rips through the music as the whole track charges forward with unsettling sounds creaking in the background as the guitar churns to a conclusion.

Our narrator speaks of the "happy machine" that is "biomechanical, maniacal, self-sustaining, irrevocable." It is soaked in a binary stream of data with its "virtual mouth open in silent scream."

The storyteller speaks of this machine as being "simple and clean, lean and mean." He talks about how it will "revoke, reanimate, obliterate," but with its design flaw, it won't "reciprocate."

There is a "flash firestorm, still simmering," which the narrator says will soon give in to a "violent scene." He talks about an AI hallucinating as everything falls apart into "reverse evolution, the final stage."

Now the storyteller talks about how the happy machine will "slash, maimand kill without even sparing a single limb" in an "orgy of blood and gasoline."

“The Last One Standing” begins as gigantic bass rumbles and spectral strings slowly unwind in a melody evoking ancient folk music. The string-like notes flicker as full-sounding, mournful synths roamand a bell rings out. The bass is deep and lush as the fragile strings tenderly caress the music.

Jeff Vicario’s vocals take on the qualities of folk tunes from across the world as floating, haunted synths slip past and metallic percussion calls out. The vocals are pained and emotive as they wend their way through the music with melancholy emotion. I enjoy the expression within Jeff Vicario’s trembling vocals as they tell this tale. Chiming notes flit through the music above a lugubrious bass flow, emphasizing the tragic note in the vocals.

A guitar cries out with an equally emotive melodic line that drifts through the music with a ghostly quality as Jeff Vicario’s voice lingers. An electric guitar moves into the music, carrying a melody that conveys loss and longing, tinged with a minor-key quality. The guitar has more than a hint of the blues before the track ends on the ancient-sounding strings and resonant bells.

The storyteller says that the song's main character knew, in a strange way, that a mysterious "they" would come again that night. The lies that were once told were trueand now "her shrouded past (would be) unveiled, unmasked, reviled."

Our narrator points out that the main character had "the whole world in her sights” for a while. Now it's time for a final stand with her "shotgun in hand." She is "classified, undesirable, redefined, inadmissible" and she's going to make her last stand.

Rapidly swirling, ragged guitar moves along with the angular synth that vibrates behind it to kick off “The Future Is Brighter.” The electric guitar howls with a feral sound, joined by slicing notes and a cruising drumbeat. The guitar is a leaping, intertwining presence, infusing the music with madly driven energy as a robotic voice chants a threatening message.

The guitar arcs, crying out with maniacal vitality, while its vibrations slip through the music with unmoored energy. Behind it, the synth cascades in organ-like notes that provide a contrastingly positive feeling amidst the jagged tension.

As the track progresses, the guitar cries out again in a solo that explodes with unrestrained dynamism. This solo amplifies the feeling of uncontrolled wildness that permeates the music while the drums and bass maintain a steady groove. The track concludes with irrepressible guitar sounds and an angular note pattern that trembles and fades.

The intelligence in the song speaks, saying, “I believe in brighter future...humanoid must not escape....I believe in brighter future....they are just apes, trying to be less apes.”

“The Day After” commences with a portentous wall of shuddering bass and uncomfortable sounds that move alongside Jeff Vicario’s spectral voice, shadowed and full of ache as the sepulchral low end rumbles. An ancient-sounding stringed instrument strums as Jeff Vicario’s ghostly voice shivers through the music and the low end seethes.

The medieval-sounding stringed instrument creates feelings of timeless darkness as hollow percussion popsand Jeff Vicario captures the broken sense of loss in the lyrics. A delicate female voice hovers in the distance as the shaker percussion maintains a steady motion. I appreciate how the organic-sounding instrument mingles with the surging blackness around itand how Jeff Vicario’s voice trails into silence.

Our narrator talks about the disconcerting silence of the empty streets. Nearly everybody is gone and the "poisoned wind tells a story to a pile of bones." He goes on to point out that nobody knows how it began, unsure of who started it - us or them. He concludes with the question, "Would it give us some purpose having someone to blame?”

Conclusion

Tales From The Day After is full of intense anger, lingering fear and images of a world destroyed by human excess and uncontrolled technology. The way in which it manages to be both entertaining and thought-provoking makes it a listening experience that I'll gladly repeat.