Review by Michael on October 16, 2023.

My first encounter with the Swiss band Comaniac was when I saw them together with Cryptosis and Vektor in Dortmund last year and I have to say that they were pretty convincing live. With None For All they released their already fourth regular studio album and to anticipate my judgment a little bit with this one they are more varied than on the previous ones and sound fresher than they ever did.

Starting with 'Eye To Eye' they surprise with a slight traditional Swiss melody before they take out the thrash hammer. This song already shows a little bit the direction where the whole album goes. Some traditional American thrash in the style of Slayer and Exodus meet a lot of more progressive tunes and out comes some very technical mish-mash that sounds most of the time very interesting. Only here and there it is still a little bit bulky when it comes to some breaks and drumming. But with 'Desolation Manifest' they fully grabbed me while I was listening to it for the first time. Some really fast guitar leads with amazing melodies make this song a very great listening experience and the chorus is the topping on the whole. Wow, a great thrash ride this is! What I really like on the album is that they don't have a clear formula how to proceed but that the four guys go with a certain carefree mind towards all the nine songs on the album. So they really surprise with a lot of twists and turns in their songs and make None For All a really entertaining trip. Especially the acoustic passages that they incorporate into many songs make the album something pretty unique.

With 'Life Long Doll' they even have a semi-ballad on board which reminds me pretty much of the Depressive Age with their great song “World In Veins” from their controversial album “Symbols For The Blue Times” back from 1994. Not because of the vocals but especially with the melodies and also with the lyrical topic somehow.
But after this short halt the guys start thrashing again. 'Start The Madness' is another killer thrash song that has a lot of German thrash vibes (like Destruction or some actual bands like Traitor, Ravager etc.) in it. It's one of the fastest songs on the album and really kicks ass. In 'Nothing But Lies' the band builds up a lot of tension with increasing speed in the music which together with a lot of drama in the vocals and riffs leads to a very rousing song. Between the stars finally lifts the band up into the thrash heaven with catchy melodies and a lot of fantastic breaks in the song. The chorus again is amazing and if a lot of thrash bands would have done such a thing in the 90s this would be a classic one these days, word!

So, is there much to criticize on None For All? Well, not really. Maybe you can state that vocalist Jonas is a little bit limited in his vocal range but when you sum up all the songs, this isn't true at all because there are many parts like in the choruses or in 'Self Sacrifice' (another semi-ballad with a very gloomy atmosphere) where he does clean vocals. Of course there is still some space to reach the full amount of points but I hope that the guys will get much more attention with this album. It is a huge step forward and maybe it opens the door to the thrash Champions League.

Rating: 9 out of 10