Gone Is Gone - If Everything Happens For A Reason...Then Nothing Really Matters At All (LP) - Crystal Clear Vinyl

Gone Is Gone make the kind of heavy, cinematic rock that sneaks up on you, and their second full-length, If Everything Happens For A Reason...Then Nothing Really Matters At All, lands like a slow-moving weather front. Released in December 2020, it brings together Troy Sanders of Mastodon, Troy Van Leeuwen of Queens of the Stone Age, Tony Hajjar of At the Drive-In, and multi-instrumentalist and composer Mike Zarin. That lineup reads like a fantasy draft, but what makes the record stick is how these four carve out a space that feels separate from their day jobs. The riffs are thick and shadowy, the drums pulse rather than bludgeon, and Zarin’s synths and textures do as much storytelling as the guitars.

You can hear the balance in how the songs breathe. Sanders sings with a weary calm that suits the album’s title, often riding the bassline instead of wrestling it. Van Leeuwen paints around him with chorus and delay, more rain-soaked streetlight than sandblasted desert, while Hajjar threads patterns that skip and lurch in satisfying ways. Zarin glues all of it with drones, piano figures, and the kind of sound design that unfurls in headphones. It is a record built on mood and movement, less about instant payoffs and more about the afterimage it leaves.

“Sometimes I Feel” is the gateway. It builds on a steady, heartbeat thump and a descending melody that lingers long after the last chorus. The arrangement is patient, almost filmic, which makes sense given Zarin’s background in scoring. It also shows how Sanders can pull back and still command a song, a reminder that weight does not always come from volume. From there the band leans into contrast, setting glacial intros against sudden surges, letting guitars smear into synths until the edges blur. Fans who came for Mastodon-sized stomp or QOTSA’s strut will find hints, but the pleasures here live in the in-between, the gray sky tones and the ghost notes.

What makes the album rewarding on repeat plays is the production detail. Instruments sit in deep pockets, bass and kick locking together, guitars sighing across the stereo field, small percussive clinks and scraped strings tucked just under the surface. It feels carefully assembled without losing the human sway of a live band. On vinyl that patience pays off. The low end blooms, cymbals breathe, and those layered keys finally get room to glow. If you are crate-digging for Gone Is Gone vinyl, this is the one that makes the argument for the format all by itself.

The supergroup tag can be a curse, yet here it mostly functions as a promise of craft. Everyone plays to the song. Hajjar resists filling every space, Van Leeuwen sketches rather than shreds, Sanders chooses lines that carry melody and weight at once. The record also reads like a collection of nocturnes, which fits the late 2020 release window. It is music for long drives and lit windows, a little haunted, never dreary. Press at the time zeroed in on the band’s pedigree and the atmosphere they conjure, and that is fair. You do not need to know a single Mastodon or QOTSA deep cut to fall into this, but if you do, the sideways echoes add another layer.

If Everything Happens For A Reason...Then Nothing Really Matters At All sits nicely next to Echolocation from 2017, and it ultimately feels more confident. The debut hinted at this blend of post-rock patience and alt-metal heft. The follow-up commits to it. That clarity gives the songs a lived-in quality, like the band has figured out how to talk to each other in this particular language. It is not chasing radio or festival firestarters. It is building weather systems.

For those hunting the album on wax, keep an eye out for If Everything Happens For A Reason...Then Nothing Really Matters At All vinyl and other Gone Is Gone albums on vinyl. You can buy Gone Is Gone records online through the usual suspects, and if you are in a Melbourne record store flipping through new arrivals, this is the sleeve that will pull you in with that stark title. It also slips easily into collections heavy on mood-forward rock, from Deftones to Chelsea Wolfe. However you file it, this is a keeper, the sort of release that proves the supergroup can be more than a headline.