Warren Gibson

Cape Town’s doom, atmospheric noise, drone, and sludge post-metal trio P+A+G+E+S are set to unleash their debut full-length album, NO MORE CAN BE DONE, recorded with producer Simon Ratcliffe at Sound and Motion Studios between 3 and 7 February 2025. The album is a stark, slow-burning monolith of existential dread, geopolitical despair, environmental decay, and raw emotional weight—tempered by a glimmer of perseverance in a world teetering toward collapse. P+A+G+E+S' message is to take note of environmental degradation and to challenge oppression by standing up for BIPOC, women, LGBTQI+, human and animal rights.

Since pivoting from their post-rock and noise roots in 2017, Caitlin Mkhasibe (drums), Frank Lunar (bass), and helo samo (guitar, vocals, sampling, and textural noise) have pushed their sound toward heavier, drudging territory. NO MORE CAN BE DONE represents the culmination of years of interrupted yet purposeful writing, with its earliest riffs born in late 2019 and its completion delayed by the global pandemic until writing resumed in March 2024.

“Grief and the depressing state of the world were big inspirations,” says the band. “We wanted to create something that embodies that state and cast a light on things that are often hard to address—while writing music we would want to hear ourselves.”

Musically, the album unfolds like a descent into shadow:

Side A begins as a metamorphosis of chaotic, jolting noise before shifting into an industrial, mechanical gait, eventually dissolving into a fragile, symphonic closure.

Side B surges forward with dissonant, discordant tones anchored by hefty, deliberate drums, each moment meticulously constructed.

Lyrically, the record distills vast, overwhelming concepts into simple mantras, delivered through a detached, almost spectral vocal style—an intentional choice to let meaning resonate in repetition.

The songs began with helo samo bringing guitar riffs to rehearsal, where the trio shaped and stripped ideas through process of elimination. Rough phone recordings became the blueprint, later evolving into demos tracked on an electronic kit and home setup. Vocals were initially captured on an SM58 in the back seat of a car, underscoring the band’s raw, unvarnished approach.

All instruments were tracked live in one room to preserve the immediacy and weight of their sound. After establishing the perfect mic configurations, the band spent days building the album layer by layer: foundational live takes, doubled guitars for stereo depth, noise and sampling textures, and finally, the haunting vocal performances.

Created by helo samo, the cover depicts the stages of a dandelion’s life cycle—symbolizing resilience and perseverance amidst chaos. The image’s calmness stands in deliberate contrast to the crushing sonic force within.

“The dandelion embodies the quality of being gentle but strong, spreading with the wind,” the band notes.

In four words - Slow, crushing, dissonant doom.