Artist: Assemblage 23
Title: Null
Genre: Electro-Industrial / Synth-Pop
Release Date: 7th November 2025
Label: Metropolis Records
Album Review
The architecture of emptiness becomes a space for reflection, resistance, and hope.
Zero is a unique number. It is the only real integer that is truly neutral, neither positive nor negative. When the concept of zero reached Europe from India via the Middle East, it was initially met with scepticism. The idea of written nothingness conflicted with Christian philosophy, and some even wanted to ban it. Only the Italian mathematician Leonardo of Pisa (Fibonacci) managed to establish Indo-Arabic numerals, including zero, in Central Europe. Zero was not fully accepted as an equal number until the late Middle Ages.
Zero also carries philosophical, cultural, and religious meaning. It separates positive from negative integers and signifies the absence of quantity. It can stand for nothingness, emptiness, chaos, or evil in religious contexts. Yet it can also represent a beginning (“zero hour”) or worthlessness (“to be a zero”), a fresh start or failure, safety and unity through its shape, or a circle filled with nothing. The term “null” describes the absence of a value or characteristic. Its meaning depends on context.
This idea inspired Tom Shear of ASSEMBLAGE 23: “The name ‘Null’, I thought it would be funny to call the tenth album ‘zero’ but I also like the fact that the concept of ‘zero’ or ‘nothing’ really depends on the context. If you go to the doctor and the treatment works and there’s no more sign of cancer or something, that’s the best news you can get. But if there’s no money left or whatever, it can have a negative connotation.”, so Tom explained in an interview. “Zero findings” sounds like salvation, “account balance at zero” sounds like ruin. Tom appreciates how context shifts meaning. From this idea emerged an album that looks both inward and outward.
Since their 1999 debut ‘Contempt’, ASSEMBLAGE 23 have been known for deeply personal lyrics tackling difficult topics such as suicide and depression. More than five years have passed since their latest album ‘Mourn’, shaped by the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences. Since then, the world seems increasingly chaotic. As a result, ‘Null’ contains more social commentary than earlier works. Divisions have grown, both in Shear’s US perspective and in Europe, affecting relationships politically and personally.
The tenth album ‘Null’ by the Electro-Industrial / Synth-Pop act explores the limits of understanding and tolerance, examines the power of the media and of those who pay for the spread of certain information (or misinformation), and considers what each individual can still do to make the world a better and fairer place again. But ‘Null’ also contains very personal and introspective moments and even hope.
“I still believe that there is good left in the world” - even as the world sinks into chaos, ‘Believe’ delivers a strong statement for the good in humanity. The track is an urgent call to believe in better times. Driving beats, crystal-clear synth layers and Tom Shear’s melancholic vocals form the foundation of the opener. Faith in hope as a form of resistance - focused and direct. Much harsher in tone, ‘Lunatics’ focuses on “the powerful, the leaders, the oligarchs who buy influence and the media who help spread their messages and support them in their aims”, Tom reveals in an interview.
It is about people who exploit the easily influenced to push their own agenda. But the other side - those who all too willingly believe these supposed “facts” - are part of the equation as well. Those who inform themselves selectively through media and, increasingly, social media only where their own views are confirmed allow themselves to be harnessed to the wrong cause and to be distracted from the real problems of our time, while voting for politicians whose agenda worsens their lives and makes the rich even richer. Synthesisers buzz through the ear like a swarm of agitated insects, as if they want to burst the skull, while hard beats hammer the message into the brain.
With ‘Gone’, the album becomes deeply personal. As we grow older, the list of people who leave us (often far too soon) grows. The loss of people around us increases. The experience of losing someone, almost forgetting over time, and then suddenly being overwhelmed by the memory again. Perhaps a certain smell, a certain song or the sun on your skin brings the memory back, and with it the pain that this person is simply no longer there.
“I wanted to talk to you, but you were dead.” ‘Fuel’ not only takes up familiar sounds (classic keyboards and sound effects form a musical thread), but also the topic already touched on in ‘Lunatics’ - “Fuel for the fire / we won’t stop burning till we get enough”. The powerful spread their “truth”, set the world on fire, and the “rabble” do not question it, fanning the flames - all for profit. Following the motto “divide and conquer”, a wedge is driven into society and people are incited against one another.
Opinions and beliefs are becoming ever more extreme. Any criticism of them is labelled as a limitation on freedom of speech. ‘Tolerate’ deals with the limits of endurance in political and personal relationships. Tolerance also has limits, and must have them. If you tolerate intolerance, tolerance will cease to exist, because intolerance will eventually extinguish it. This is known as the paradox of tolerance. Even as a tolerant person, you have lines that cannot be crossed.
This applies both to politics and to personal ethical and moral convictions. People who hold destructive, dangerous beliefs must be removed from your own life. Engaging with them leads nowhere. “There’s a limit to what to tolerate.” The dark, melodic sound between Industrial and Synth-Pop is carried by clear production, compelling synth layers, driving beats and Shear’s distinctive voice, and feels oddly familiar.
‘Normal’ radiates a deep longing, manifested both in the compelling vocals and in accentuated 80s sound effects. “I’m wishing things were back to normal.” Most of us probably feel that way. But who will grant us this wish? I fear only we can do that for ourselves. Ask yourself what kind of world you want to live in. Then question your own behaviour, your consumption, your actions. You alone cannot save the world. But you can make it a little better - every day. A friendly greeting, a kind smile - sometimes it can actually be that simple. One person alone may achieve little. But when many people do small things, together they can change the whole world.
‘Last’ features grinding beats, crystalline synth layers and a wonderful chorus that can bring both a smile to your face and tears to your eyes. “Before the final sound. Let’s dance one more time.” This gem unfolds its magic gently and definitely has the potential to become one of my album highlights. I jot down this sentence and listen to ‘The Line’ - a magnificent song. Orchestral synth carpets, the dark mood and the melancholic vocals - they grab me instantly. “And I wonder where the line is, if it exists at all. Between the lights that we aspired to, and the depths to which we fall.”
Dark, raw and filled with dense sonic textures, ‘Overthrow’ once again addresses the current division in society. “I’d say it’s in the ultra-wealthy’s best interests if we are fighting about something else rather than they are robbing everybody… the poor are getting poorer, the rich are getting richer… we are now seeing obscene wealth, like more money than anyone needs!
I feel there are issues to deal with in immigration and racism but at the end of the day, those are tools being used by people who want to keep their way of life… it is greed at the end of the day!” says Shear. “This keeps the people distracted, because there’s a lot more of us… and it sounds it’s about overthrowing the government but it’s about overthrowing the system of wealth and inequality.”
‘Waited’ is a true future-pop anthem to life and love. “This is the moment I’ve waited for all of my life. Nothing else matters, except having you by my side. This is what it must feel like to be alive. This is the moment I’ve waited for all of my life.” In the end, ‘Null’ finds a conciliatory and hopeful conclusion after all.
‘Null’ continues the multifaceted nature of its title with consistency. The architecture of emptiness becomes a space for emotion, for a social outlook, and for hope. ASSEMBLAGE 23 connect social fractures and personal losses with powerful beats, driving electronics, clear synth layers and strong melodies. The lyrics reveal both the fragmentation of the world and the vulnerability of the individual.
‘Null’ is not nothing, but a starting point: for reflection, resistance and hope. It reminds us that even where nothing seems to exist, the possibility still remains to change everything.
Tracklist
01. Believe
02. Lunatics
03. Gone
04. Fuel
05. Tolerate
06. Normal
07. Last
08. The Line
09. Overthrow
10. Waited
Line-up
Tom Shear - Music, Production, Vocals
Website
https://www.assemblage23.com / https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100044546464584
Cover Picture
Rating
Music: 9
Sound: 10
Total: 9.5 / 10
