NO/MAS : "No Peace"

On the more punk side of grind-core, NO/MAS are angry as fuck. They have a dialed-in guitar sound rather than just a raw outburst, and just because they play grind-core does not mean they have not refined their attack on their instruments. At times, even grooves slide into the riffs, which is an ear for detail,l considering that these songs clock in at two minutes more often than not. They are certainly influenced by Slayer in how some of the riffs are nuanced. "Blood Soaked Soil" is more feral until midway into the song when they lock into a breakdown, which proves to be pretty powerful. There are even brief guitar harmonies. 

On "Abolition," which is jsut under two minutes, they fake you out and make you think this is just going to be aggressive chaos but pull it together with cool riffs. "Leech" finds them galloping into a more thrash-inspired feel. There are some riffs on this one that you can not resist banging your head to. While it is empowered by a really cool riff, at a minute length, it's hard to make." The Act of Killing' much of a song. The snarl in a more ferocious manner for "Lay indegina." It's not until "Choke Point" that you hear the more metallci smarts empower the songwriting. 

They use the riffs more like a sword than a club on "Spineless," creating a hook for them to lock into. The title track is not as catchy and is more based on brutality. They end things with more of a thrashing attack on the last song. They throw themselves into a hyperactive punk explosion. I will give this one a 9.5 and see how it grows on me. I have not really dug into the entire slate of grind-core bands with albums coming out this year, but it seems like these guys are setting the bar for the genre to be measured against here. This drops March 13th on Redefining Darkness Records.

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