Providing a striking full introduction to themselves with debut album New Lease of Life, Switzerland hailing No Kings No Slaves have swiftly proved themselves a compelling proposition. The release is a cauldron of melodic hardcore but an encounter which dares to seek out bold and fresh pastures if maybe not always quite fulfilling the potential that imagination brings. Even so it is an album that scorched ears and ignited the senses as well as raised a hungry appetite for the band’s emotion loaded, tenaciously sculpted roar.
Lucerne hailing, the quintet of Pädi Reichmuth, Julian Thalmann, Philip Heini, Mario Rosso, and Dave Aletz embrace the inspiration of bands such as Architects, While She Sleeps, Bring me the Horizon, Gallows, The Ghost Inside, and Pure Love to their melodic hardcore bred sound though one as suggested relishing the additional flavouring of a varied mix of metal and rock. It has already shaped a well-received EP though New Lease of Life will be the first contact for a great many with No Kings No Slaves and one which will surely draw rich attention their way.
Dealing with issues ranging from transience and social ills to toxic relationships, New Lease of Life is fuelled by a furnace of passion and emotion, worldly and intimate; a fire matched in the intensity and enterprise of its sounds. Album opener, Judgment, swiftly shares that multi-faceted blaze, the song rising from portentous rhythmic intimation with a wave of heavy metal riffs quickly followed by Thalmann’s raw throated, senses abrasing tones. Just as urgently imaginative melodic threads wrap ears, the brief track an intro of sorts but providing a full incitement before the album’s title track erupts. Nagging almost bullying rhythms are surrounded by blazing guitars as again vocals coarsely assault the air but an attack from all quarters which equally captivates, especially the more post hardcore textures and harmonic vocal backing that brings greater potency to the track.
Though a form of familiarity is bred from its hardcore instincts a persistent unpredictability also shapes the alluring character of the album and the likes of the following Ticket To Far Away and Modern Life Slaves. Both tracks sear the senses as much as they melodically stir the imagination, each a tapestry of passion and intensity relishing the recipe of flavours making up their adventurous natures. The second of the two especially hit the spot with its groove metal tinted dexterity, being rivalled by the just as dynamic and multi-flavoured inferno of Humanity’s Curse.
Across the likes of Hell with its intense heart and sonic firestorm, the heavy metal hued A Quiet Place, and Medication with its more classic metal instincts, No Kings No Slaves reveal more of their creative adventure and boundary breaking imagination, the latter pair of the three the best moments within New Lease Of Life for us while after the haunting radiance of a short Interlude, the explosive Our Name Is Greed provides another fiercely memorable moment and pleasure. It is a rousing proposal that singes the senses as it cauterizes ill-will and emotion, rhythms and melodic flames relishing the individual and united prowess of the band.
The final pair of songs, Electric Sky and Losses, similarly flourish through the quintet’s eager embrace of flavours, the first emerging our favourite track as it casts a web of styles and agile dynamics upon the band’s melodic hardcore pyre with its successor similarly explosive and bold in its nature and creative character.
New Lease Of Life is a release which just gets better song by song, its second half majorly arousing the passions and personal plaudits but from start to finish the album only impressed and declared No Kings No Slaves a band attention was made for.
New Lease Of Life is out now.
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Pete RingMaster 14/03/2020
Copyright RingMasterReview: MyFreeCopyright
Darkness Calling follows with again a rhythmic tempting which burrowed under the skin. Electronic fingering and the sonic courting of guitar brings shadows and ears together, the Korn-esque flames of the latter lighting up the earthier but no less infectious declaration from VolK’s voice. The track is superb, its senses grinding grooves and dubstep throbbing swift addiction and quickly matched in potency by the even more esurient intent and drama of My Devil. Keys gently entice with a crepuscular sheen before the track erupts in another ravenous incitement, again psyche burrowing grooves leading the way as raptorial rhythms pounce. The contrast of crystalline electronics and musical predation simply gripped attention, all the while rhythms jabbing and stalking with manipulative animation as gut bred vocals magnetically nagged; a dubstep solo from DJ Gigantor from the band Evol Intent extra creative flesh to feast upon.
The following God Pretends takes the lead of its predecessor into its own pertinacious onslaught; thrash bred riffs driving the hungry trespass as again the rhythms of bassist KTS and drummer Mehdi bear grudge to the anthemic incitement. The grooves and riffs of guitarists Jay and Alexis entangle in a virulent appropriation of ears and appetite to core the outstanding siege on the senses, the vehemence of vocals extra hostility on one of the album’s major highlights.
EP opener, Pieces, immediately demanded attention, the rapier like swings of drummer Ross Curtain landing with contempt as the song forcibly stirs with the bass of John Brodie beginning its grievous grumble. That alone has us more than attentive and with increasing focus as the guitar of Micheal Germon began unwinding its sonic wiring. Out the senses challenging start, rousing grooves wind around ears before, within a breath or two, the melodic tones of Lorraine Brodie complete the creative palette as the track’s imagination really takes off. It continues to prowl, severely growl, and harass but equally weaves a deviously infectious tempting which is echoed in the dual styled vocals of Lorraine.
Suffering In Silence follows and quickly lays down its own formidable proposal, rhythms tenaciously marching through a weave of riffs, from which Johnson casts another rich melodic web. Hitting its meaty stroll, contagion soaking sound and vocal attack, the track swings with more of the virulent grooves the band is already proving so fertile with as the bass of Jeff Hinz magnetically growls in the midst of it all, ears and attention eagerly immersed in the thick enterprise making up the welcomed trespass.
It is a striking and compelling start to the release but one still eclipsed by the following As We Walk Through the Ashes. It too launches on thrash nurtured hostility with grooves that wind around the senses with lustful toxicity and similarly revels in the more delicate but no less hungry imagination which subsequently makes every twist and passage until the next aggressive captivation as riveting. Unpredictability also shapes the track and in turn the whole album but with a craft and invention which soon becomes expected and keenly devoured. As its predecessor and the songs to come, it weaves a multi-flavoured incitement which took no time to fully immerse in.
The EP opens with The Unnamed, a track instantly entangling ears in ripe grooves and preying rhythms before launching into a predacious assault. The sonic invasion and enticement of both guitars make for a keen tempting, Ben’s vocals as the sound earthy yet magnetic within the harassment of riffs and rhythmic aggression. The subsequent twists and melodic endeavour that emerges revels in the prowess of their creators, the track a persistent hungry nagging endowed with that bright enterprise.