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.
https://www.facebook.com/NKNSband/ https://www.instagram.com/nokingsnoslaves/ https://nokingsnoslaves.bandcamp.com/
Pete RingMaster 14/03/2020
Copyright RingMasterReview: MyFreeCopyright
Bleak is next up, exploding on the senses with cacophonous hunger before settling down a touch though that volatility is surface wore. Whereas the previous album bore the bands post punk instincts quite openly, Operation: Breakout relishes their punk instincts and the third track epitomises that intent though equally it just as openly shares the dexterous variety within the band’s music. Never breaking its raucous stride, the song makes way for the delicious clang of I’ll Be Waiting which just to contradict the previous statement emerges on a delicious post punk lure before exposing its contagion loaded rock ‘n’ roll. Moments spring thoughts of The Membranes and others times fellow Greeks, Three Way Plane are hinted at but essences in something unapologetically individual to SPInnERS.
Too Dead To Dance sets the EP off and alone convinced there was something special going in within ears, its declaration subsequently echoed across its companions. The outstanding opener instantly had its hooks under the skin as the rich clean vocals of guitarist Caleb Freihaut align with the rapier swings of drummer Kai. The guitars of Jake Morgan and Nathan Simpson add to the emerging theatre with the waiting throat scathing roars of fellow vocalist Jarett Clark poised to erupt upon the already alluring mix. With every passing second the track simply escalated its captivation, the grumbling swing of Patrick Reuben’s bass adding further threat within the melodic enterprise embracing Freihaut‘s expressive dexterity.
Doesn’t Feel Pain Like He Should is the first venomous treat from Loved, the track instantly lancing the senses with a sonic incision before the fierce rapier swings of drummer Shane Matthewson descend closely aligned to the ravenous grumble of Scott Hamilton’s bass. The caustic wires cast from Jesse’s guitar equally infest song and listener making a nagging cradle for the raw throated squall of his vocals all the time rhythms breeding greater virulence in their trespass. It is a glorious nagging of sound taking swipes and bites with every elevation of animosity and twist of enterprise resulting in a deliciously corrosive start to the release.
It is a seriously infectious and muscular start to the release firmly backed up by Heavy Arms. The band’s latest single it too teases and tempts with a hook which just gets under the skin, this time the band using it from the first second to nag and tempt. There is a more controlled gait to the song and a swing which had the body moving in unison, Jamie Lenman and co an easy comparison to its opening infection. There is also an underlying volatility which does not quite ignite but definitely adds a great feral quality around the pure catchiness of the song. A mix of pop, punk, and alternative rock, the track is thick contagion with the backing vocals of Coleman and Kingsmill as potent as Ptaszek’s lead and all three’s musical prowess.
The following Hysteria surges through ears with punk ‘n’ roll rancor, beats thumping with flirtatious violence as group shouts and urges accompany individual temptation. It is a seriously enjoyable and insatiable trespass emulated in its own way by successor Golden Rats but given a whole new web of twists and turns to become scorched by and addicted too. Both tracks reveal more of the bolder hunger and adventure in the band’s sound; exploration further stretched and exploited within the invasively mercurial Death Cab. As its punk heart bellows and ensnares like a malicious Shevils, the band’s rock ‘n’ roll instincts gains momentum, the great blend of vocals following the imaginative endeavour. Wiry grooves and the brooding growl of the bass only add to the unbridled magnetism brewed and devoured.