Where They From? Washington D.C., United States. There are many interesting facts I wanted to use for this article about the U.S. capitol but I’ve whittled it down to two: The deadliest natural disaster in D.C. history was actually a blizzard, the Knickerbocker Storm of 1922, a storm which dumped 18 inches of snow on the local Knickerbocker Theater, a silent film hall that led to the deaths of 93 people, including a congressman. The second is that the District of Columbia did not get votes in the electoral college until March of 1961. Interesting how the majority of citizens in the President’s backyard didn’t have any say on who was in the White House for almost two hundred years of our country’s history. Also, fuck the electoral college.
What Do They Sound Like: An A389 band but good-er and grindy-er.
Why The Hype: Towards the end of the Myspace days, I noticed a trend of metal bands on that infamous website who would use fifteen different options under the “genre” category. Ya know, a lot of bands would be like “We play doom/sludge/hardcore/grind with black and death metal influences,” which was just their way of saying “We are a much shittier version of Gaza.” Well lo and behold, nearly a decade later and here comes this band out of nowhere, who actually fills that description pretty accurately.
Without a doubt, No/Más will be one of the few bands that gets covered in this series that I feel would definitely appeal to a larger audience than just your average grindcore booger-eaters. It’s obvious that this band’s intention is to write interesting and dynamic songs rather than just grow mustaches and sample ’80s horror films. Every song on their latest album, Raíz Del Mal, is a nice little rollercoaster that tends to make its twists and turns around grind, black metal, D-beat and hardcore.
Latest Release: Raíz Del Mal. I’m not sure if this is long enough to count as a full-length but if it does, it’s probably my favorite of this rather jam-packed year. It’s just really refreshing to hear a grindcore band who put thought into not only songwriting but album composition. It won’t shatter your eardrums the way some of the other bands I’ve highlighted on here do, but trust me when I say it’s got something for everybody.
Favorite Track: “Fuck You.” A two minute long two-step with the most incredibly derivative song title in the world? AND there’s a breakdown at the end of it? Sign me up.
