Where they from? Washington D.C.
Did you know that Washington was purposefully designed to be confusing so that if any foreign army were to take it over they would have difficulty maneuvering around the city? This is at least what my dad told me when we went there when I was 12. To be quite honest, the most memorable part of that trip was a very well-timed fart my brother had in the backseat on the outskirts of Baltimore.
Why the hype?
Any dedicated follower of this column will know that we have been big No/Mas backers since they released Raiz Del Mal in 2018, an EP that easily made our year end best of list. Though ostensibly within the grindcore realm, No/Mas found its niche in its open embrace of death and thrash, having its sound fall somewhere between those early ’90s Napalm Death albums and early Misery Index. Suffice to say that they are a grind band not afraid to play with the precision and dexterity normally reserved for other less iconoclastic genres.
Latest Release?
Consume/Deny/Repent released earlier this month. This is the bands first full-length and basically encapsulates everything they did well on the prior EP’s: dynamics, groove and precision are all on full display here. The band perhaps excels the most delivering anthemic circle pit riffs such as on “Interrogation” and “Rabia.” C/D/R is a whirlwind of thrash riff mastery set to blast beats and the occasional mid-Atlantic beatdown that will bludgeon the listener into utter submission. “Where the fuck am I?” You’re in D.C., bitch.
