Ready for a secret from the RMR office? Choices of what or what not to review are sometimes driven by mood. Specifically, by bad mood. And this time, the RMR crew still finds itself on a never-ending cold turkey trip. Abrupt removal from the beach and its delights does that to us, and it turns us into grumpy and cantankerous bitches.
So, what better idea than to waltz down some psycho-punk horror lane straight into the smelly puddles lining the metal underground? ‘Xactly, none whatsoever. A place where sanity flies out the door and is replaced by the dredges of dystopian schizophrenia running on its last fumes and on serious anger issues. Thus, let’s welcome No Shelter. and their latest obnoxious little piece, Remission/Resolve to the RMR fold. Stand by for skin removal with a rusty knife, layer by layer. And you will enjoy it. Angrily so.
Already, the 12-piece tracklist tells you where this is heading. Concocted by a band who felt the need to add a full-stop dot at the end of their moniker. Literally to make a point,1 albeit not a positive one. Short tracks that fall like hammerblows with scathing titles that won’t bode well. Punk, all this screams at you. And that’s right on point, even if you haven’t yet heard one single note of whatever terrors await ye.
Only, No Shelter. here seem to be master genrebusters. Somebody opined that Remission/Resolve should be Black Metal. Oh, really? The best this crew can offer is some sort of Blackened Death Metal, combined with Hardcore and a riot of crusty Punk Metal. The band may well have tried some Wolfbastard-ish attack, but it didn’t quite pan out like that. Instead, you get a caustic mélange of miscellaneous elements that won’t deny its Hardcore and punk roots.
An all-out assault brought about by heavy use of the bass. Yes, you heard that right. The band tickles the best out of the bass player, which – in turn – works a lot towards those rough, rusty edges No Shelter. try to establish. The maxed-out use of whatever technical tools and a totally overdone abundance of feedback wipes gets them way down the path of metal destruction. And that, after a while, feels strangely alluring.
Oh, and if you need a visual, hit up the video below. This – thing feels like being edited by a honeybadger on speed, trying to induce a fucking epileptic attack on whoever has the misfortune to watch this. The clip itself is spectacularly badly executed, and the cinematic visionaries here should probably be hanged by their thumbs. But it finally manages to depict a pretty dystopian vision of what Remission/Resolve is trying to achieve here.
In the end, here is a quote I lifted straight from the Facebook page No Shelter. operates. And it says “…klingt wie 25 Minuten Holzhacken…”, meaning that this sounds like 25 minutes of wood chopping. Probably of the frantic kind, straight from one of those demented contests where apeish woodsmen try the find the master of the axe. But I digress. The metaphor, however, is right on point. Frantic, full of aggressive energy, Remission/Resolve uses every and all tools at their disposal to create that manic buzzsaw effect. That nerve-racking feeling generated just to remind you that you ain’t here to enjoy yerselves, but to painfully feel the weight of whatever argument the band tries to depict.
The use of the bass is brutally efficient, with the rest of the guitars turning into so much supplemental garnish. The merciless rasp and relentless howling of the vocals truly start to grate on your conscience after a while. And the drums slam everything else shut with corrosive force. Exactly the way it should be. The promo likened this piece to Swedeath of long times past, but this record goes way beyond that. This is abrasively raw, emotional, and ferociously merciless punk-laden fare of a premier order. And in a way, Remission/Resolve feels like the ruthless evil brother of more refined records that kinda weaved into that direction earlier. But those never quite ventured into the bottomless pit of enraged anguish just the way No Shelter. just did.
Good record.
Record Rating: 6/10 | Label: This Charming Man Records | Web: Official Band Site
Release Date: 25 July 2025
- The Odd Footnote!
- No pun intended. Well, no, that was a lie. Pun fucking intended. There, that’s better. -Ed.-↩