NO MAN'S SLAVE

admittedly, i didn't really "get" infest 'till i heard this LP. i kind of always felt that their songs were kind of so-so and denunzio's vocals were kind of unfortunate sounding when compared to the other original powerviolence bands (neanderthal, crossed out, man is the bastard, no comment). but NO MAN'S SLAVE totally flipped all those opinions over and now i can safely say that infest is one of my all time favorites, of any genre, and i love everything they've recorded now.


from start to finish this record is just unforgiving and FIERCE. it is brutal and it is mean and it is ugly. starting with probably the best sample to start a record of a heavy band, the record sets off with "cold inside", a breakneck-paced explosion of heavily fuzzed guitars, mental-speed blasts and the most pissed off vocals. ever. and that never lets up for all of both sides, save for the epic "my world...my way" at the end.

its so far from formulaic though. each song is strong and dynamic on its own, and domino's hooks are so scathing. like i said before, the thing i always liked the least about infest were the vocals, and while i really enjoy them now, i still think this is denunzio's best. the vocals match this record so perfectly, equally as raging as the songs are at every second. for the time, even though they had been a band for close to 10 years by the time they recorded it, NO MAN'S SLAVE was and still is far ahead of the curve from what pretty much any fast hardcore band was doing at that time. the LP was recorded in 1996 before infest broke up, and i guess was shelved until 2000 when denunzio finished the vocals (with a little assistance here and there from andy of no comment). its actually kind of crazy to think that afer 4 years its pretty amazing that it ever did get released, but its so good that they did.

this is absolutely crucial listening. infest did for hardcore in the 90's what black flag did for hardcore in the 80's. absolute unprecedented inspiration for so many other amazing bands to follow. own this because it's been repressed and its still pretty available and it sounds so much better on wax.

1) Cold Inside
2) Feeling Mean
3) Sick Machine
4) Upright Mass
5) Terminal Nation
6) In His Name
7) Behind This Tongue
8) What's Your Claim?
9) True Violence
10) Sickman
11) Punchline
12) Contact
13) Effort Falls Down
14) You're A Star
15) Freeze Dried
16) Rabid Pigs
17) Lying To Myself
18) Nazi Killer
19) My World . . . My Way


NO MAN'S SLAVE