Converse Rubber Tracks x MetalSucks Preview, Week 1: No Salvation
We all know that Converse makes awesome sneakers (no exaggeration, our own Axl Rosenberg hasn’t worn any other brand since roughly 2004), but did you know that they also have a recording studio in Brooklyn… which they allow bands to use 100% FREE of charge? It’s true! Converse Rubber Tracks is a state of the art recording studio, complete with its own qualified sound engineers and too much equipment to even list here, that can be used by musicians of any genre to record their own music for FREE, the rights to which they completely retain. It sounds too good to be true… and yet, it’s a really real thing!
MetalSucks has teamed up with Converse Rubber Tracks to give five bands the opportunity to record in the studio for a day absolutely free of charge, inviting bands to apply through an open submission process this past May and June. Axl and Vince have sifted through all the band entries — yes, every single one of them! — and have chosen their favorites. Five bands will be recording at Converse Rubber Tracks in August for a day each, after which the songs they record will be released right here on MetalSucks and featured in a video series on Metal Injection. In the weeks leading up to these recording sessions, we’ll be previewing one band every Wednesday, so you can get a taste of what’s in store for ya! Today, we begin with Worcester, MA’s No Salvation.
We first covered No Salvation when they released their debut, Faith, back in February; five months and one Carcass cover later, we’ve only fallen deeper in love with ’em. No Salvation play metalcore in the purest sense of the word — like Burnt by the Sun, Nails, and Enabler, there’s a clear cross-pollination of genres, but there’s no autotune, nothing your mom might appreciate for being melodious, and it’s unlikely teenage girls will want anything to do with ’em. This isn’t the soundtrack to your broken heart; it’s the soundtrack to your concussion.
Indeed, No Salvation make music with physical force; describing pummeling, mean-as-fuck rippers like “Cruelty Will Prevail” and “War Forever” as “aural gut punches” doesn’t really do them justice. They’re more like aural brass-knuckle-beatings-in-the-mud leave you with a permanently crooked nose and a broken rib tearing a hole in your lung. They’re not just pure, grindy noise, though; there’s a tactical quality to the way the guitars and drums interweave. It’s like the dude who’s beating you senseless isn’t just some random ‘roid ragin’ townie — he’s a professional boxer with a college degree.
In case you can’t tell, I’m really stoked on this band.
Below, you can stream No Salvation’s Faith, along with their cover of Carcass’ “This Mortal Coil.” And while you await the results of their Converse Rubber Tracks x MetalSucks contribution, keep up with them via Facebook and Twitter!
