Hardcore is not for everyone, and this is a fact I sometimes neglect when praising my favorite albums to the people in my life who don’t find a therapeutic release in thrashy riffs and guttural screaming like I do. However, I would be remiss if I did not try my damndest to share NØ MAN’s fourth studio album, Between the Sword and the Neck with everyone I know. While we have not quite finished out the year, I can say with complete confidence that this is the most impactful release of 2026. The album title itself comes directly from a conversation held with Palestinian poet Ghassan Kanafi. When asked why he felt that peace negotiations had not taken place between Palestine and Israel, he answered that it was “…a conversation between the sword and the neck.” ; The sword represents the oppressor, the neck represents the oppressed, and there has never been a peaceful conversation between a colonialist and a national liberation movement. With a title like that, you don’t even need to start the record to understand exactly what this band’s message is.
Hailing from Virginia and consisting of ex-members of DC-emo-darling Majority Rule, NØ MAN has been screaming their message since 2018 with their self-released Devils Cast Long Shadows, and since then, they’ve refined their sound and their message has become more aggressive and direct. Fronted by Maha Shami, the daughter of Palestinian refugees, NØ MAN has had no hangups sharing their stance on the active genocide. Between the Sword and the Neck is the most direct response I’ve heard to the crimes against humanity that has been taking place, and has been actively ignored, for decades now.
It would be easy to provide a list of reasons why every track on this album is a banger, why every track holds an enormous weight behind it, why you need to listen to the whole thing from start to finish to truly appreciate how seamless it is. This would make for a lengthy review, but that is in fact how much praise Between the Sword and the Neck deserves. Opening track “In Spite”, featuring Kat Hidalgo of now defunct political hardcore band FAIM and Jenna Pup of the queer punk collective The HIRS Collective, packs an immediate punch to the gut, and delivers the exact amount of anger the rest of the record continues to lean into, vocalizing a defiance and refusal to be erased in the midst of an ongoing ethnic cleansing. “Zoo” follows this up with your classic fast paced hardcore, a firm message about the dangers of complicity are shrieked furiously by Shami to pull listeners further in. The third and my personal favorite track, “Moan”, slows the album down just a tad, but that is not to say that the intensity is ever lost, but instead feels more intentional. “They Have Names” is the halfway point, and what I would say best represents the record as a whole. It is furious and emotional, led by a drum beat that resonates right in your chest, and fades out with the names of those lost in the ongoing genocide read off by their loved ones. “Murmur” flirts experimentally with a more industrial sound, creating a sludgy, moodier atmosphere. “In Tongues” again directly quotes Ghassan Kanafi, but also Palestinian poet Fadwa Tuqan (known as the Poet of Palestine), and author Mahmound Darwish (writer of the Palestinian Declaration of Independence). The tenth and final track, “Blood and Paper”, closes out the album with what feels like a battle cry to rise with the stars and take back what was taken.
In a recent interview with The New Scene, Shami says that no matter how well things are going in her everyday life, she is always painfully aware of what is and has been taking place in Palestine. It’s obvious that Between the Sword and the Neck is the outlet for that constant awareness of suffering, where every song is brimming with fury and a burning ache of resistance. There are plenty of hardcore albums that try to take on this same topic, but fall flat where NØ MAN has yet again been able to dig deep and deliver an album that perfectly encapsulates and expresses the breadth of the tragedy that Palestinians continue to face.
Rating: 5/5
