No Trust

No Trust first came to my attention back in 2013 when I featured their debut album. Now 18 months later the guys are back with their new album - The Cycle. A progressive sludge/doom metal hybrid with ferocious death based growls to match. If you're into the heavier and primal side of Sludge Metal that Mastodon used to make back in the day then No Trust is the band for you. Opening track - Beneath the Earth - is dark and violent as they come in the Sludge Metal world as the band offers no compromises with their bleak take on Progressive Sludge Metal. The doom and gloom effect is laid on thick from the very start as this album stays mean, nasty and moody throughout. The riffs are pitch black though they have a clever use of hardcore beats and breakdown riffs to impress you with.

Second Track - Cycle Of The Sky - carries on the bleak atmospheric mood with the music venturing firmly into Death Metal territory with the slight hint of Sludge Metal kept in the background. The vocals whilst primal and harsh are easy to understand so you can understand what the band is angry about. No Trust style of music is not groundbreaking by any means but they have some intriguing and inventive ideas that adds to the overall dark theme of the album. Each song builds up the tension before the band let fly with an epic blast of fast-paced riffs.

Tracks such as Nothing Remains, Scapegoat and Host Body all bring their own style of punishment to the table as No Trust venture between Progressive Sludge and the more brutal Death Metal theatrics to give this album an extra sense of urgency and deadly precision. No Trust adds intriguing and creepy soundclips that only heightens the tension lingering in the air. The album is a tad short at 30 mins or so but it does its job in outlining what No Trust are all about. It could have done with a few more songs though if you're looking for a quick brutal fix within the Sludge/Death Metal field then you can't pass this album by.

The Cycle won't change your outlook on life but for an album that blends Sludge, Doom and Death Metal so brutally and effortlessly; this album is very hard to beat. The standout track has to be the final song - Wolves - as No Trust manages to include strands of psychedelic metal with traces of Thrash Metal to show you how creative they can actually be. I feel that if No Trust carries on with this style of music on their next album then these guys have the potential to release something special indeed. Until then, The Cycle is a superb and thought provoking album. - The Sludgelord

#5 No Trust - The Cycle

Despite having a slight black metal torment to the mid-range throat-scraping of the vocals, these guys play death metal that attacks like a very keen machine. The compact songs run around four minutes, getting in and getting the job done without losing you in the sprawl.

This is not straight-forward death metal, though it retains enough of the raw aggression to give the tightly coiled progressive metal influence more bite, always finding ways to work in catchy grooves. Tastefully finding ways to conform more to what today’s headbangers would want from death metal, the band doesn’t owe much to classic bands like Morbid Angel, but slight touches of Slayer can be detected. Keep your ears open to what the future holds for this band. - No Clean Singing

After the late-2013 release of their first LP, Unfound, the sludgy duo of No Trust buckled down to work out some new material, and this resulting album will be released in just two more days. What you'll hear once you get the chance to grab your own copy and fire it up is a highly aggressive blending of metal styles, with an emphasis on sludgy death underscored by doom-accepting pushes of (very) heavy melody and big bass presence (and to my ears, some blackened harshness also joins the fray). For a two-piece band, No Trust generate an impressive amount of noisy belligerence, with cascades of percussion and grimy guitar serrations tearing away almost as soon as you hit play. Meanwhile, the vocals come in with a savage assault, though the band has a good ear for when to back off, ensuring enough restraint to keep the impact of their vicious guttural nature landing firm.
No Trust show a strong command of their music in all of the different ratios into which their genre-mixing fury is distilled, covering the 'seize you by the neck and shake you' blitzes, the 'let's fuse your spinal segments' slow sludge grinds, and the 'gnash your teeth to bloody pegs' abandonment with damn good commitment to pushing each form out to well-deserved extremes. There's very little of that inadequacy you can get when a band too firmly rooted in one style tries to throw in an failed experiment past their ability/familiarity to land; No Trust pull off all the varieties with fire in their veins and a death-grip on the execution. In short, if you like your sludge with a big splash of death (or if you don't, but have any amount of curiosity about that combo), get yourself a copy of The Cycle. - The Burning Beard

No Trust is a two piece death metal, doom, and sludge band from the Bay Area of California who formed in 2010. No Trust is comprised of brothers Zach Guzman and Ben Guzman. No Trust play a really aggressive and savage style of progressive leaning death metal, doom, and sludge that can bes aidt o be influenced by bands such as Eyehategod, Neurosis, Gehenna, and other like-minded bands. since their inception in 2010, No Trust have released a three song demo in June of 2012 and a ten song LP titled Unfound in November of 2013. The Cycle is the band's latest full-length LP, which was released digitally on June 30th, 2015. On their latest LP, No Trust offer up seven tracks of brutal as fuck and oppressive sounding death metal, doom, and sludge that's an absolute must listen for fans of Sannhet, Northless, and Mutilation Rites. Overall, The Cycle is a killer LP and should not be missed. Highly recommended! Enjoy! - Dead Air At The Pulpit

We know No Trust from their début album Unfound, so it’s good to catch up with their latest offering.

I stand by my previous statements about this band – they’re still huge worshippers of The Riff and still come across as a blending of Dopethrone and Chimaira.

The singer’s raspy roar is back once more and continues to provide very satisfying vocals for the unfolding Metallic carnage. His voice works even closer with the music on this EP to produce songs that gel together nicely.

The guitars seem to buzz and rage through the playing time with that interesting combination of Sludge and Modern Metal that they play so well. The production emphasizes the Metal side of the equation, but the Sludge quality is brought out in the music from some choice riffing and the singer’s acidic snarl.

The songs are more developed this time around and the time between releases seems to have been well spent; overall, No Trust sound more confident and professional than ever.

Well, I’m very happy with this. A 31 minute blast of quality Metal is never to be turned down.

Give them a listen and prepare to unleash the fury. - Wonderbox Metal

No Trust is a two piece metal band, but don't think for a second that these brothers are some minimalist and lo fi production. No, there new release Unfound is actually more fully sounding than many metal bands. The No Trust sound is surprisingly developed and powerful, riding on a wave of truly top notch guitar tone and stellar drumming. Sure there are times when a bass boost would help things along, but as a whole, No Trust do a very good job of creating some very heavy music with just a few people. Let this group stand as proof that you do not need five dudes to start a metal band, you can just as easily pump out some top notch stuff with your brother in your house, you can even play it live! This is high quality groove metal, and by god I could go for more in a heartbeat. The songwriting is great and surprisingly strong given the lack of instruments. Plug in your headphones and let your head bang, it is time for the new metal masters to rise to the throne, and I feel like No Trust may be a part of them. - Two Guys Metal Reviews

After yesterday’s Geryon review, I felt like I needed a little more guitar in my life. Today I’m reviewing the debut CD from San Francisco sibling duo No Trust, which is almost a counterbalance to Geryon. This twosome has chosen to eschew bass guitar in their live shows, but does include it on this album for a full range of sound. How do they recreate this sludgy tone live? Simple enough, they use run their guitar through a bass cab and let it do double duty. While these two brothers could easily be written off as either exclusionary or stubborn, the clear chemistry these two display on Unfound is something that would likely be hard to recreate with even a third member.

This album is heavy on metallic groove that might appeal to fans of more prominent groups in metal, yet there’s a certain urgency and intensity here that makes this far more palatable to me than bigger name acts. Instead of channeling the generic wrath of Lamb of God, I find the low-end guitar assault paired with deranged vocals and constant, fluid drumming reminds me of a more focused, meaty cousin to The Abominable Iron Sloth. In the last sentence I used the word constant. Constant is the single best word to describe No Trust’s music on a broader level. The pace of songs varies, as do some of the tricks in their bag, but there are no frills whatsoever here. This is just aggressive, pummeling heavy metal with throaty vocals that could easily place itself among larger acts with a persistent touring schedule and the right promotion. There are occasional moments where the band drops into breakdowns and similar tricks, but they’re far more tastefully done than many metalcore type bands would implement. If the mainstream community could bend itself to a more raw, violent sound like this, I’d probably be among the first to hop aboard. Where this music does well on album, I can imagine it truly excels live, where the band can build off the energy of the crowd.

Copies of this album can be obtained directly from No Trust’s website, along with shirts featuring the album cover and band name. - Black Metal and Brews

"No Trust is a metal band from The East Bay California formed in 2010 by brothers Ben Guzman on guitar and vocals, and Zach Guzman on drums. They create a massive sound as a two piece, keeping an aggressive approach and always focusing on the power of the groove. 2013 brings the release of Unfound, their first full length effort."

The above description intrigued me regarding No Trust. They create a massive sound as a two piece - well I am happy to report that No Trust are indeed very LOUD indeed. And they have written an excellent well thought out hard-hitting album packed full of blazing riffs.

Sure the album is a bit under produced but you can't deny how talented No Trust actually are. If you like your Sludge Metal with plenty of Heavy Metal and Death Metal vibes then Unfound is the album for you.

And can these guys play. They feel like a 5 Piece Band instead of a duo. The albums first two tracks - Common Thread and Darkness Reaches - gets this album off to a great start. Hard-hitting riffs with brutal vocals to match. Ben is a man possessed on Guitar and Vocals. And his brother - Zach - is like an out of control madman on the drums. These guys know how to write a mean fucked up tune with plenty of menace and bite to scare the hell out of you.

If you're a fan of early Mastodon then you have to check these guys out as No Trust play Progressive Sludge Metal that Mastodon are well known for. But these are no mere copycats. No Trust add more hard-hitting vibes mainly from their Death Metal influences coming to the party.

3rd Track - Bottom Feeder - is another one lean mean hard-hitting bastard of a track. The riffs may be down-tuned at first but you can sense the danger lurking in the background and once the band turn evil there is no turning back. Definitely one of the albums standout tracks.

If you like the first 3 tracks then no doubt you're going to love the rest of the album like I did. Unfound is an unflinching portrayal of Progressive Sludge Metal you won't easily forget. Other standout tracks to check out are - A King - A Rose, Purging All and Of Sound Mind.

Unfound is an excellent album for all you prog sludge metal fans to check out. The album is available on Buy Now Download from BandCamp. So if you want something dark and violent then this is the album for you.

Excellent and Highly Recommended. - The Sludgelord