We’ve seen plenty of canonical hardcore bands who called it quits after an album or two in the 2000s reunite over the past five years or so, but DC’s Majority Rule took a different approach. 2018’s Devils Cast Long Shadows was the first album Matt Michel, Kevin Lamiell, and Pat Broderick had made together in 15 years, though it also saw Michel and Lamiell stepping away from the mic to let Maha Shami’s commanding vocals define this new era under the NØ MAN banner. Given Shami’s Palestinian heritage, the project only became more poignant on 2024’s Glitter and Spit, a hardcore-punk missive filled with song titles like “Can’t Kill Us All” and “God’s Neighborhood,” if there was any question as to whether certain recent atrocities in Gaza had any bearing on the record’s mood.
Now the quartet are gearing up to release its follow-up, Between the Sword and the Neck, whose title speaks to the violence—both lyrical and musical—contained within. Early singles “Moan” and “They Have Names” gave us a sense of the record’s frantic energy, and now “Zoo” follows suit. Described by Shami as “a metaphor about hierarchy, abuse of power, and slogans that numb people into marching into complicity,” the track burns fast and bright across its two minutes, with the vocalist’s fierce growls managing to dominate the otherwise impossibly heavy tune.
Preview the single below before it drops tomorrow, and pre-order Between the Sword and the Neck here ahead of its October 30 release via Iodine Recordings.
