Songs in Circles

A lot of metalheads, including myself, suffer from NWOBHM nostalgia. Even though a lot of us weren’t even alive while NWOBHM was prominent as a movement, we tend to greatly romanticize the period and maybe sometimes give the movement more credit than it deserves in terms of quality. While there are undoubtedly a lot of great NWOBHM bands, some were not so great, and one such band is No Quarter, at least on this demo. Although not inherently bad, No Quarter is dwarfed by their more talented peers and are at best an average NWOBHM band.

No Quarter sounds like Saxon’s bombastic twin. The lead vocalist of No Quarter even sounds a lot like Biff Byford. But in terms of quality, Saxon is just a lot better. Track one, Power and the Key, delivers a promising start to this demo, but every track afterwards falls flat on that promise. I could go into great detail about the sound of No Quarter, but that would be a waste of time given how average they sound within the ranks of NWOBHM.

Every track after Power and the Key suffers from the same structural fault, the same fault that cock rock bands suffer from. Cock rock bands view instrumentals as an entity to complement the vocal melody, a sort of structural support for the main attraction. Maybe I’m being a bit harsh on No Quarter because they certainly did try to do the exact opposite, but the instrumentals are so uninspired that the comparison needed to be brought up. NWOBHM usually has riffs that are powerful, melodic, and even sometimes groovy. But for No Quarter, the instrumentals are just… there. There’s no easy way to describe it because everything is incredibly mediocre. Songs In Circles is just painfully forgettable and average. As a result, No Quarter is a bit of an exception, at least to those who romanticize all of NWOBHM.

Bands falling into obscurity even within their respective circles due to time can sometimes be tragic. But No Quarter is not a tail of tragedy for this reason. The only tragedy concerning this demo is mediocrity while so many other great works were created during this time.