Nora

Officially Nora's first full-length, despite their four-year existence - after two EPs, Kill You For A Dollar and Neverendingyouline, and a split with the Dillinger Escape Plan - Loser's Intuition is their first gasp in years, after a brief break-up and line-up retooling, and is an excellent return to form, surpassing the achievements of past releases but shedding the sonic deadwood that threatened Nora's past works with repetitious tedium. Musically, Loser's Intuition is rife with the discordant noisecore pioneered by legendary fellow NJ natives Deadguy, and the mighty Turmoil, yet possesses sufficient breakdowns and a linear song construction to appeal to hardcore's mosh-happy contingent. Nora's mix of complexity and simplicity walks a fine line, as they risk alienating some and boring others, but with the complicated-core sub-genre growing increasingly self-indulgent, and moshcore increasingly banal, Loser's Intuition is an album that cuts through both in a violent and captivating way. "Wave Goodbye" and "Nobody Takes Pictures of the Drummer" plow and pummel, switching back and forth between mid-paced metallic battering, dissonant guitar work, viciously brutal throat abuse and hardcore runs. But it's with "For The Travelers," the original album title, that Nora hits the hardest, offering anthemic vocally shredding, catchy riffs, a shifting tempo, brief Godflesh-inspired discord coupled with an urgency and a straddling of their various styles to greatest effect. Song explanations and artwork by Derek Hess only add to the musical power of Loser's Intuition, which is a punishingly proficient release and a welcome return.