With No Die, Master Splinter unveiled their first single of 2025, cracked open a pit of sonic carnage and dared us all to crawl in. Portland’s prodigal sons’ grotesquely theatrical take on hard rock hit a new stride with this track. They’ve always melted faces with monolithic riffs and psychedelic fretwork, but now they’ve stitched those foundations to a grimmer, more vehement guise—without forgoing the tongue-in-cheek Machiavellian mischief that’s always simmered beneath the madness.
Master Splinter didn’t throw out the rulebook. They rewrote it with charred ink. From the first chug of the bass to the last chaotic breakdown, No Die is a warped mirror to our obsession with death, with catastrophe, with the void. It lurches and prowls with snarling vocals, scuzzy rhythms, and frenetic percussion. The track’s lyrical backbone—sung with visceral theatricality—confronts the magnetic pull of the morbid, the inexplicably compelling urge to peer into the abyss.
Mick Arrell’s songwriting, along with Jason Schauer’s bass work and Aaron Bree’s percussive force, keeps the absurdity of modern existence firmly in the firing line. The drama and politics are stripped away; what’s left is raw energy, dark humour, and warped unity delivered through a warped fairground ride of hard rock.
No Die is now available to stream on all major platforms, including Spotify.
Review by Amelia Vandergast.