Between the Sword and the Neck

Between the Sword and the Neck is the towering new LP from Washington, D.C. quartet NØ MAN and their second album with Iodine Records. Across a blistering 26-minute runtime, the band merges the devastating heaviness of Erase with the sharpened urgency of Glitter and Spit, pushing their sound into its most intense, intimate, and politically charged territory yet. The album is rooted in the Arabic word “sumud,” meaning steadfastness or perseverance, and channels vocalist Maha Shami’s lived experience as a daughter of Palestinian refugees. The title Between the Sword and the Neck is taken from Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani, referencing the impossibility of genuine negotiation between an oppressor and the oppressed. Throughout the record, Shami’s lyricism draws from Palestinian history, poetry, family, grief, rage, survival, and refusal of erasure. The album features guest vocals from Kat Hidalgo and Jenna Pup on “In Spite,” quotations from Ghassan Kanafani, Fadwa Tuqan, and Mahmoud Darwish on focus track “In Tongues,” poetry by Kamelah Shami on "Blood and Paper,” and names of lives lost to the occupation read by friends and family on “They Have Names.” “In Tongues” also features Kamelah, the daughter of Maha Shami and Matthew Michel, making the song one of the album’s clearest expressions of family, memory, language, and intergenerational Palestinian identity. Self-produced and recorded by the band, mixed by Matthew Michel, and mastered by Brad Boatright at Audiosiege, the album stands as NØ MAN’s most vulnerable and unrelenting work to date.