Rust Belt post-hardcore has always been forged from a spine of steel—being surrounded by the hulks of disused mills and factories seems to naturally herd a certain kind of midwesterner toward music that reflects that heaviness and devastation. Fittingly, Mors Arma is an alloy of lifers going back to Cleveland, Ohio’s storied underground scene, sporting members of Hilo, Quickening, Solo Flyer, and latter-day witch doom skull crushers Frayle. Taking key inspiration from the likes of Hum, Mastodon, and Every Time I Die, Mors Arma seeks that magical line on which punishing riffs and plaintive melody can find illuminating balance, and they’ve tracked that quest’s progress on their forthcoming self-titled E.P. recorded in upstate New York at Bentonbrook in Livingston Manor by the band and mixed by Mario J McNulty (David Bowie, Nine Inch Nails, Modern English, Anti-Flag, The Raveonettes)

Singer/guitarist James Isom and drummer Pat Ginley have been partners in musical crime since 1998. Ginley met singer/guitarist Eric Mzik through their mutual involvement with Frayle, and bassist Brennan Carden was a window-washing co-worker of Isom’s—and how is a band’s lineup being completed by a grunt job not the most Cleveland rock band story ever? Mors Arma distinguished themselves in a crowded and competitive scene with riveting grooves, entrancing solos, to-the-point arrangements, and a no-nonsense stage presence tightly focused on delivering the goods to a hungry crowd.