Image courtesy of Not A Cost
There is precious little information about Not A Cost available online, and one gets the distinct impression that they prefer it that way. The band identifies as "anti-colonial, Anarchist, genre-bending crust from unceded Lekwungen territories on occupied Turtle Island," which anyone with more than a passing familiarity with Canada's colonial history will know encompasses various tracts of land in and around Victoria, BC.
Not A Cost's political and cultural leanings are more than overt, they're confrontational. Think Iskra, Storm of Sedition (with whom they played on 2014's Beat The Pipelines tour), Provoked, or, at times, a more crust-oriented Cloud Rat. The title track on Branches underlines their revolutionary outlook, with harshly spat words like "Natural systems won't carry industrialism/we cant sustain existence through this Western vision/there is no hope in reform/create and destroy" rising above urgent basslines and a clanging metalpunk backbone.
As they say, it's "music to entice the collapse of civilization," and the whole EP is fantastic; when Bandcamp let me know that it had just been released today, you bet your vegan leather boots I hopped right on it. Listen to the whole thing here, then go to Not A Cost's Bandcamp page and give them all your money (or download it for free—your call).