ONE STEP MORE AND YOU DIE

Since its original release in 2002, One Step More and You Die has become the monolithic cornerstone of MONO's discography. Every subsequent release has been inevitably (and perhaps unfairly) compared to this album, as if it were the band's high watermark, never to be dethroned. MONO brilliantly answered even the most stubborn of naysayers with 2006's transcendent You Are There. To celebrate that release, we dug into their back catalog and pulled out this masterpiece of dark dirge, repackaged with additional artwork. One Step More stared the "sophomore slump" threat square in the face and pummeled it from note one. Four years later we can confidently say that it sounds just as brutal and beautiful as it did the day it was laid to tape.

Listening to One Step More and You Die by Japanese quartet Mono, I'm trying to figure out if we ...

More structured and with a greater feel for dynamics than many Japanese noise rock releases, Mono's One Step More and You Die shows that noise rock shouldn't be afraid to explore quieter sonic spaces -- in fact, the opening track, "Where Am I," is downright pretty.