RUFF JUSTICE was formed in 1992 from Dallas, Texas from the ashes of the band LYTHIAS II, by original members Scott Baughn and Mark Kinder. The complication album I’m reviewing “No Justice No Peace” released in September of 2023 contains songs from their previous albums “No Justice No Peace (1995), “Live at Pacific Club (1995), “Propaganda Demo” (2010), “Propaganda Sessions (2014) and “Propaganda Sessions” (2015). A revolving door of many musicians have passed through the band in all those years, coming and going for various reasons and in 1996 would find founding member Mark Kinder, who was going through a divorce at the time, leaving the band and moving to southern Minnesota. What seemed like the end of RUFF JUSTICE at that time started a 14-year hiatus for the band. Returning in 2014 with a much heavier, drop-down tuned sound with the addition of guitarist Heath Thomas. The last line up of RUFF JUSTICE has never broken up, the members are simply working on other projects. I’ve got a funny feeling we’re in for a roller coaster ride of musical styles with so many hands stirring the musical pot.

The first eight songs are from “No Justice No Peace”, so we’ll start with track one “Trouble in Paradise”, despite a very simplistic opening melody and questionable vocals, they kinda pulled it out of their ass with a nice, classic riff and strong guitar work ending up with a decent rocking effort. On to “City of Flames” has a solid riff but overall lacks bite with a sludgy paced ride of fuzzy and harsh vocals overtaking pretty decent guitar licks leaving an uninspired final overall song. “Carry On” starts out strong with crisp and alluring vocals over a pleasant acoustic guitar melody that explodes in a hardened riff whilst the vocals remain the focal point and help deliver a true rocking song. There sure wasn’t much to get excited about on the first seven songs but they really zoned in on this one, sounded like a totally different band. “Free at Last” is a live song recorded in Superior, Wisconsin in 1995, and unfortunately sounds like it was recorded on a cheap Radio Shack cassette player. The song itself is a heavier ballad and has a nice, smooth melody and grooving licks but is all but lost in the poor-quality reproduction and destroys the vocals. Maybe it could have been saved by better remastering. Whoa! I’m absolutely blown away by the last five tracks, what an amazing difference with the additions of new lead singer Pino Garcia and lead guitarist Heath Thomas. They delivered a dark and hardened new sound with a slithering, creeping attitude and feverish melody and licks. The vocals were superb giving each song a huge shot of adrenaline and paired beautifully with the raw and savage guitar work.  

This complication album is a tale of two cities. I’m not even going to re-hash about the first nine songs, there is no need and I wondered why they even bothered to reissue them, but after hearing the final five monster songs, I quickly understood. I will give this overall review a “almost perfect “nine final rating, salvaged by the brilliance of the last five tracks.