No Gods, No Managers is the only full-length studio album by American hardcore punk

Hardcore punk

Hardcore punk is an underground music genre that originated in the late 1970s, following the mainstream success of punk rock. Hardcore is generally faster, thicker, and heavier than earlier punk rock. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A...

 band Choking Victim. The album was released in 1999

1999 in music

-Events:*January 7**After eight years of marriage, Rod Stewart and supermodel wife Rachel Hunter announce their separation.**Paul McCartney attends the first of his stepdaughter Heather's first housewares collection in Georgia....

 through Hellcat

Hellcat Records

Hellcat Records is an independent record label based in Los Angeles, California. The label, an off-shoot of Epitaph Records, was started as a partnership between Brett Gurewitz carp Bad Religion, the owner of Epitaph, and Tim Armstrong of Rancid, the latter of whom is generally responsible for...

/Epitaph Records

Epitaph Records

Epitaph Records is a Hollywood, California based independent record label owned by Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz. The label was originally "just a logo and a P.O. box" created in the 1980s for the purpose of selling Bad Religion records, but has evolved into a large independent record...

 and re-released on LP format by Epitaph in 2004. Being the sole full-length album of Choking Victim, it became hugely popular in the punk scene. It inspired many nascent bands, and the band members of Choking Victim went on to form other bands, most notably Leftöver Crack

Leftöver Crack

Leftöver Crack is an American punk rock band formed in 1998, following the breakup of the ska punk band Choking Victim. Primarily playing an amalgam of ska and hardcore punk, they classify themselves as "crack-rocksteady". The band is currently signed to Fat Wreck Chords for CD releases, and...

.

The tone of the album is largely dark and pessimistic, with lyrics and artwork containing Satanic

Satanism

Satanism is a group of religions that is composed of a diverse number of ideological and philosophical beliefs and social phenomena. Their shared feature include symbolic association with, admiration for the character of, and even veneration of Satan or similar rebellious, promethean, and...

 imagery. The cover does not contain a barcode

Barcode

A barcode is an optical machine-readable representation of data, which shows data about the object to which it attaches. Originally barcodes represented data by varying the widths and spacings of parallel lines, and may be referred to as linear or 1 dimensional . Later they evolved into rectangles,...

, in accordance with their staunch anti-capitalist message, and is decorated with various satanic and anti-Christian symbols. However, a later pressing includes a barcode on the back cover. The album's title is an interpretation of the Anarchist phrase/motto "No gods, no masters".

The quotations heard on several tracks are recordings of Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti is an award-winning, internationally known American political scientist, historian, and culture critic who has been writing on a wide range of both scholarly and popular subjects for over forty years. He has taught at several universities and colleges and has been a frequent guest...

, an award winning leftist political and historical writer.

The songs "Suicide", "Fucked Reality", "Money" and "Hate Yer State" had all appeared on the band's previous extended play

Extended play

An EP is a musical recording which contains more music than a single, but is too short to qualify as a full album or LP. The term EP originally referred only to specific types of vinyl records other than 78 rpm standard play records and LP records, but it is now applied to mid-length Compact...

 releases. However, the versions featured on this album are different recordings to those included on their E.P.s.

Track listing

1. "500 Channels" – 2:40
2. "In Hell" – 2:05
3. "Crack Rock Steady" – 3:04
4. "Suicide (A Better Way)" – 2:53
5. "In My Grave" – 2:48
6. "Fucked Reality" – 2:28
7. "Money" * – 3:32
8. "Hate Yer State" – 2:50
9. "Fuck America" * – 2:19
10. "War Story" – 2:53
11. "Five-Finger Discount" – 2:32
12. "Praise to the Sinners" * – 2:11
13. "Living the Laws" – 4:09
14. "Ska Rock Steady" - 3:58 (hidden track)

(* track contains audio of Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti

Michael Parenti is an award-winning, internationally known American political scientist, historian, and culture critic who has been writing on a wide range of both scholarly and popular subjects for over forty years. He has taught at several universities and colleges and has been a frequent guest...

)

Personnel

• Musicians:
  • Stza
    Stza
    Scott Sturgeon, also known as Stza Crack , is a musician who has fronted several ska-punk bands in the New York City area, the best known being Choking Victim and Leftöver Crack...
    
     - guitar and vocals
  • Ezra
    Ezra Kire
    Ezra Kire is an American singer/songwriter. He resides New York City where he sings and plays guitar and piano in the punk band Morning Glory, and punk/ska band Leftover Crack. In the late 90s/early 2000's he was lead guitarist in now defunct political punk/ska band Choking Victim...
    
     - guitar and vocals
  • Shayne - bass and vocals
  • Skwert - drums and vocals
  • Tommy Trujillo - flamenco guitar
• Mike Trujillo (Producer, Mixing)
• Choking Victim (Producer, Mixing)
• Geoff Sykes (Mastering)
• Mike Dy (Mixing Assistant)
• Phil Kaffel (Engineer)
• John Srebalus (Assistant Engineer)
• Eric Drooker (Artwork
  Graphic design
  Graphic design is a creative process – most often involving a client and a designer and usually completed in conjunction with producers of form – undertaken in order to convey a specific message to a targeted audience...
  
  )