Not Enough Space : 'Weaponize Your Rage':

Floridian ‘moancore’ collective Not Enough Space achieve transformation through trauma as they harness the fire inside on genre-busting debut Weaponize Your Rage...

Every human on Earth is a product of their past experience. Each chest-puffing triumph and crippling tragedy contributes to the person that we become. But rather than succumbing to circumstance or being shaped by the whims of others, even the harshest adversity or most brutal betrayal can be a crossroads: one where we burn down what’s behind us to light the road ahead.

Not Enough Space have plenty of fuel for the fire. Reckoning on everything from religious trauma to body dysmorphia, devastating debut Weaponize Your Rage burns brighter than a thousand suns.

“It’s about transformation through pain,” explains co-vocalist Lizzie Raatma. “When you create art, you need to make a decision: are you going to reopen old wounds and let them fester, or will you do something that allows you to heal? Music shouldn’t be about allowing the past to consume you, no matter how dark or terrible it has been. It should be about using that darkness to fuel something positive. Previously, performing has dragged up old sadnesses for me, but I’ve learned that if you take the initiative – if you literally weaponize your rage – it can lift the weight away...”

Long roads have led to that realisation. Listeners might’ve only stumbled across the band recently on social media thanks to their tongue-in-cheek status as figureheads of the ‘moancore’ subgenre, but their story stretches all the way back to 2018. The earliest version of NES was a pop-punk/post-hardcore project that’d crop up at open mic nights at the University Of Central Florida and local haunts like Austin’s Coffee in Winter Park. Diving headfirst into those shows was more about having fun than making connections, but a passionate fanbase quickly took shape. Originally unnamed, they found their offbeat moniker at one extra-chaotic UCF showing where, bewildered by how much gear they’d crammed onstage, the organiser raised a toast, ‘to Not Enough Space!’

Expansion was never going to be a problem, as a line-up of like minds gravitated into existence. Drummer Maurice Jones and bassist Jacob Sawyer (still in high school when he joined up) set the rhythm. Guitarist Tristan Kaos was the first to respond when Lizzie put the call out to 300-strong local group chat ‘Coalition Of The Musical Boyos’ in search of new players. No part would be more integral, however, than co-vocalist Liv Mitchell who first saw NES on video via an ex-boyfriend.

“Fuck that guy!” Liv laughs today. “He messaged me from a show, like, ‘These guys suck!’ But I really liked that this was the sort of female-led band I hadn’t come across in a long time. So when Lizzie got in touch to ask if I knew anyone who could sing and scream, I immediately said ‘Me!’”

Discovering shared love of 2010s metalcore supremos Asking Alexandria would precipitate a move into heavier territory, with 2023 TikTok hit No Way Out setting a far more impactful tone. Evolving together on the road has allowed far more multi-dimensional creativity to blossom, though. Like a musical embodiment to the meme-legend ‘Florida Man’, NES see themselves as an archetypical ‘Florida Band’ alongside Sunshine State heroes A Day To Remember and Wage War: humble, nerdy, more than a little chaotic. Their unique profile as a truly heavy, dual-female-fronted outfit also has also allowed them to pay tribute to a range of heroes, from the poppier likes of Avril Lavigne and Paramore to contemporary heavy trailblazers Spiritbox and Jinjer, Walls Of Jericho and Dying Wish.

“People ask us what it’s like to be a woman in a man’s world,” Liv bats away the idea that women should still be seen as outliers in metal, “but I’ve worked in male-dominated industries my whole life. I did landscaping with my dad between the ages of 12 and 17. Then I went to barber school. Metal is ‘male-dominated’ in the same way, but that doesn’t mean we have anything to prove. It’s cool to be the one band exactly like us right now, but I’d rather people see us as great musicians than anything else. Before long, the metal scene might be dominated by women, anyway...”

Female fury plays its part on Weaponize Your Rage. Women’s rights are constantly under attack in 2025 and there is righteous relish in sounds as violently varied as surging relationship lament Waiting for You and the far more lurid New Age Cannibal: ‘Bow for the queen / I’m the New Age Cannibal!’ But far more universal themes of mental health and self-empowerment are key. Devil Left Me On Read, for instance, chronicles the numbness that comes with chronic depression, imagining Satan himself denying entry to the abyss because of too much baggage. Kill Eat Repeat, conversely, turns its wrath on organised religion and the human selfishness it conceals via sheer outrage: ‘Self-serving righteous prick / Why don’t you get on your knees and suck this dick?!’

No track is more emblematic of NES’ outlook than the heartbreaking Solace In Silence. A thrillingly dynamic composition openly indebted to Avenged Sevenfold classic I Won't See You Tonight, Part 1, its account of suicide from the perspective of the departed taps into both singers’ experiences with depression, while examining the outrage and emotional desolation that follows in its wake.

“It’s okay to be angry,” gestures Liv. “It’s okay to be pissed off. It’s okay to feel all these different emotions. That’s why there are so many different shades on the album. It’s about seeing emotion not as weakness, but as strength to achieve what you need. Fighting for yourself is important.”

Deep and dark as Weaponize Your Rage is, there’s still time for a wry smile. With fingers tight to the pulse of algorithm-driven popular culture, viral success met the single release of Primitive in late 2024 as, with one half-second mid-song gasp, NES anointed themselves the champions of the aforementioned ‘moancore’. Part rage-baiting, part piss-taking, part earworm-brilliance it says less about stylistic substance than their will to take on the world from the best platform possible.

“Everybody has a different definition of ‘being humble’,” shrugs Lizzie. “Most think that it just means not being too cocky. I think that’s the wrong way to approach it. You need to be careful about underselling yourself, slipping into default thought-processes or not giving 110% in everything that you do. We’re growing as artists, we’re growing as people, and we want to be as true to that as we can – onstage and offstage, in the community and at the merch table. It’s about being the best version of yourself. And Weaponize Your Rage can speaks to all kinds of different people, proving that any band can do anything they want, with any line-up exploring any genre or genres, all without needing to fit into a box. Is there anything more exciting than that?!”