Metal Riot

Mumbai’s Pacifist released one of the absolute banger EPs of the year in the form of the must-hear Greyscale Dreams.How often do you get to hear a hardcore band that actually makes you still want to be a better person these days? People are so cynical that it takes a lot of spirit to cut through the Godforsaken fog of modern malaise. It will take you about fifteen minutes to finish the entire EP and I hope it will move you as much as it made me feel inspired. “Double Down” at the 2 minute mark from a crazed diagonal sounding edgy hardcore riff suddenly melting into a wash of brief almost shoegaze guitar and careful cymbal work paired with poetic, youthful musings is an exhilarating thing to have reach your ears and stir the blood.

I reached out to the band’s contact and they graciously agreed to an interview about hardcore, India, the EP and their influences and goals.

Read more BELOW.

Greetings, y’all. Wanted to get this Fourth of July week of hellish fireworks and bloated nationalistic selectivism off to a better bang with some activism against this hateful Trump regime. I am just back from an ICE/Concentration Camp protest outside Democrat Antonio Delgado’s office in Kingston, NY where many gathered to protest Dems caving on giving funding to Trump’s manufactured border crisis. There was a diverse and passionate crowd including one Jewish man who spoke in horror of having any kind of horrible camps still on this planet. I interviewed a Jamaican immigrant who was a landlady now and she described the racism she had to overcome and a lot of positive energy was put out into my community in the face of this horror show today. I am thankful to have a month and a half sober again, to be back doing activism more and encouraged by my community and support to be back on low dose estrogen , living my truths and experience other amazing people around me who care about trying to heal the world.

There is a lot of negativity in the metal and rock scene and entertainment in general. Ronnie Radke the walking Wikipedia landmine this week was making very transphobic sounding tweets then trying to backpedal through retweets that clunkily seem like he is trying in bad faith to “learn” while simultaneously disavowing the gender spectrum. I tweeted to Brett from Epitaph that maybe it was time to drop their worst signing ever Falling In Reverse but I am sad to say that the dude from Bad friggin’ Religion, one of my all time favorite bands, was too busy retweeting Ricky Gervais both sides schticking about “leftist extremists” being “bad as well” and thus helping do “Antifa is bad” propaganda layup assistance to Andy Ngo grifter fash supporting false equivalency types. Ughh. Jasta also tweeted in support of Louis CK this week and Corey Taylor liked it, which got crickets. Oh, and fucking Varg has a twitter where he is pretending to be god damned…I can’t…Gandalf The (cough) White. FML. And I thought it was a bad time to be a Swiftie this week!

THANK FUCKING NO GOD then that the excellent souls of Black Flags Over Brooklyn and Bandcamp have put out a sick as fuck hardcore, metal and weirdo RIFFS FOR REPRODUCTIVE JUSTICE comp to help inspire morale and fight tyranny as well as fight back for abortion rights for people who can get abortions (which includes trans men, by the way). The comp features some of my favorite acts including my friends in Fucked and Bound (covering Sonic Youth, ahhh!!) , Cliterati, my fave Hether Fortune, Redbait and many more. Emma Ruth Rundle, Terminal fucking Nation, Ithaca, Jucifer, False, Woe, Vile Creature, Twilight Fauna, Immortal Bird, Svalbard, Twin Temple, Racetraitor, mighty Underdark…the list of radness goes on and on. HELP SUPPORT and raise funds for abortion rights! Let’s do this!

This comp is a tremendous example of good and positive energy and momentum in the scene and I hope it keeps growing so everything can get better and we can all treat one another with respect for the sake of the future. Pick this up today and spread the word far and wide!

'Riffs for Reproductive Justice' is a new metal, hardcore, and dark folk @Bandcamp comp to raise $ for @AbortionFunds and @YellowFund, with new tunes from Thou, @RACETRAITORcore @EmmaRuthRundle @closetwitchband and more. #AbortionRights now and forever! https://t.co/CVbdtwhI8M

— Black Flags Over Brooklyn 2019 (@blackflagsovrBK) July 2, 2019

Pacifist

Pacifist from India are a spectacularly energized post-hardcore band who cite Drive Like Jehu, Snapcase and La Dispute amongst their influences. I am hearing some RAtM in the incendiary vocals. The band have a very worth your time new EP called Greyscale Dreams that evokes dismay at the current alienating circumstances of human constructed social evils, a cry of unrest and powerful riffs. It would be very cool to see this band live as their electricity leaps out of the speakers and must be pretty fierce in person.

Stream new chaotic anthem ‘Reactionary’ at Unite Asia, RIGHT HERE

Pacifist are more than ready to launch their brand of hardcore music firmly in the global landscape, embarking on a string of shows to promote the EP, produced & mixed by guitarist Apurv Agrawal & mastered by Brad Boatright of Audiosiege Studios. The EP artwork & booklet features strong, impactful shots that serves as a carefully constructed tapestry of city life in Mumbai in different locations & settings, shot by Abheet Anand & designed by Sanjana Bhatt of Blankfound.

Their debut EP launches digitally on the 16th of June, and the band has been working hard touring across India in support of their upcoming release.

photo by Rebecca

Redbait‘s pending June 14th release Cages (Pre order HERE) is mandatory listening if you don’t want to miss out on one of the brightest lights of 2019’s underground. The band’s New Age Records debut will make you feel revolution singing in your blood, a powerful second EP from a group with so much promise ahead of them. Listening to their guitars churning like a raging river atop powerful drums backing up intense political vocals, you can’t deny the immediacy or the band’s ability to lay it all on the line. There is nothing worse to me in music than being apathetic about your art or platform and no one would ever accuse Redbait of that.

Today we are thrilled to debut one of my favorite songs from their new release, the thrilling composition “Bred For The Knife”. The production is pitch perfect between remembering energy over pristine while still sounding incredible, well serving the driving and subtly complex song. This one has a few tricks up the sleeve you wouldn’t expect from where it begins, including my favorite bridge of the EP (it kind of sounds like Queensryche meets Bane!). This band knows just where to give more and when to hold back. It’s exceptional. I hope someone whispers in the ears of Rolo Tomassi or Propagandhi to take them on tour immediately.

Says Madeline –

“We wrote “Bred for the Knife” as a commentary on the commodification of animals, specifically in factory farming. The problem of violence against animals isn’t taken seriously and I think that can largely be attributed to the fact that the butchering and processing of animals bodies are discreet and avoided. It isn’t a practice that a lot of people are willing to confront. The lyrics mention animal cruelty, environmental destruction, and worker exploitation as interconnected struggles in this industry. The commodification of animals is a cruel outcome of capitalist society. It’s something that most of us feel very compelled to talk about and inspire conversation through the music we make.”

It really is an important issue. Some pro life dipshit on Twitter was arguing with my girlfriend yesterday and saw no harm in not caring about the environment or animals when she brought up why he ate meat if he was pro-life. He said he doesn’t eat babies, refusing to see her point. Well, bud – you ever have leg of lamb? Congrats. You ate a baby. It’s still a baby. Asshole.

Recorded and mixed by Will Jameson, Cages will be available on 7” vinyl from New Age Records.

Transparent green: 200
Transparent pink: 400
’77 Pressing (transparent pink with green New Age label): 77

Digital version will be available 06-14-19 at https://redbait.bandcamp.com/

The best thing I have heard yet in 2019 is “ICE watch”, a completely rugged face buster from Arkansas hardcore band Terminal Nation which premiered at No Echo HERE. It will give you the insane over the top feels of a lot of heavy stuff without wondering if the band members have become weird conservative farts or are suddenly gonna cape for YAITW. The song even manages to out mosh the band’s recent tune “Pulse Of The Dead” from Absolute Control.

Good news is, TN have a split out with the homies in Neckbeard Deathcamp in February (it is sure to be a big year for both bands this year) and the gossip is we might get a TN full length this year as well. If you want to feel socially responsible while still doing reprehensible shit in the pit (I mean watch out for your peeps if someone falls down…but you know what I mean), this band will be entirely your shit. Bellowed vocals, powerviolence glory and a firm anti-xenophobia message.

Mike Shaw from the band Mindforce and his partner Nicole are old friends of mine and I was very upset to hear that homie almost lost his very valuable life – seriously, this is one of the good guys – when he was hit by an oncoming vehicle early this year. Please help out if you can. It is a long recovery and Mike is a strong dude but the PMA from the community is vital right now. Send some love and money if you can. Represent!

Please donate to help Mike in his recovery – any little bit counts! https://t.co/Rp94U5PcoK

— Mindforce (@MindforceNY) January 7, 2019

Blues punks The Bobby Lees (Sam Quartin , Kendall Wind , Macky Bowman, Nick Casa) have been tearing it up on stages in Upstate, NY and around the country. While you may recognize Quartin from movie roles like the (forthcoming) Run With The Hunted and Let Me Make You A Martyr , this band is not a novelty project but a full fledged rock n rollercoaster. They totally scorch the stage with a howling sense of purpose and poetic sting, capturing a primal and at times even fun energy on Beauty Pageant . Feral animals and ghosts hiding in the trees agree that this band is the shit. This record and group truly deserve to be heard, so head to their Bandcamp and blast “Deem Em Dead” now. You can say you knew ’em when.