Metal Riot

And we’re baaaack. Metal Riot news here with the latest clobberin’ time updates to get you through these hard times. Anthrax have a new bourbon honoring Dimebag (made in my Hudson Valley) for all you boozers to check out. Looks legit! I have been sober six months so I am not gonna fuck that up, but you do you. So for my pick me up, let’s pivot to hardcore!

NYHC legends Sick of it All (and we’re all sick of it all right now, one way or the other), have a new video out for “Bull’s Anthem”. Always one of the all time greats of hardcore to me and many others, SOIA deserve all the love. And they brought some friends along!

“Getting all our fans and friends involved in the making of this video for ‘Bull’s Anthem’ was an absolute blast. We had so much fun going through all the submissions, piecing it together, and being able to bring some much needed laughter into all of our lives during these crazy times. It’s amazing to see so many people united via our music, from all over the world, and joining us in spreading a good responsible message. We want to thank Tim from Rise Against, Chuck from Hot Water Music and the hundreds of participants, for making this happen, and we want to thank you for watching and sharing this video. It’s US vs Them and the time for revolution has come! Support, love and take care of each other,” states SICK OF IT ALL about the music video.

“Bull’s Anthem” is off SICK OF IT ALL’s latest album, Wake The Sleeping Dragon!. For the release, Century Media Records teamed up with Fat Wreck Chords, who put out the CD and vinyl version in the US. The album is available to stream and purchase HERE.

Cro-Mags have one of the more turbulent legacies in hardcore and currently are ripped in half into two bands who each fairly have a serious karmic claim to aspects of the legacy. While Harley Flanagan owns the name now and . Let’s get this straight – In The Beginning is a more than admirable hardcore record full of plenty of aggro, solid moments and pit worthy consistency. To his credit, it is clear Harley didn’t just dial it in at all. He also made sure great people were attached to this era, from Rocky George (who steals the entire show with ease) to Phil Campbell’s cameo energy. Gabby also kicked a lot of ass. It sounds great mix wise and the performances range from on point to totally killer.

On the album’s artwork, Flanagan explains, “The front of the album is my old building I used to live in, called ‘C Squat’ where I wrote most of the music for 1986’s Age Of Quarrel album. The rear of the record shows me looking down at the site where the building once stood, essentially, it’s me looking at my past and where everything began.” I love the LES and C Squat makes me think of getting heroin spritzed out a needle up my literal nostril and then seeing Choking Victim in the basement while people urinated down an orange traffic cone. Damn, my life is somewhat different now.

The title of the record is honestly a big distraction for me, seeming like less of a PMA statement and more a troll reminder of who founded the band (although I am not tone policing dude on the things he is cynical about). It also is because I am a huge Mercyful Fate fan and The Beginning is a compilation album released in 1987 consisting of the Nuns Have No Fun EP and different versions of 4 tracks from the album Melissa. I know it is nitpicky and corny to note that and that neither this album or The Beginning are the most imaginative titles, but I don’t like thinking of other art when I am trying to concentrate on what is in front of me.

“PTSD” is a standout track, just about anything you might want in a Cro-Mags song present. That is good and bad. “Don’t Give In”, while also kicking ass, has almost the exact same development from a classic pace-setting slower intro to a growling, faster remainder. It is good but kind of makes you want to just listen to “We Gotta Know”. Or does it? Am I biased because Cro-Mags have a smaller discography than The Ramones? Plenty of Ramones songs sound similar and I love them all. Lots of elbow swinging, two-stepping mid tempo classic reminiscent moments to experience are present (or re-experience if you are an old fan) in a new chapter here.

While there is power in a lot of this, it also feels like an homage to bygone days. Still, he has way more of a right to that than half the new jack bands copying actual old school artists personal creative contributions and aesthetics but then acting as if they are hotter shit. No. Your new school band will never be Cro-Mags, Judge or Chain Of Strength. Stay motivated and do your thing, but don’t get it fuckin’ twisted and pay your respects, kids. “No One’s Victim” has some cool dissonance for the intro that I liked, before setting up an elbow swinging march sprinkled with mandatory lead guitar widdlies.

I guess I will just come out and say it. John Joseph and Mackie Jayson on board as well would have made this so much more fucking awesome. Harley did an admirable, great job holding the vocals but he isn’t a frontman and singer like John. The songs are cool but would’ve been cooler. Mackie is untouchably good. No contest. You can’t expect people to just forget knife fights and court shit or whatever you believe, but after the triumphant majority of Misfits (don’t forget poor Googy) and Guns N’ Roses (sans Stradlin) reunions of recent times, it is impossible to hear this and not also notice the missing elements in the room unless you are cave man headbanging so hard it doesn’t matter. One love and pma to all of these people, all of whom have profoundly influenced my life. It just makes me sad.

Listening to the strong closer “There Was A Time” (also a song name on Chinese Democracy, ha) I think this record is overwhelmingly well meaning and has a ton of real energy to it. I would never want to take away from that. It is admirable Harley went so hard and wrote so many songs for this, not ceding an inch of passion. Along with the new Body Count record, it is great to hear vets of the scene still give their all and not lose their beliefs. Sometimes survival is about being thankful for the good aspects and reality of the situation we have, not what we wish was different. In that paradigm, let’s be thankful we can still hear any of these musicians at all and support whichever version of the band (or both) and try and keep ahead of our collective societal demons, y’all.

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It’s time for a change in this country. To all our friends protesting in their cities be careful and watch out for each other. #blacklivesmatter #justiceforgeorgefloyd #acab

A post shared by WORSHIP (@worshipcult) on May 31, 2020 at 1:17pm PDT

Antifa is not terrorism. It is not an organization. This “President” is not a healer of divides. He is a bully and a fraud. This is a Kali Yuga time period where “contention” and unrest can lead to massive change. We have to remember our shared humanity and also not be afraid to take a stand against injustice, be it CCP’s evil anti-Uighur camps in China, falsehoods about activists or (ESPECIALLY in the United States ) the perpetuation of white supremacist systems of inequality. There is a general class war on everyone but some people suffer even more with less privilege and it has been that way for way too long, especially for black people. It is a sad stain on this country, one that real rebels will acknowledge.

Please keep your head up out there and also please don’t loot black owned local shops. That hurts people who already are suffering. One love/PMA.

Red meat 🥩 tossed as an indulgence to His Base. Coronavirus, active in the background, continues it’s lethal work, behind protests & hurricanes, with no end in sight, flattening curves to the contrary. https://t.co/RciJHVtzUX

— Vernon Reid (@vurnt22) May 29, 2020

The “President” of the “United” States just announced that the National Guard will execute US citizens on site if they are suspected of property theft.

“Any difficulty and we will assume control but, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.”
-Donald Trump

— Mark Morton (@MarkDuaneMorton) May 29, 2020

look at the response from the government: incredible brutality against the protesters and journalists, curfews, surveillance, scapegoating of antifascist or anarchist groups, national guard called in.

and what are they doing about police brutality? police murders? inequality?

— New York City Antifa (@NYCAntifa) May 31, 2020

It’s about respect & human decency and how we share that with each other. #ShowYouCarehttps://t.co/NqMDQSPeLX

— Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (@kaj33) May 31, 2020

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"if you're not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing." – Malcolm X #svetlanas #antiracism #protest #justiceforgeorgefloyd

A post shared by SVETLANAS (@_svetlanas_) on May 31, 2020 at 4:27pm PDT

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Very happy to see so many Tubby’s regulars participating in the black lives matter demonstration today! 📷 by @sugarblastmusic

A post shared by Tubby's Kingston (@tubbyskingston) on May 30, 2020 at 2:25pm PDT

poorly cropped band logo of today

So Flynn – despite being obviously guilty of a ton of shit – skips out of charges thanks to the Baby Sinclair-helmed DOJ’s blatant corruption, I finally get a onetime stimulus check of money Trump and cronies have stolen from us a zillion times over and it instantly has to go towards a pricey car repair and James Woods (of all shitbags I can’t stand) tweeted something accurate about how Cuomo sucks and harmed senior homes. This evening is just obviously destined to serve as an excuse to eat quarantine sour patch kids and chase them with black coffee while rewatching American Horror Story: Apocalypse for the third time. Not to get all conspiracy theory, but Episode 9 “Fire and Reign” (the one with Anastasia that really could’ve used some Dead Again era Type O on the soundtrack) when the Cooperative has a meeting really gets me musing inwardly on how much Elon Musk is a dumb bro who seems to have blatantly been a cheerleader for eugenics during the whole god damn pandemic and, uh, his kid has a really dumb fucking name.  Way to ensure your kid renames themselves John Smith and grows up to play really bad boring pop country just to rebel against you and (probable) Godfather Joe Rogan.

Anyway, here’s five hardcore videos to help randomly fight the stir crazy.

Downset – “One Blood”: I could have used an older Downset video but we need to be united to defeat Coronavirus. This song yells “United” a bunch and it was fun interviewing them for I forget what magazine when this dropped. Wow, over five years ago already. Also, this comeback album did not get enough love. I know it is dumb of me but I can’t stop chuckling about how someone wrote ‘One Blunt!’ in the YouTube comments. The guitar tone is so gnarly and I want to stage dive.

Merauder – “Master Killer”:

Not exactly a deep cut but why wouldn’t you be randomly blasting this anyway on a Friday night in quarantine before a snowstorm in May, assholes? Prioritize!

Biohazard – “Shades Of Grey”:

Just admit that Biohazard was better than music now. Don’t deny the epic lack of social distancing in the crowd crunchy scenes (but don’t do that shit right now). Long haired Evan is the coolest. I also want to say fuck racism and RIP Ahmaud Arbery.

Sick Of It All – “Take The Night Off”: This isn’t even old Sick Of It All (new SOIA rules too), but Death To Tyrants is an apt title yet again. And we have to keep taking the night off right now to protect people. Don’t believe the bullshit propaganda to get you to endanger others and die for the “economy”.

Youth Of Today – “No More “: Stop eating animals. It’s disgusting.

Hey everybody. In case you were looking for it and curious…I haven’t been able to post yet about Neil from Rush dying, just too much of a loss to even process yet. I think, while it is the news, sites can often get vampiric in rushing to get the word out. It goes with the time sensitive news cycle territory and we all do want to grieve together, but I used to listen to his drumming with my dad and have an emotional connection to it so need to sort of go with my gut and wait until I feel like writing more after the feeling sits with me awhile. I know Neil Peart was a pretty astounding mind though and would probably view the afterlife as another horizon or learning experience, so I will leave it at that for now. Before I go listen to “Subdivisions” again today I will post some Code Orange news, on a different musical note!

The popular East Coasters are back in March (3/13) with a new Roadrunner release, this one called Underneath. Peep the first, semi-industrialized and vibey af video below. It’s catchy, memorable, moody, loud and it jams. Pre order HERE. I love this band and think they continue to do an admirable job of growing bigger while straddling that link between the underground and bigger rock awareness “market” with big tent energy vibes instead of elitism. Rock isn’t the hottest genre these days so more power to them for staying the course and still aiming high.

This week, Chicago-based metallic hardcore outfit NEQUIENT embarks on a run of dates with Nefarious Industries labelmates Oxx, currently out on a month-long US tour. Beginning this Friday, October 18th, NEQUIENT will align with their brothers for a seven-city rampage through Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Tennessee, Indiana, and Illinois.

This tour will mark the final NEQUIENT tour dates supporting their Wolves At Your Door album, released through Nefarious Industries in 2018, as they are prepared to record the follow-up album for 2020, once again for Nefarious.

The NEQUIENT members collectively offer, “We are supremely stoked to join up with our labelmates and comrades in Oxx for seven dates of their US tour, the final shows we have planned in support of our 2018 release, Wolves at the Door. We’re particularly excited to hit several cities we’ve never played before and plan to hit them hard. At the same time, we’re preparing to enter Bricktop Recording in January and record our sophomore full-length, slated for a 2020 release through Nefarious. We’ll be performing several songs that are planned to appear on that record at these upcoming shows.”

Stream NEQUIENT’s Wolves At The Door in its entirety HERE.

NEQUIENT Tour Dates w/ Oxx:
10/18/2019 Rubber Gloves Studios – Denton, TX w/ Funeral Horse, Akkolyte, Vaults Of Zin [info]
10/19/2019 Santos – New Orleans, LA w/ Leafdrinker
10/20/2019 Valdosta DIY House – Valdosta, GA w/ Machinist!, Dying Whale [info]
10/21/2019 529 – Atlanta, GA w/ Lost Hours, Apostle [info]
10/22/2019 Hi Tone – Memphis, TN w/ Naildriver, Hallucinogenic Bulb [info]
10/23/2019 Free Base – Indianapolis, IN w/ Olam, Truus
10/24/2019 Liar’s Club – Chicago, IL w/ EXLEX, Mine Collapse [info]

[photo by Nicolas Côté]

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.