Forget Your Fears - Rugged & Ruff
"Rugged & Ruff" is the first extract from Forget Your Fears next EP called "This Distress Pushes Us To Rise" coming out this summer.
Upright - Face The Consequences
Upright was formed in early 2010. Demo '10 Cd is sold out, Tape version of the demo coming real soon on Street Survival Records. Split 7" with Foreseen coming later this year.
Our Fight
Our Fight proves things are still going well in Cleveland scene with their powerful and aggressive hardcore, both in lyrics and music. While sticking to the principles of the genre, band's songwriting is awesomely honest and creative. Check out what Steve (vocals) had to say about the band, their music and Cleveland scene.
Name: Our FightLocation: Cleveland Ohio
Active since: Feb 2010
How do you define your overall style?
We have a lot of influences from all over but really the only way to pin it down is just to say it's Cleveland hardcore. Cleveland has made a name for it's self over the years and we are just hoping to live up to that.
What's your goal with this band?
There hasn't really ever been a goal discussed. We have things we would like to accomplish like touring as much as possible and putting out music we're happy with want to hear ourselves.
What do you have recorded so far?
So far we only have a 5 track demo recorded that you can download for free or buy on cassette from us. We have just finished writing several more songs though and will be looking to put something new out by the end of the summer.
Can you give me a brief background on the band and what you guys are currently up to at this moment?
Everyone in the band is in one or more other active cleveland hardcore bands but i don't believe any of us consider it a side project. We all got together because in the current cleveland scene there are A LOT of bands but none of them were representing the side of cleveland that our fight is going for.
Lyrically what kind of themes do you deal with? What is the message you're trying to present to your listeners?
A lot of what i write about is personal. I've always believed in the philosophy "write what you know," so that's what i have stuck with. Everyone in the band is straight edge but that hasn't really entered into the lyrics just yet. Mostly what has been written about so far is loss of faith in god and people. I could elaborate on that more but it would go into some boring personal stories so i'll just shorten it to say that the world is full of shitty people with shitty ideas and they will do everything they can to make you like them. What i write about are my struggles with these people and my observations about them.
It's pretty obvious where the band's name came from. Starting Our Fight, did One Life Crew have a big influence on you?
This is something that i wish more people would research. Our Fight is actually a Confront song. We chose the name because the song speaks against racism. OLC did play this song as well but it was written by Confront and will forever be a Confront song. I have a hard time comparing anything we do to OLC because of how much i disagree with most of the things they stood for. That being said, musically the idea of Our Fight was to take a lot from Confront and early One Life Crew style hardcore, but we ended up abandoning that by the first practice and just started writing what we wanted to without any guidelines really.
The Cleveland sound is a brand and there are lots of bands all around the world trying to capture this sound. Being from clevo what's your perception of this? Does it make you proud in any way? Do you follow any bands in this trend?
I think it's pretty cool that people are catching on the cleveland sound more and more lately. It has made for a lot of integrity and ringworm knock off bands, but as long as you recognize your roots and where it all comes from i feel like there is no harm done. It does sort of give a sense of pride that so many people are recognizing the cleveland sound now, but even if they weren't we'd all still be proud to be from here and making music that represents our city. It's kind of hard not to follow some of the bands that are putting out cleveland style hardcore these days. Bands like Crucified and Rot In Hell have had my attention for a while.
When asked about Cleveland every hardcore kid will say Integrity, Ringworm, One Life Crew and In Cold Blood. Are there any bands from over there that you think went underrated but were as much important to the local scene?
I think when you say that most hardcore kids know about In Cold Blood you are assuming too much. Many people I've run into have never heard of them and that is a shame because they were such a great band. But the biggest area of Cleveland's history that goes overlooked is what we had going on in the early 80's. If you read "American Hardcore" by Steven Blush, in the back under regional hardcore acts the whole state of Ohio is pretty much left empty. But there were some great bands form Cleveland back then. (The Guns, The Plague, Zero Defects, and Starvation Army to name a few) also there are a few other bands from later on that were really great such as: Confront, Committed, The Final Plan, Grudge Match, Pale Creation, 9 Shocks Terror, and False Hope. I could go on forever but I've already said too much.
And what about the new generation of bands. What are some hardcore bands that are making noise right now in Cleveland?
Cleveland has a pretty tight knit scene right now that we are all proud to be a part of. All of the members of Our Fight have other bands and we are close friends with many more bands from the greater cleveland area. If you want a list, here you go : Search Bloc, Mad Minds, Masakari, Basement Boys, Horrific Dick, Wind Of Death, Rid The World (rip), Mammals (rip), and Ghost Breeder. There are a lot more that im forgetting but you get the picture.
What's your pick for best hardcore release of 2010 so far?
The album I've been sweating the most that has come out this year is actually "The Prophet Feeds" by Masakari. We are really good friends with these guys and share a guitar player but even if that wasn't the case this album would blow my mind.
Check out band's Myspace.
Ruckus
I've been fan of Ruckus since their debut for BDHW Human Pollution and still consider them one of the most inventive and exciting, yet underrated hardcore bands of the moment. The split with Xibalba and World Of Pain is one the way so this and other topics are discussed in this interview.
I've been fan of Ruckus since their debut for BDHW Human Pollution and still consider them one of the most inventive and exciting, yet underrated hardcore bands of the moment. The split with Xibalba and World Of Pain is one the way so this and other topics are discussed in this interview.
First of all, could you tell us what’s been happening with Ruckus since The Human Pollution came out?
We've been playing tons of shows since then. We did two short tours. One with Rotting Out/Creatures/Expire and the other with the legendary Merauder. We'll also be playing SOUND AND FURY this summer. Also as far as new music, we released a two song demo since then, which was supposed to be a split with Life In Chains.
You’ve got split CD with Xibalba and World Of Pain in the works. Can you tell us something about it? How did you hook up with the rest of the bands on it?
It could be the heaviest split ever created. I've known all the guys in both bands for a while because of old bands we were in. It should be out by Sound and Fury. We're just waiting on the artwork.
Well the other two bands are a lot HEAVIER than we are, so we tried to match them a little bit to not sound out of place. 3 out of 4 of our tracks are easily our most metal-influenced songs. The lyrics are a bit more about real life than religion and social bullshit. For example; the song "Domesticated" has to do with hating the daily grind of life, and the song "Below My Law" deals with statutory rape.
One of the things I like about your band are lyrics. How do you go about writing them and how important are they to the complete song writing process?
When we originally started the band, it was just my brother and me. Half the lyrics for the Human Pollution record were already done before Jacob joined the band. Since then he has written 90% of it, and they have been more real and personal to him rather than me just trying to write "hard" lyrics.
We haven't really played to a metal crowd, but we have played one or two metalcore shows, and we seem to do well with them.
Being in the hardcore band can be a grind! Do you find it hard to balance school or work with playing? What drives you to keep on doing what you do?
I took this semester off from school to juggle all my bands, so yeah it can be tough. Shows and tours ultimately make it worth it. We love playing live.
Doing my research I haven’t found much about the band in terms of history, reviews or interviews. Do you feel that the type of bands like yourself tend to get ignored by fanzines, webzines and media in general?
We haven't been asked to do interviews much. This may be our 3rd one if that. We do have an article in the upcoming INVASION MAGAZINE though, which is great. We're glad Ama takes the time to notice smaller bands. I see other bands our style getting lots of media attention too like Backtrack, Foundation, Harms Way and Creatures. It could just be that we don't really get noticed, which is ok. We're not here to impress anyone. If people notice us, cool... if they don't... fuck 'em.
What’s your perception of the hardcore scene nowadays?
I think its stronger than ever. Even the worst venue in our area is picking up and doing shows correctly. The bands our style are infinitely better too. In 2005 a "hard" band had to have 20 open-note breakdowns to get attention.
Our songs are clearly built for pitting, so thats what we like to see. The first time we played Las Vegas, people were moshing with trash cans and bats. It was wild. Another memorable show was our Gilman show with Merauder. It was the only time we got a reaction to the Carnivore cover song that we play.
Before we finish, could you share some of your plans for the rest of 2010? What are the chances of you touring Europe?
We're playing Sound and Fury, and probably doing a short tour in the Fall to support the Earthquake Split. We will definitely tour Europe next year. It was supposed to happen this summer but it fell apart. Also we'll have a new 7" coming out before the end of 2010, as well as collections-type CD for Europe with all our newer stuff on it. We
Thank you for your time! Any last shout outs? Anything you would like to add?
Thanks for taking time to check us out. If anyone is interested, Colin and I have a side project called TWITCHING TONGUES. You can find us pretty easily by googling it. Everyone also needs to listen to Foundation, Harms Way, Creatures, Expire, Alpha & Omega, Xibalba, Expire, Rotting Out, Type O Negative, Only Living Witness and Carnivore.
Ruckus at Myspace
"First World Collapse" EP from Ashes Of Betrayal
When musical aggression, brutality and speed meets a pissed-off, critical socio-political and thoughtful mind approach... then comes Ashes Of Betrayal new "First World Collapse" EP. 5 fierce sentences of guilt against the First World Order burned and forged into a Slayer-Arkangel-Liar musical style. Out now on Strikedown Records.
Pacto de Sangre album Sangre Joven available now
Pacto de Sangre album Sangre Joven is now available on Useless-Distribution. 10 Tracks of pure Andalusian Beatdown, 2 vocalists and earth-shattering breakdowns…
New album from Alea Jacta Est will drop late June
Alea Jacta Est will release their new album called Gloria Victis late June on Useless Pride Records. It will feature xGerardox (Nueva Etica), xGuiguix & John (Through My Eyes). You can place your pre-order here.
Lazare to drop debut EP this June
Debut EP from Lazare containing 4 tracks will be avaible on June 19. The band will have release party in Rouen with Providence and Out for the Count. Watch out for an uncompromising hard band with a pounding underground attitude, that's so rare these days not to be mentioned!
