This Friday, punk rock stalwarts The Casualties will release Detonate, their first new music in eight years and first album for Hellcat Records. It is also their second album with David Rodriguez at the mic and solidifies his relationship with Marc “Meggers” Eggers (drums), Jake Kolatis (guitar) and Doug Wellmon (bass). “We were in the studio for [2018’s] Written in Blood about eight months after I joined,” Rodriguez says. “With this new record, we really grew together. For me, it’s the proud moment where we clicked the three Legos together.”
Ahead of Friday’s digital release day – vinyl comes out July 17 – the band has shared the track ‘Allies And Assassins’ . “‘Allies And Assassins’ is a feeling, a state of mind!” Rodriguez explains. “Growing up we are taught to bow to State and Church and we see all the atrocities that follow. We see how it tears us apart! We see how we blindly follow the leader and WE, we the people fall off the cliff, not them.”
“It’s a feeling we felt in our youth and we set in motion as we grew older,” he continued. “During the presidential elections this feeling wrapped around me like a rope and started squeezing the life out of me. There was so much hate and tension in the air it was hard to know who your friends were. And times like these we remember, those who fought before us and we fight back!” Listen to the track below.
Listen to ‘Allies And Assassins’
The nightly news is a litany of brutality. Assassination. Subjugation. Deportation. We argue with each other while the rich get richer and cruelty is normalised. These are just a few of the reasons why the title of The Casualties’ new album is Detonate.
“It stems from being overloaded,” Meggers says. “You feel like your head is about to explode, which I think is what everybody is feeling these days. You’re pounced on day by day with terrible news and social media, and you just feel like you’re going to snap.”
With the unblinking eyes of the punk world on them, The Casualties pulled the blinds and did what they do best. “There was a degree of pressure, but not from outside sources,” Rodriguez explained. “We just wanted to do the best record that we could that honours The Casualties name and history without playing the same song over and over. But it wasn’t that we even had to go out of our way. It felt natural to write this new music.”
The record also features special guests, including a vocal intro by hardcore legend Vinnie Stigma of Agnostic Front on ‘Brick By Brick’ and Native American punk band 1876 who contribute guest vocals and percussion on ‘Ashes of War.’ “As long as I’ve been listening, I’ve felt like The Casualties always spoke up for people in society that didn’t have as loud of a voice,” Rodriguez says. “The Casualties have always had some Spanish in songs, but it just seemed like such an important time to have loud Native voices. You don’t hear it that often, and the more we spoke together, the more we really found out.”
Ultimately, Detonate amplifies the punk ethos that The Casualties have embodied since 1990: A raised fist in the face of oppression. “I want people to feel empowered when they hear this record,” said Rodriguez. “I want them to feel like they have a voice. I want them to feel like they’re with like-minded people when they come to a Casualties show. They can be themselves and not watch the show but be part of the show—scream with us, jump off the stage. We want them to feel like they’re part of something.”
The Casualties
Detonate
1. Intro
2. Detonate
3. People Over Power
4. Empire Falls
5. Ashes Of War
6. Allies And Assassins
7. Brick By Brick
8. Few The True
9. Now And Tomorrow
10. Eye For An Eye
11. Pigs On Fire
12. Streets Of Hatred
13. Wake Up, Kill, Repeat
