Fellow powerviolence fans, REJOICE! Finally, it seems as if our prayers have been answered, and a band who truly represents the filthy, frantic sounds of Slap-A-Ham Records and 625 Thrashcore has come from the East Coast, bringing honor to us all. The best part though? Their bandcamp is tagged as powerviolence, and they’re an actual, honest to god, powerviolence band! Yes! You Heard that Right! Not a subpar hardcore band that believes tagging themselves as powerviolence makes it OK that they recorded all of their songs using a microwave toaster oven!
And what, exactly, makes Bandit such a promising, wonderful new powerviolence band? Well, for one, blast beats, and lots of them. Two, they don’t simply play grindcore or metallic hardcore then slap on the label because it seems nice and edgy. Bandit understands that for powerviolence to be powerviolence it must be pure, filthy, unadulterated hardcore. The classic powerviolence formula of frantic, d-beat driven attacks under buzz saw guitar riffs that always carry just the right, minimal amount of melody (this is powerviolence, after all, and melody is for posers) before bursting into the blissful, frenzied chaos of beautiful, beautiful blast beats. Of course, they also understand that no powerviolence band would be complete without the signature sludgy, slightly groovy breakdown, and show that they’re more than capable of keeping the camo short wearing pit warriors happy by always providing a nice little nugget of two step/throw-down rhythm.
That’s just super, you may be saying to yourself, but what about the vocals? Do they have that classic powerviolence feel as well? Well, yes, they do! If you want some nice, guttural shouts commonly referred to as “caveman-core” vocals, interspersed with plenty of shrieks that would make the guys in Charles Bronson proud, than look no further than Bandit! Being in a powerviolence band, in many ways, is a lot like being in a hip hop group (see also: the band Spazz). Just as the rappers must trade off vocals to keep the song moving, so to must the powerviolence band, except they’re usually shouting instead of rapping, and are also a lot less coordinated in doing so. But that just adds to the beautiful noise and chaos that is powerviolence! As one vocalist prepares to take a break and rest up their voice, preparing for their next barrage of vocals, the other one stumbles in on top of them, layering in about as gracefully as a someone 15 beers in trying to use a pogo stick. Truly, it is a thing of beauty and should be respected and admired as such.
Ultimately, Bandit is not only the powerviolence band everyone needs, but also the one that everyone deserves. For far too long hardcore show goers have been subjected to bands who get their hopes up by appearing on every flyer as a powerviolence band, only to dash them away by being a slightly faster version of every other band there (without even a single blast beat). Luckily for us, Bandit is that rare occasion that you get to see a powerviolence band who actually plays powerviolence, and plays it extremely, extremely well. Their new album, PLAYFASTORDIE, comes out September 22nd on Unholy Anarchy Records. Below you can stream the brand new single, “Where’s Your Head?”, which is quite the banger of a tune, and mosh your bedroom/office space/wherever you are to pieces.