This release is available on vinyl via CrimethInc. in North America, No Gods No Masters in South America, or Refuse Records in Europe.
Catharsis is still Alexei, Brian, Ernie, Jimmy, and Matt.
Gosia (Mind Pollution, Next Victim, Dyym, Sorrow) sang on “Power” and “Gone to Croatan” and joined Fred (Point of No Return), Red (Scarecrow), and Sebastian (Vittna) in the vocals on “Nocturne,” “We Live,” and “Last Words.”
Zach (Requiem) played violin on “Gone to Croatan.” Zach and Stef, Dan, Gabe, and Steve helped to refine earlier versions of some of these songs.
Drums recorded August 12-14, 2024 at Mad Oak Studios in Boston with the inimitable Benny Grotto. Alexei played the entire recording encumbered by an ankle monitor.
We recorded the rest ourselves in August and September 2024.
Kurt Ballou at God City Studio re-amped and mixed everything September 26-30, 2024.
Scott Crouse at Form IV Audio did the mastering in October 2024. Scott’s assistance and advice throughout the recording process were invaluable.
In memory of Josh Edwards, Dan Young, James Murphy Hoopes, Ed Miller, Marty Miller, Bill Korecky, Clarissa Rogers, Jen Angel, John Rivera, Massimo Meloni, Brian Redman, Dawn Markley, Rich Hall, Michelle Temple, and others too numerous to name. As we were preparing this record, our thoughts were with the Palestinians resisting genocide in Gaza.
We have been playing together for over three decades now. Our experiences as a band have taught us much of what we know about ourselves and the world. We developed our craft in spaces of rebellion, at a time when we could go on tour and play in collectively run venues and squatted social centers every night for months on end. For us, hardcore is not a musical genre, but a practice of living life to the fullest, a field of experimentation in which expression and action merge. In enabling us to discover what we love, it has sensitized us to the tragedies of our age and given us tools with which to do something about them.
We still believe in hardcore as a force for change, a component of an ecosystem of movements for liberation. As our society slides deeper into tyranny, it only becomes more important to pursue a vision of another way of living. We have not outgrown the idealism of our youth. In fact, our band is soberer and more vegan today than we were in the 1990s. We have not fallen out of love with this counterculture that has given us so much.
We aspire to act in solidarity with all who fight against oppression. Without adhering to a particular dogma, we affirm the anarchist ideal of relationships without coercion and an open horizon before us. No one above and no one below.
We contain within ourselves all of the contradictions and fault lines that run through humanity as a whole—all the frailty, confusion, anger, and potential. Far from making us cynical, this makes the struggles of our species urgent for us. Our dearest hope is that, in baring our souls and pushing ourselves to make the most of our creative potential, we might make it easier for you to do the same.