Virginia based crossover maniacs ENFORCED release their new track and music video for “Malignance” on January 8 via Century Media Records. Watch the music video, which is off the band’s forthcoming album “Kill Grid,” below.
While the video is capturing the raw, but positive energy of an ENFORCED live show the song itself has a very serious tone. ENFORCED vocalist Knox Colby states, “‘Malignance’ is about being on the wrong side of history, being led down the path of an ideology built on hatred and violence, only to end up with a bullet in your stomach. The lyrics about-face towards the end of the song and try to shake you out of it. Wake up, get a grip, understand and accept that you’re wrong. The chorus was inspired by a World War 2 prisoner-of-war torture tactic I read about. Soldiers who were captured were forced to smell the bodies of their friends and comrades, which became this strange introspective psychological torture that fit the narrative I was writing.” Guitarist Will Wagstaff dives deeper into the music: “This song has an older Slayer type of vibe to me, maybe ‘Show No Mercy’/’Haunt the Chapel’ era. This is a pure crossover song, ala Exodus/early Testament/Slayer. We knew we wanted to keep it fast for most of the song and it ended up coming together organically during a practice.”
“Malignance” follows the release of the debut track, “Hemorrhage”, off “Kill Grid,” which is set for release on March 12th. Informed by an incredible cross-section of extremes-from thrash and punk to death metal and hardcore-the emergent outfit drop a nine-song cluster-bomb of thrashing death on apathetic times. Pre-order the band’s forthcoming LP HERE.
“Kill Grid” Album Artwork
The following formats are available for “Kill Grid:”
- 100 x olive green LP+CD via CM Distro online-shop
- 200 x clear LP+CD via CM Distro wholesale and online-shop
- 200 x bright gold LP+CD via EMP and Coretex Records
- 200 x red LP+CD via the Band
- black LP+CD
- In the US the black LP comes without a CD
- Digital Album
“Kill Grid” came together over a two-year period while ENFORCED were marauding halls and dive bars across the East Coast and Canada. Indeed, inspiration came from different directions, but playing live with bands like Sacred Reich, Red Death, Iron Reagan, All Out War, and Integrity shaped what was to come out of the Richmonders. While it was the previous output that attracted the attention of Century Media, it’s “Kill Grid”, which features a striking Joe Petagno (Motörhead, Vitriol) cover, that’s going to put ENFORCED on top-lists of circle pit lunatics around the globe. To track their sophomore full-length, ENFORCED enlisted long-time friend and studio maven Bob Quirk (Memory Loss, Misled Youth) to engineer, as well as Philadelphia-based studio whiz Arthur Rizk (Power Trip, Cavalera Conspiracy) to mix and master the release.
Formed in Richmond in 2017 out of shreds of disbanded hardcore and punk bands, ENFORCED quickly found their calling between the undying support of regional punk/hardcore scenes and their respective record collections. Whether it’s Sacred Reich and Integrity or Bolt Thrower and Amebix, “Pure Crossover Death,” as ENFORCED call their devastating din, speared its way through two demos (“Demo 2017” and “Retaliation“) and their no-holds-barred debut, “At the Walls.”
- Ethan Gensurowsky / Bass
- Zach Monahan / Guitar
- Knox Colby / Vocals
- Alex Bishop / Drums
- Will Wagstaff / Guitar
