Virginia based crossover maniacs ENFORCED release their new track and music video for “Malignance” today via Century Media Records. Watch the music video, which is off the band’s forthcoming album Kill Grid, HERE.
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.
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.
