“Pedophiles run the nation / leading us to damnation.” That’s how Samadhi open “Chaos USA,” the shortest cut on their second record. Two minutes of D-beat, Lance Staggs spitting the lines like he’s already lost patience.
“Ego Prison” is out now via Blurry Vision Records, and the Lubbock five-piece spend its 16 minutes refusing every offer to be a little less direct.
Samadhi formed in early 2024. Lance on vocals, with founding guitarists Israel (also in Judiciary and Ga0tecreeper) and Mark Salazar.
The original idea was straightforward hardcore with some D-beat punk underneath, and by the time the first 4-track EP landed that May, the D-beat was already taking over.
After that release, the lineup started shifting. Israel was busy writing and touring with his other bands, so Mark moved from bass to guitar. Their friend Aaron Langan stepped in on bass. Local D-beat soldier and living legend “Iron Man” joined on second guitar for a stretch, but had to step out due to work and his kid.
Aaron then moved up to guitar and started writing most of what became “Ego Prison.” Joshua Peltoma holds down the bass now. Tanner Northcutt has been on drums from the start, and he’d been pushing this feral D-beat direction since day one. “We feel we finally arrived,” the band say.
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Six tracks, 16 minutes. Most cuts hover between two and three minutes, with the title track stretching to 3:25. D-beat drums underneath, Lance shredding his throat at the top of every line, no clean parts anywhere. The band recorded, mastered, and did the artwork themselves. “It is a violent jump of contrast compared to our first songs,” they say.
The title isn’t metaphorical to them. “We go about our lives stuck in this internal suffering of our mind,” the band say.
“We have these doubts and judgements plaguing us in everything we do. There is no escape.” Samadhi, the concept the band took their name from, is the way out: a state of disconnection from social rules, from the noise of the control system. Stillness. Connection to “the all,” as they put it. The title track lays the loop out plain: “you lock yourself inside this cell / you are the prison.”
“No compromise” opens the record with a direct address. “where are you compromised / face your guilt / stand in pride where blood is spilt.”
“Disconnect” goes at the media. “Media lies media screams / media blitz media disease / DISCONNECT.” Pull the plug on the anxiety machine. “Lower nature” pushes the same fight inward: “the choice to overcome your lower nature / cannot depend on outside influence / look within destroy the illusion.”
“Endless duality” closes the record on something stranger. The cycle of crushing despair and warming hope. “Crushed by the waves of utter despair / Defeated / Lifted back up and warmed by a prayer / Completed.”
“Chaos USA” is the most blunt thing on the record. Two minutes aimed straight at the United States in 2026. “billionaires hire our troops / our children are robbed of youth.” “living wage is a fucking joke / congressmen get thier fix / while families dwell in fucking shit.” “shadow figures set the stage / children at schools are blown away.”
The band describe the whole record as a reflection of what they’re fighting within themselves and collectively. Corruption, misery, violence, all thriving in this country, and they’ve all had it up to here.
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Blurry Vision Records is the Texas DIY operation handling the release. Single man behind it: Zach, currently roaming around for work, whereabouts kept hush.
The label has also put out Anchorite, Dragged Across Concrete, and other Texas hard hitters. The Samadhi connection started in Lubbock, where Zach was finishing a job and stopped by the tattoo studio where Lance works. Lance noticed Zach was wearing a Skourge shirt. They got to talking about hardcore. The friendship built from there, and the record came out of it.
The band don’t hide what it took to get this out. “During the last couple of years we all have endured some of the worst struggles that life can throw at a person,” they say. “There were countless times we were all about to just throw in the towel. It has truly been a grueling process to get this out but we kept each other accountable and saw it through. 16 minutes of hardcore punk took us a couple of years of beatings and mental torment.”
“All we really want is for people to hear it, and to let it all out in a live setting,” they say. “You are not alone in your struggles.”
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