Brooklyn’s Cash Bribe return with Demonomics, a six-track EP out now via Futureless, recorded at Landmine Studios by Zach Miller (ex-Gel) and mastered by Sasha Stroud at Artifact Audio.
It picks up where Escape From New York left off, but everything feels thicker now—more weight in the riffs, more bite in the words. Cash Bribe’s always lived somewhere between NYHC chaos, powerviolence blur, and metallic crunch, but Demonomics leans into that darkness harder, like they’re pulling the whole thing down into something slower, and meaner.
The title pretty much says it all—Demonomics is about systems that rot us from the inside, dressed up as economics, normalized to the point where no one even blinks. Joey Dahlstrom breaks it down around the title track: “Whether you think the world is full of demonic entities that seek to corrupt humans or that generational wealth and power eats people’s humanity, I guess the real point is what’s the difference?”
From there, each track digs in deeper, twisting that perspective tighter with every riff and line. Check out the full track by track commentary below.
Feral
Joe: The Demonomics EP was heavily inspired by Pantera’s The Great Southern Trendkill. We wanted to create a piece of music that matched that emphatic push you hear on Trendkill – pain, power, fury, rage – directed inward, outward, every direction.
We wanted to open the EP with a bitch slap like Trendkill and once the words came together for “Feral”, it was pretty clear it was our opener. Lyrically, “Feral” came together via stream-of-consciousness writing. The words themselves are some of my most personal, so writing about them is a bit tough. I go through depressive episodes where I see my inner-feelings and turmoil reflected in the world around me in a continuous, endless feedback loop of disgust, envy, and inadequacy. In these, the tendency is to “burn it all down” – stuff down the feelings with substances, assimilate with the pain, become desensitized to the violence.
Bay of Pigs
Joe: While we’re forced to reckon with the big questions of meaning, purpose, and our limited time on this planet, our well-being and vitality are pawns for the rich, to give, take, or manipulate to their hearts’ content. Meanwhile, we endure the cheapening of the world around us while, for the most part, we’re just trying to survive.
Kirk: I saw a review someone did that said that this song reminded them of the Cancer Bats. That makes sense to me, and I usually don’t agree with what people say we sound like. But I really love bands like The Bronx or Burning Love, bands that are rock n roll as fuck. I also really love low tunings, and always wondered what it would sound like for a band with eight string guitars to play Motörhead. This isn’t quite that low, but i like what we did here.
Death Tax
Joe: We’ve had this song in the setlist for well over a year and I love how it came together, having so much time to breathe and take shape. It’s kind of the connective tissue between our last release, Escape From New York, and this one. The lyrics are pretty direct in this one – entropy, decay, blah blah blah. I guess this one offers the silver lining that death is the great equalizer – whoever we are and however we act, it’s coming for all of us.
Kirk: We love that mid tempo beat down kind of thing, so we always have fun playing this one. The second half of the song reminds me of something Vision of Disorder or Superjoint Ritual might do back in the day, that kind of 90s bendy riff. Sometimes I describe us as metalcore, but I mean in the literal sense it once was used as, not in the At the Gates-ripoff or the lots of breakdowns kind of way.
Demonomics
Kirk: Whether you think the world is full of demonic entities that seek to corrupt humans or that generational wealth and power eats people’s humanity, I guess the real point is what’s the difference?
Joe: We had all six of these songs floating around by the time we recorded, but I’m pretty sure “Demonomics” is where the concept came together. Absolutely punishing breakdown – Larry’s drums make it. Demonomics also has Brian’s first vocal feature on a Cash Bribe release.
Faith Aversion
Joe: Musically, I love the journey this song takes, kind of effortlessly weaving around black metal, groove, thrash, and hardcore. Also shoutout to Brian’s bass line during the breakdown – one of my favorites of his. I wanted the lyrics to be as epic as the music, and the result is a sonic cuneiform tablet musing about power structures through the lens of a few different ancient stories, mainly the Ugaritic Ba’al Cycle. These epics tend to wonder whether humans are subject to the whims of their divine overlords, or if humanity can overcome its cosmic fate.
Kirk: I think this is the first song we came up with after we put out the last record. This album is the first full record that we ever all wrote together, and is the first set of songs where I knew ahead of time that I wouldn’t have to do the vocals on them. So I tried to be a little busier and try more guitar-y things. This set the tone for all of that.
10%
Joe: It’s pretty wild what people will do in the name of their gods. It’s completely insane that so many people believe they are divinely entitled to disregard or inflict suffering on others. I’m pretty sure we all know better, but if we did, we probably would have done something about it by now. Who knows. That slow riff at the end goes so hard.
