The news has been a struggle to watch these days, but it is imperative to stay vigilant and stand loudly in opposition to hate. Mainstream headlines like the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and many other BIPOC or the United States' prevailing political system devolving into Nazism fill our feeds and our airways. Now, seemingly more than ever some days, the threats of systemic racism and police brutality stare us directly in the face.
The task of fighting it—especially on a national scale—can seem daunting. Yet, combatting this scourge at more immediate levels is within an easier reach. It starts in your families and communities as well as your neighborhoods, your place of employment, and, in our collective case, the heavy metal community, at large. Being vocally in opposition to injustice is one of the very fibers of heavy music. Not to mention, those other fibers come from centuries of people of color who created rock and almost every other style of music. So, in some regards, driving out racists and cop sympathizers should be a much easier task in the heavy music community.
In conjunction with Bandcamp waiving its portion of sales tomorrow, Austin Lunn of Panopticon fame and a figurehead at Bindrune Recordings as well as Vok from Hag Grief built a massive compilation of new, re-recorded, and covered tracks from over two dozen artists and bands. The compilation is named Overgrow To Overthrow, and more than handsomely channels the resistant nature of heavy music's roots. In a press release, Vok states, "Too many of us have sat back and watched, or looked away, as faces in our communities were wiped from history; disproportionately affected by police violence and systemic racism. Too often we have seen our Black, Brown, Native American, and First Nations brothers and sisters killed through unnecessary police violence. While this has become an international issue in the last few months, racism has been a fact of daily life for millions around the world."
Vok continues, "Voices from across the Metal and Punk spectrum have united to not only speak out against racism and in support of those who are in the streets actively demonstrating, but work to actively support a fight all of us must take on. We feel that the time has come for members of the Metal and Punk scenes to offer material support to the struggle against racism and for equality, engaging with our brothers and sisters in the streets who are out in front of the conversation against pervasive prejudice and systemic racism. While many of us are in the streets supporting these causes it became apparent that we could amplify the voice of those who are most at risk by using our platform as musicians."
Overgrow to Overthrow features new, original tracks from Aerial Ruin, Chaos Moon, Detractors, Falls of Rauros, Hag Graef, Human Failure (members of Akasha), Inexorum, Krieg, Nori (members of Axis of Light), Obsequiae, Throne of Blood, Tvær, Uprising, Vukari, and Woe.
In addition to brand new music, Hornet Murmuration covers Dead Kennedys' "Drug Me" and Ripped to Shreds covers Unholy Grave's "No Racial Superiority!" Also, Agathocles, Alda, Chat Pile, Cloud Rat, Dawn Ray’d, Deviated Instinct, Doom, Krallice, Outlaw Order, Panopticon, Thou, and Tired of Everything all contribute live, re-recorded, or remixed of their own previous songs.
One of the musicians (who is unnamed) featured on the compilation gave a statement through a press release as well saying, "I am a person of color who lives in Minneapolis and a featured musician on this compilation."
They continue, "I love this city and its culture, but it would be dishonest not to acknowledge the segregation that still permeates this city. I see it in a geopolitical sense, but also in the hearts and minds of people I speak to here. The death of George Floyd has filled us all with grief; everyone other than those with the most extreme racist beliefs can watch the video and immediately recognize it as a comprehensive moral failing.
With that in mind, I want to emphasize that George Floyd's death is not an anomaly, and that the problem exists on a larger scale than whether four particular Minneapolis police officers are convicted. This same incident plays out at least once a week somewhere in the United States, and it is usually not brought to national attention like this. The outrage is usually less vocal because there is some plausible deniability: the video shakes or wavers for a second and we can't quite see what happened, or the victim yelled something threatening, or the police told the bystanders to stop filming, or sometimes the body cameras are turned off, or sometimes there simply isn't footage at all. But it is happening in our world all the same, and what we all saw transpire on May 25, 2020 is an uncensored vision of the culture we have created.
If I could ask one thing to everyone who would listen, I would say: the next time this happens (and it will happen again), will we allow our friends and colleagues to follow the beaten path of preying on the deniability, steering the conversation toward the deceased's criminal history and asking whether they were on drugs or trespassing or didn't put their hands up fast enough? Will we play that role of devil's advocate ourselves, even while knowing that we are defending an institution of immense power, whose labor union will all but guarantee its officers stay out of jail, keep their jobs and receive back pay regardless of whether they have committed a wrong? Or will we dare to question the status quo, even when the cameras aren't rolling, and lend a voice to our fallen fellow man who no longer has a voice to tell his story?
How we answer this question will shape our communities for generations. If we don't answer correctly, I believe the worst may be yet to come."
Colin Marston mastered the compilation and Nate Burns provided the artwork. Proceeds from the digital sales of the compilation will go to Black Lives Matter and Life After Hate. Buy a copy from Bindrune Recordings now.
