Radical and abrasive punk fusion.
Louisiana's Special Interest has entered the ring with a crushing sound for the new wave of hardcore. 2020 saw the band release their best work thus far with 'The Passion Of', on which the production and songwriting finally caught up with the cutting new sound. The intensity and sheer force of house instrumentals blended with hardcore rap elements sounds as if Rage Against The Machine played a nightclub. Tracks such as 'Don't Kiss Me In Public' and 'Homogenized Milk' all show this fusion at its finest.
There's also the 'Disco' trilogy of songs that spans across their 2018 self-titled debut which continues to develop episodically as it grows increasingly louder, moving out of grooves towards punk.
The addressing of gender issues on the record is what also lifts the album above their previous material. While no stranger to politics, the band hone their focus and humour to laser precision as they nail their points with a unique and exciting edge. All of which elevates them to a league historically lead by Jello Biafra, where the humour and politics is never at the expense of each other.
It's gratifying to see a new movement of hardcore music beginning to rise with bands like Special Interest and Soul Glo (feature coming soon). These acts are reviving the tried sounds of Bad Brains and Dead Kennedy's with aspects of electronic music and rap, that the genre sorely deserved for decades now. The genre-fusion stage of heavy music is beginning to pay off as established bands have often shown themselves unable to incorporate these contemporary sounds (see Korn's dubstep album).
This is what makes Special Interest incredible, in both their significance and their quality of music.
'The Passion Of' and the self-titled debut is all on streaming now.
Featured Albums: Special Interest