‘We sang the songs of the end times, Not knowing they’ve already come, Not quick like the slaughter of butchers, But a slow rotting evil, devouring one by one’ (Wasteland)

Subversive Rite were a New York hardcore band, active between 2016 and 2002.  They released their much-acclaimed debut album, Songs For The End Times, in 2019 and returned to the studio in 2022 to record their second, Apocalypse Zone.  Unfortunately, the band broke up shortly afterwards and the album was mothballed, with members of the band going on to play in a myriad of new projects, including Abism, Fairytale, Suffocating Madness, Tower, and Vaxine.  Thankfully, Acute Noise Manufacture have now saved the album to serve as a fitting swan song.

On this second full-length, Subversive Rite continue to hone their blistering take on mid-1980s’ UK hardcore, ferociously melding both UK82 and proto-thrash metal inspirations.  The band lean a touch more towards their hardcore roots in terms of the galloping rhythms, while the scorching melodic solos are imbued with a notably more metallic influence.  This influence is shared with the stridently clean, rhythmically taut vocals that can’t help but recall early Sacrilege, which is no bad thing at all.

Either side of the haunting mid-album interlude, these elements are fashioned into a battery that hits home with an unrelenting, bulldozer intensity.  This perfectly evokes the lyrical envisioning of a world hurtling inexorably towards a dystopian future of endless war and environmental breakdown.  Amid this unrelenting ferocity, the contagious escalation of Maniac and the bleak groove of Wasteland are to be particularly relished.