MUSIC
FAVORITES
These are some of my all time favorite bands/artists. It's hard to choose all of my favorites, but these are all bands that I either constantly listen to or have had an outsized influence on the kind of music I like.
Dystopia
Dystopia is possibly my current favorite band. When I started getting into punk a few years ago, I was coming mainly from a background of old school death metal, so Dystopia's combination of hardcore punk and sludge metal really appealed to me and ultimately got me into crust punk. The band has really balanced pacing, flipping between heavy, sludgy sections and the thrashy climaxes they lead up to. I love it. The lyrics and samples are great too, and really build a feeling of social anger.
I was kind of disillusioned by metal when I first listened to Dystopia, because it was starting to feel like metal was often either same-old same-old, trying way too hard to be edgey, or being disgustingly racist. Dystopia showed me that you can get the metal sound and the punk groundedness at the same time.
System Of A Down
I love System of a Down. They've got riffs and melodies that are catchy enough to make it onto popular radio, lyrics that take an active and coherent political stance, and lots of nostalgia from me listening to them in middle school. Plus Toxicity is the type of album that I feel absolutely no need to skip through, all the songs are great. Even though Dystopia won out for my favorite, System of a Down comes close to tieing for it.
Death
Death is hands down my favorite death metal band, which makes sense given that they are one of the founding bands of the genre. They have so many good albums and all of them have unique riffs. One day I really want to pick up learning bass again, because I remember having a lot of fun trying to play along to 'Crystal Mountain'.
Skeletonwitch
Skeletonwitch was definitely my introduction to extreme music. I had listened to a lot of classic heavy metal and pop-punk in high school, but I was always kind of unsure if I liked more intense scream vocals. When I found Skeletonwitch in my last year of high school though, it totally opened me up to genres like death metal and grindcore. The melodic thrash metal energy makes the black-metal style vocals a lot more listenable to someone unfamiliar with extreme metal. On top of that, they have several really good albums, and 'Beyond the Permafrost' is pretty much no-skip all the way for me.
The Dead Kennedies
If Skeletonwitch got me into metal, the Dead Kennedies got me into punk. They bring this constant wittiness and fun to punk while also laying out the punk ideology super explicitly. 'Nazi Punks Fuck Off' and 'Chickenshit Conformist' together might as well be an intro punk manifesto, as far as something like that could exist. On top of all of that, my mom was an old school punk in the 80s so this band is something that a large chunk of my family loves to talk about and listen to.
TRANS CRUST LIST
This is a list of crust punk/hardcore punk bands that are either majority trans or fronted by trans people. Trans visibility is not always great in a subculture thats as highly local and underground as crust punk is, so I felt like it was useful to try to make as detailed of a list as possible.
G.L.O.S.S
Besides Against me, G.L.O.S.S. is probably one of the most well known trans punk bands, and definitely a contender for the most well known trans band in the hardcore/crust vein. They got popular very quickly back in 2015-16 with their demo and 'Trans Day of Revenge' album. The band broke up pretty soon after though as, according to a statement given by the band on the fanzine webiste 'Maximum Rock and Roll',
"This band has become too large and unwieldy to feel sustainable or good anymore—the only thing growing at this point is the cult of personality surrounding us, which feels unhealthy. There is constant stress, and traveling all the time is damaging our home lives, keeping us from personal growth and active involvement in our communities. Being in the mainstream media, where total strangers have a say in something we’ve created for other queer people, is exhausting."
Physique
If you were sad about G.L.O.S.S. breaking up, then luckily for you Physique is made up of a lot of the same musicians as G.l.O.S.S. but now with a more explicitly crust/D-beat focus. They're noisey and awesome, and honestly remind me a lot of the British crust band Doom. Plus they're on a tour for their album 'Overcome By Pain' which they put out last December and wildly they even came within an hour of where I live in the south.
Traidora
Traidora might be my favorite band on this list. They're a Spanish crust band based in London led by their singer and songwriter Eva A. They dropped their album 'Un Cuerpo Trans Lleno De Odio' (A Trans Body Full Of Hate) in the middle of last year. I thought I had missed out on getting a cassette copy, but i got extremely lucky and got one when they randomly restocked a single cassette. Even better, when they shipped it to me they gave me a free copy of the 7" vinyl and a patch which I'm gonna put on some shorts. Even if you don't speak spanish the lyrics are super memorable. Catchy riffs and a chainsaw-like guitar tone make this band very much worth checking out.
Eteraz
Eteraz is a really cool crust band, who, coincidentally, are signed to the same label as Physique, Iron Lung Records (who also happen to have signed a lot of the ex-Crass Records anarcho punk bands like Flux of Pink Indians and Rudimentary Peni). Their lead singer is non-binary and sings in Farsi!
Cliterati
Cliterati is a great crust band signed to another crustpunk powerhouse label, Tank Crimes Records, who have Dystopia, Despise You, and Disfear all signed. They put out an album called 'Ugly Truths/Beautiful Lies' back in 2019, my favorite track from it is 'Trans Is Beautiful'.
Disphoria
Disphoria is another contender for my favorite on this list. They were a trans D-beat band from Canada that broke up in 2019, but despite their relatively short run put out a fair amount of albums including several split EPs. They had an aggressive crasher crust style that was reminiscent of Japanese bands like Zyanose. My favorite album from them is 'Killed By Noise Attack'.
Dopecopper
Dopecopper is an older band from 2014 with a trans man lead singer named Grey. They're also not active, but from what I understand Grey went on to play in Syringe, which was active just before the pandemic. Dopecopper isn't as explicitly trans in the lyrics as some of the other bands on this list are, but they're still a really awesome band. They have an almost melodic black metal kind of sound, but my favorite song 'Paralysis' from their main album 'Sadistic Intent' has a riff that really reminds me of 'Pet Cemetary' by the Ramones.
Mem//Brane
Mem//Brane is another trans crust/D-beat band that has been active recently (as of writing this). They just put out their EP 'Subcutaneous' last month in February of 2024. They sound great and they make awesome use of samples. Their new EP starts out with a reading from 'Close to the Knives' by the artist David Wojnarowicz who died of AIDS in 1992, which I thought was a really cool exposition.
SUBCULTURE
THE ACCURSED HALL OF SHAME
This is where the hall of shame page will goACID BATH - PAEGAN TERRORISM TACTICS
Recently, I've been listening to Acid Bath again. It's been a very hot second since I actually listened to them, and the last/first time I did I was just listening to a few songs kind of casually. I listened to "When The Kite String Pops" all the way through while I was looking for new music for this website and ended up really enjoying it. I have no idea how I missed out on getting into them the first time I listened. I loved it, and I (wrongly) assumed that it would probably drop off a little when I listened to their other album "Paegan Terrorism Tactics".
This album is a lot slower and more melancholy in a way that veers towards Southern rock or blues. It's got a very diverse sound that's still extremely cohesive. You'd never get thrown off by it while you're listening, but when you try to identify what genre it sounds like it might be difficult to commit to an answer. The lyrics are also really poetic and have a lot of consistent themes across the tracks, mostly about the cycle of death and birth. "Bleed Me A River", "New Death Sensation", and "Venus Blue" are some of my favorite tracks from the album, but "Dead Girl" is also really good. Overall, this album is probably up near the top on my list of favorites now.