GEL can’t be stopped. Since emerging from the New Jersey hardcore scene, the band have quickly earned a dedicated following with their instant-classic debut full-length, Only Constant (2023), and a penchant for non-stop touring. But GEL are just getting started, as evidenced by Persona: a pummeling new five-song EP that evolves their ultra-visceral sound, harnessing all of their momentum into a unrestrained musical force headed straight for your ears.
Since the release of Only Constant, GEL — vocalist Sami Kaiser (they/them), guitarists Anthony Webster (he/him) and Maddi Nave (they/them), bassist Mathew Bobko (he/him), and new drummer Alex Salter (he/him) — have been bringing their unhinged live show all around the world, but their busy schedule left very little time for writing new music. “We had to book studio time and make some self-imposed deadlines,” explains Webster. “It was stressful but it helped — we just tour so much that it’s the only way to force us into the writing zone.” The group decamped to a cabin in the woods and began working more collaboratively than ever before, seeking to push their sound and take advantage of the creative confidence gained through relentless touring. “I feel like Only Constant was the cap on us doing that style of hardcore and I didn’t want to do more of the same,” Webster says. “But I also feel like at this point we just have more of a sense of what a GEL song is and we wanted to apply that to a different kind of songwriting.”
To record Persona, the band teamed with producer/engineer Jon Markson (Drug Church, Drain, Koyo, Jivebomb) who was integral in helping them achieve their vision for GEL 2.0. “It was our first time working with someone outside of our immediate camp and it was really fun,” says Webster. “He has an ear for things that we wouldn’t have immediately had an ear for.” The result is a widescreen version of GEL’s stomping hardcore, a bold embrace of memorable songwriting structures that never once compromises on the ferocity that makes the band so appealing. “We really wanted to fill out the songs more and make them more nuanced,” says Kaiser. “It’s a step forward, it’s different, it’s catchy, but it still really sounds like us.”
Persona roars out of the gate with “Mirage,” immediately announcing GEL’s colossal new direction. Clocking in at nearly three minutes, it’s the band’s longest song to date and it earns every second — the riffs are crushing, the drums are blistering, and Kaiser sounds ready to take on the world. Elsewhere tracks like “Shame” or “Martyr” highlight GEL’s ability to develop their sound while maintaining the primal energy of their earlier work. The songs incorporate phased-out guitar leads that add a sinister texture to the band’s driving hardcore, and Kaiser experiments with new deliveries in their vocal arsenal. “I think it really clicked that I was able to do things with my voice outside of just screaming,” Kaiser says. “I can vary it and build it up and do things that aren’t necessarily melodic but are dynamic.” Throughout the EP their voice effortlessly swings from vicious scream to haunting sprechgesang, and even plaintive singing — always with unshakeable intensity.
The title track dials up the tempo to whiplash-inducing speeds as Kaiser lays out many of the lyrical themes explored on Persona: “It’s about perceptions and how our awareness of those perceptions can play a role in someone’s reality,” they explain. “I’m not the type of person that seeks outward perception — in fact I’m typically a socially anxious person — so while all this higher visibility stuff that we’ve been doing is great, it was never the motivating factor for me creatively.” It’s an understandable conundrum for a group of punks who started a band with the modest goal of playing as many shows as possible, and in a very short period of time have unexpectedly found themselves with the public-facing occupation of full-time musicians. “Writing the songs is how I find time to process my life and everything that’s happened the past few years,” Kaiser continues. “Finding a way to take the emotions and feelings and putting them to the music — that’s the fulfilling thing. Everything else, any attention, it’s all just a side effect of creating something authentically.” The band’s uniquely cerebral-yet-direct approach is summed up in “Shame” which Kaiser describes as being about, “a type of person who views others exclusively in terms of what they can provide for them and the patterns of behavior that leads to,” or as Webster puts it with a laugh: “It’s a ‘fuck you’ song.”
The EP comes to a close with “Vanity” a song that perfectly encapsulates the musical and emotional growth captured throughout Persona — and one that also might just be the heaviest GEL have ever sounded. The track is powered by a ten ton riff and a menacingly deliberate pace that matches the determination in Kaiser’s lyrics. “Can’t change things, don’t wanna / This is the way we push through” they bellow, rejecting the baggage of the past and looking forward. It’s a massive sounding song that’s clearly the work of a band who are truly coming into their own. “I felt like we could get away with things I wouldn’t have wanted to try earlier on,” says Webster. “We just know that everything we do is gonna sound like us at this point.” Kaiser adds resolutely: “We know what we are.”
It’s exceedingly rare to hear something truly original. Something that’s actually breaking new ground, something that maybe we don’t even have words for just yet. Something like MSPAINT. In a time when so much musical territory feels well-trodden, MSPAINT are the exception. On their debut full-length Post-American, the Hattiesburg, Mississippi-based four-piece draw on everything from hardcore, to hip hop, to synth-punk, and beyond to make an unabashedly weird amalgam that sounds as fresh and compelling as it is instantly satisfying.
MSPAINT formed in Hattiesburg’s close-knit DIY music scene and are very much the sum of their parts. Made up of Randy Riley on bass, Nick Panella on synths, Quinn Mackey on drums, and mononymous vocalist Deedee, the pointedly guitarless band pull from each member’s individual tastes to make songs that grab you by the head and don’t let go. “We’re sort of equal parts uncompromising and collaborative,” Deedee explains. “Everyone’s musical aspirations are on each track in different ways. When we started, we knew there was something about it where there was no template, but we really believed in the songs and knew we needed to push it.”
This Hattiesburg scene brought the group together and also fostered their uniqueness. “Everything in the south and in Mississippi moves a little slower,” says Riley. “Sometimes we’re the last to get things. ike certain trends, or funding, or progressive ideas…a lot of time these things get to us later or not at all. But it also makes it so places like Hattiesburg are a little more self-contained and people can do whatever they want. They’re not affected by trends or what’s popular. It makes things very singular and cool.” In 2020, MSPAINT hit the ground running with a self-titled debut EP (first released on Earth Girl Records, and then later re-released on Convulse Records), and soon found themselves becoming one of the pillars of the Hattiesburg punk scene. “There’s always been a music community here but recently a lot more people have been moving here and starting bands,” says Riley. “A lot of our friends are putting in work to make spaces and to get the DIY punk circuit interested in coming there. It’s just becoming an environment where people are getting excited about being in bands and going to shows.” Deedee adds, “It’s definitely a bit of a state of mind. I think there’s just a lot of real artists right now who want to do their thing and that happens to be the mindset of our community.”
But the group was also surprised to find their music was starting to resonate with listeners outside of Hattiesburg as well–and one of those new listeners was Militarie Gun/Regional Justice Center mastermind, Ian Shelton. Shelton was instantly struck by MSPAINT’s extraordinary sound and energy, and soon got in touch about producing the band’s debut full-length alongside engineer Taylor Young (God’s Hate, Drain, Full of Hell). “When I first heard ‘Hardwired’ it felt like I was let in on a secret, like an undiscovered hit,” Shelton says. “I immediately wanted to do everything I could to try and spread the word about them.” After writing together with Shelton in Hattiesburg, the group decamped to The Pit Recording Studio in Los Angeles and began to record what would become Post-American. Shelton adds, “They’re a band of tinkerers, they will sit and re-work a song until you don’t recognize it anymore–I tried to get them to not look past their initial intuitions and just allow some things to be direct.”
Post-American delivers on the promise of MSPAINT’s early recordings while also taking a massive leap forward in every way. The album is 30 minutes of indefinable musical current that’s delivered with such passion and intensity that you can’t help but take notice, even while you’re trying to figure out what it is you’re listening to. Throughout the record, Riley’s hyper-aggressive bass lines collide with Panella’s vibrant synths, all while Mackey’s nimble drumming manages to be pummeling and groove-laden all at once.
The band’s uncommon instrumentals could only be matched by an equally singular vocalist, and Deedee’s distinct style bridges the gap between the bite of hardcore and the hooky cadences of hip hop. It’s a delivery that perfectly compliments the lyrics by conveying razor sharp ideas with a viscerally satisfying attack. “Sometimes with aggressive music I feel like the content can sort of fall flat or be too veiled,” Deedee explains. “It’s like you’re putting your whole chest into this vocal delivery but you’re not saying shit. I just really wanted to bring it all together–to say it like it’s the last breath you have, but for the stuff you’re talking about to sound like you’re gonna live forever.” Throughout Post-American, explorations of the self deftly intersect with a drive to overcome the absurdities and indignities of modern life. This is music that allows for aggression and love and frustration and beauty to all exist on the same plain, for the emotional and the intellectual to feel completely seamless. “I wanted to completely open up on every track, to be as vulnerable as possible, but also to have a hopefulness that comes from diving deep,” Deedee says. “Every song is coming from a place of wanting to critique but also uplift.”
Tracks like the blistering “Acid” or the churning title track evoke apocalyptic imagery, while “Information” or “Hardwired” grapple with technological overload and the need for a more human connection. That connection feels achieved on “Delete It” which features Shelton’s distinctive melodic roar on guest vocals. On “Decapitated Reality” Deedee is joined by Soul Glo vocalist Pierce Jordan for a caustic three minute snapshot of America’s festering anger and negativity, but elsewhere the driving kineticism of “Think It Through” and towering album standout “Titan of Hope” are bursting with a sense of unvarnished hope that comes from striving to be your truest self in face of an increasingly harsh world. “It’s about exploring aspects of yourself that are the most fearful parts, and bringing those things out whenever you can,” Deedee explains. “Those can be the hardest things to talk about but we need to be able to get to that kind of place. To want to be a new person because you choose to be, not because you’re being forced to.”
Post-American ends with “Flowers From Concrete,” a tremendous clash of post-punk atmosphere filtered through noise-rock chaos. As Deedee bellows the final chorus, the track melts into a warped, out of focus respite before abruptly kicking back into its explosive conclusion. It’s a striking bit of calm that accentuates the unbridled energy coursing through so much of MSPAINT’s music, like a fleeting but powerful moment of clarity that you can’t quite put words to. This is music so striking and exciting that it will move you before you even know how to describe it.
Be My Vengeance is the debut LP from Denver’s Destiny Bond. Destiny Bond draw from classic influences like the Faith, Slapshot, early Fucked Up, and Dag Nasty – and offer a brand of hardcore that is unafraid of melody but not completely enamored with it. Lyrically, Be My Vengeance interrogates community and identity and the idea that these can be mutually supportive forces in your life.
Since their inception, St. Louis’ The Mall have become known for expansive, driving synth punk. Convulse Records are honored to welcome The Mall to the Convulse Family with a new pressing of Time Vehicle Earth. Nine songs of crushed, mangled, melted analog synths and pounding bass drums, a journey across time in real time on the only vehicle we have to experience it. Welcome to TIME VEHICLE EARTH.
