Straight from the Seattle underground comes Colony Drop, tearing through their first demo in a flurry of thrash, crust and hardcore punk with the fury of a thousand Disrockers. Despite the demo’s brief length—only two songs, “The Guillotine” and “Stand Against the World”—Colony Drop make their mission statement very clear.
“These two songs represent Colony Drop at its most direct and pointed,” vocalist Joseph Schafer explains. “The perfect tip of the spear for launching our assault on the world. They’re the foundation upon which we’ll build the remainder of our campaign. Of course this is just a taste—we have our first record written and are right now prepping to record it.”
Schafer explains that “The Guillotine” focuses on corrupt individuals who inflict suffering upon others, in many forms, for financial gain. It’s the first song that Colony Drop ever wrote, existing in some form for about three years.
“‘Stand Against the World’ is a bit grander,” he continues. “Ben [Burton, guitar] wrote the first version of this song, and right away it showed off his triumphant-but-grim sense of melody. From the start the song expressed our shared love of Burning Spirists hardcore—Japanese crust with loads of expressive guitar playing—so putting a D-beat for the rhythm was the most natural thing in the world. I’d been kicking around the words ‘JoJo’s D-Beat Adventure’ as a gag for months, a sort of portmanteau of the manga JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, as well as Wolfbrigade’s 2004 EP A D-Beat Odyssey. That’s where the chorus came from. What started as a gag really helped us find our voice—especially myself as a singer—so the song has a lot of meaning to us, and I see us playing it live for a long time (whenever we can play live safely, that is). I made sure to put a lot of allusions into the lyrics, almost like a word puzzle in song form, to make things more fun and reward repeat listens. We hope listeners get as much joy out of hearing it as we did writing it.”
With that in mind, tune in to The Demo below.
