Every piece, feature story and review concerning this Swiss battalion will — and rightfully should — begin with a pronunciation clarification and meaning explanation of their beyond the pale moniker. And because no one has ever accused me of originality in the slightest, today’s bit will be no different. It’s pronounced ‘Shock-hondo’ and it’s the Esperanto word for ‘shockwave.’ And yes, if the likes of Breach, Botch, Baptists and other bands that start with the letter ‘B’ that offer up a sonic battering ram of bastardized metallic hardcore, then Sxokondo might be something to consider should you decide to expand your listening palette beyond the ‘B’s, skipping the most obvious ‘C’ of them all — that’s Converge, and assuming I haven’t made it too difficult to follow this particular bouncing ball. But why start listening to anything I have to say? Independent thought is a feature terrifyingly missing in today’s humanity, as are videos about near-drowning in gooey swamps, which you can watch below in the form of the band’s newest visual offering, “Child of Rage”. Unless you don’t think it’s a metaphor for birth/re-birth and prefer to attach your own meaning to the imagery accompanying the jagged, slash and burn angularity.
We asked the band for their thoughts, given that they wrote the song and commissioned the video, and here’s what they had to say:
“‘Child of Rage’ is a song with a rather organic text. It tells the birth of a vile creature, which is born from anger, from mass discontent and which symbolizes the polarization of the debate, the rejection of nuance and more generally the rise of the far right and its nauseating ideas. We needed an artist capable of conveying this viscous and repulsive aspect in the most primitive and suffocating way. Our choice fell naturally on Yolane Rais, a Swiss director and photographer whose visual world perfectly matches what we were looking for.”
“Child of Rage” is taken from Altered Ego, Sxokondo’s debut album, out now on Division Records.
