Mutually Assured Destruction

M.A.D. struck a chord to me immediately the first time I listened to the opener of their 2019 EP. I remember trying desperately to get more details for this band but there was no social media accounts, so the only info I could get was from the Edgewood Records website!

So, their take on crossover / metal / hardcore / doom is amazing. Only Living Witness, Leeway, Life Of Agony, Corrosion Of Conformity, Black Sabbath, you name it! The band has recently signed to Triple B Records, so expect a bigger hype coming soon! They deserve it, though! M.A.D. was the first interview I did for this zine and I am really proud to have em on board!

Talked with Ace, who used to play in the straight edge hardcore band Break Away, about M.A.D., Break Away, crossover, his podcast Forum Of Passion and his love for 90s hardcore / metal.

Pictures by @nickcapturesva

mutuallyassureddestructionusa.bandcamp.com www.patreon.com/Forumofpassion

Hey Ace! Welcome on board! What’s the story behind M.A.D.?

So, in the middle of 2019 my previous band Break Away had been broken up for a few months and I got the itch to do another band but I wanted it to be completely different than what I had done previously. I got in touch with people I found equally as talented as they were available and asked them if they wanted to do a band that sounded like Only Living Witness, Corrosion of Conformity and Sam Black Church. We’ve evolved in sound since last year, but that was the mission statement. I wanted to explore some darker themes than I had previously, as well. I think so far away, from the state of the world, things have panned out well.

Who’s playing in the band? What happened to the Break Away vibes? M.A.D. is in a totally different mood, more of a thrashy / crossover hardcore mayhem than the straight edge hardcore vibes that BA was. It’s been 2 years since the demise of Break Away, by the way…

I love doing Break Away. I love straight edge hardcore and I’m glad I got to do that for so long, but we had been a band for 8 / 9 years and after a bunch of shows in America, a couple tours in Europe, 2 LPs, and a bunch of festival appearances, the natural end had come upon us. M.A.D. is comprised of Eric from Break Away, Tyler who was previously in a band called Holy Land, Groater who is in Bracewar, and was previously in Down To Nothing and Fire & Ice, and lastly JD who used to fill in for Break Away and Naysayer, as well as playing in a band called Lost Souls, which would later evolve into the band Candy.

I do not want to exaggerate but ‘Fever dream’ is one of my favorite records of 2020, definitely top notch aggressive music. How was the procedure of composing and recording it? And how did the cooperation with Edgewood Records happen? It’s not a common thing for hardcore bands to release 10”s nowadays, why didn’t you do a 12” instead?

Edgewood is our team and to an extent the main group of friends around M.A.D. I had always wanted to do a record with them because Craig and Scott (Edgewood CEOs) are old and great friends of mine (Craig was in Break Away at one point in time). It was as simple as just asking. We wrote 6 songs that clocked in too long for a 7’, but not long enough for an LP, so we thought a 10” would be interesting and different. We always want to be both those things in regards to anything M.A.D. does. I really appreciate that you like the record so much, we are all very proud of it.

I can state Leeway, Life Of Agony, Only Living Witness, early 90s Cro-Mags and lots of groovy thrash metal as your influences. Am I right?

Those influences are definitely in there. Some Black Sabbath, Corrosion of Conformity, War Hungry, and a bunch of others as well. Recently I’ve been listing to a lot of Acid Bath and want to incorporate that going forward.

That period (90s) was super interesting concerning the extreme music movement with a lot of cross-overs and the worlds of metal and hardcore colliding. I can see a revival with bands like you, Age Of Apocalypse and the likes happening the last years. What’s your opinion on this?

Age of Apocalypse feels like a kindred spirit in what they are doing and what we are doing. I think if doing a crossover style is done well (and I believe we count as such as we have been referred to as ‘crossover doom’), it’s peak aggressive music. Lots of the time though bands attempting this come off as somewhat trite, so if people want to attempt this style, I recommend making it your own and different.

You also did a short-lived band called Neuromancer. Spill the beans!

Neuromancer did a demo in 2018 and we only played 3 shows. I wanted to approach a band with a different visual than most hardcore bands. The idea was to do a band that sounded like Integrity mixed with Japanese d-beat and have the presentation be that of old video games. It might have been a little too heady of a project for the dudes I was attempting it with, but it still comes up every so often which is cool. I really liked doing it honestly. If anyone wants to find it, it’s only on YouTube.

How’s the scene in Richmond, Virginia these days? There’s a big part of hardcore history coming from your area, with bands varying from Four Walls Falling to Down To Nothing. What’s your top current bands and also your all time favs?

I love Richmond hardcore, it is firmly imprinted on my soul and it has shaped me as a person. I mean that. My current favorite bands from here are Destruct, Enforced, Downfall, and Division of Mind. There’s so many I could list, but those are my current favorites.

You also do a podcast called Forum Of Passion. When did you start this project and what’s the main goal you want to achieve with FOP? There’s lots of hardcore podcasts poppin’ up lately, how important is this new means of representing hardcore, especially now that there’s not any shows around?

I want to catalog and capture the stories of people that are playing what I believe a strong roll in shaping the current landscape of

hardcore, punk, and metal. I approached this wanting to do an almost “Inside the Actor’s Studio” vibe, but instead of actors, focus on people in the scene. I think podcasts right now are great because they provide a way to keep people engaged with our world while everything else is on hold.

How has your life been affected by the pandemic? What’s your daily job? Is that affected, too? Do you see any light in the dark?

I changed jobs this year actually, but it was not because of the pandemic. I had worked in various positions at the UPS Freight headquarters for the last 9 years and just got kind of over it. Now I am in sales for a roofing company. I’m lucky in the fact that professionally I have not been impacted. I have hope, I think once a vaccine is widespread we will be on our way towards inching back towards normalcy.

How hard is for hardcore to stay present and relevant with no shows / tours, without that mutual communication that used to happen back when everything was kinda normal? Can the scene preserve itself? What’s your take on live stream shows? Have you watched any so far?

M.A.D. actually did a livestream as a “record release” show for Fever Dream since we had to cancel ours. I think if it’s all you can do and you’re honest with yourself about the fact that it will work for your band, why not try it out? I think we all just have to try. Be it putting out zines, podcasts, releasing music, livestreams; there are options, you just have to have patience and try your best to create in a world that is currently captured in stone.

Thank you very much, stay safe and keep creating great music! Last words are yours!

Be excellent to one another.