Exclusive: The latest song from Long Island's Rule Them All calls back to hardcore's heyday.
'Old-school' gets thrown around a lot in hardcore, usually to mean 'punishing' or 'traditional', but Rule Them All genuinely live up to the descriptor. The Long Island, New York, six-piece have a sound that's more punk than metal; more melody than murder. As such, their music is less reminiscent of modern beatdown hardcore, but of the genre as it was evolving during the early days of NYC acts like Gorilla Biscuits, Sick Of It All, or Murphy's Law. In the modern scene of tough guy posturing, they're a refreshing new voice, even as they sound incredibly old-school.
The title track from Rule Them All's new EP, Dreams About..., has that classic punk vibe. The track's got big breakdowns, sure, and even channels some crossover thrash acts like Shango and even early GWAR. But the song's riffs and gang vocals are catchier than most, with lyrics that have a self-awareness at odds with most of what's commonly labeled as hardcore. It's an awesome track that you'll find yourself singing along with on the second listen that's bound to come.
According to frontman Jon Gusman, "Dreams About... came together very organically and was the second song we wrote for the EP. We were pretty much set on the direction we were trying to go in at this point and wanted to write a song that really cut to the chase. When Richie [Armour, guitarist] introduced the chord progression in the first riff, it struck me as super intense and colorful so I felt I had to match that with not only equally intense lyrics but also melodies.
"Lyrically, this song is about very vivid dreams I have about the end of the world when I'm going through particularly rough periods in my waking life," continues Jon. "They sort of jump between references to what many people consider signs of the end and personal feelings that would manifest these very crazy scenarios from my subconscious mind while I sleep. There's also this element of reflecting and comparing how I dealt with these things as a child as opposed to now and how that inner child is forced to adapt to an ever changing timeline that lies ahead."
Listen to our exclusive premiere of Rule Them All's Dreams About... below:
Rule Them All's Dreams About... EP comes out December 6 on Flatspot Records, and is available for preorder.
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Catch the band live at one of the following dates:
October
30 - Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus w/ Killing Time, Wild Side and Perfect World
November
01 - Queens, NY @ Windjammer w/ Restraining Order, Antagonize, The Fight, Steel Cage
02 - Philadelphia, PA @ Zero Club w/ Fixation, Restraining Order, Antagonize, Spell Runner, Luxe
09 - Amityville, NY @ Revolution w/ Sanction, Jukai, Cipher, Year Of The Knife, Separated, Silenus
30 - Amityville, NY @ Revolution w/ Backtrack (last show), Terror, No Warning, King Nine, Hangman
December
09 - Brooklyn, NY @ St. Vitus w/ Shelter, Mil-Spec, Constant Elevation
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