Punitive Damage aren’t the kind of hardcore band that just sounds pissed–their music goes beyond that. It’s eye-bulgingly furious, but most of all it’s purposeful. The band’s new EP Hate Training is loaded with urgency: it’s a set of songs that directly address the Israel/Palestine conflict, explicitly capturing their frustration but also turning art towards something so much bigger. “Time after time after time, we fall for the hate training served to us,” vocalist Jerkova (she/her) explains. “From the slaughter of the Indigenous peoples in the Americas, to the Third Reich, to the Vietnam War, to the War on Terror–empires point us towards a ‘subhuman boogyman’ that must be destroyed at all costs, and with a big stupid f-cking smile we say ‘okay.’ And only after time has passed do we realize how we shamefully fell for the bullsh-t, and how we can’t ever let that happen again. And we say ‘never again’ or ‘we must learn from our mistakes.’ Yet here we are again.”
Hate Training follows Punitive Damage’s 2022 debut album This Is The Blackout, and picks up where that record left off. Recorded by Jesse Gander (Japandroids, Brutus, Subhumans) and mixed by Taylor Young (Drain, Militarie Gun, God’s Hate), the EP finds the Pacific Northwest-based band–vocalist Jerkova, guitarists Czecho (he/him) and Teejer1 (he/him), drummer Alejandro (he/him), and bassist Kermit (she/her)–pushing the lightning fast riffs and primal stomp of their music even further into the red. The music on Hate Training feels sharper than ever, and makes for an apt delivery system for the lyrics’ highly specific focus.
The EP opens with the 97-second title track, featuring a refrain where Jerkova roars three words: “Deny, deny, obliterate.” It’s the hardcore equivalent of a big scream-along chorus, but it’s more than just a spot for show-goers to try (and fail) to match Jerkova’s vicious delivery: it’s a condemnation of selective compassion, of everyday dehumanization. “It’s about my firsthand account of people in my life trying to convince me to reject objective truth and reality,” says Jerkova. “Just this consistent gaslighting that I need to ignore what I’m seeing, what I’m hearing, what I’ve learned from history–throw it all to the wayside.” Czecho adds, “In spite of all of the negative aspects of the internet, it’s given us the ability to look beyond the lies and euphemisms of news outlets that have proven themselves incapable of unbiased coverage. Everyone has a phone in their pocket and the ability to document and publish what is happening to them. The bombing of news outlets, murder of journalists, the smearing and suppression of people documenting their own experience is no accident.”
“Plaster Saints” uses 34 seconds of blistering hardcore to address cycles of oppression and history repeating itself. “My father was born during WWII under Nazi occupation, he grew up 30 minutes from a concentration camp that has intersected my family’s story more than once,” Czecho says. “When I was a kid my dad would tell me about the camp and living under a repressive government. He was separated from his family for decades after he fled a violent invasion of his country. I’m the son of a refugee that was raised to hate occupation and celebrated stories of armed resistance.” Elsewhere tracks like “Baptism of Fire” and “Blight of Apathy” are crushing rippers that insist that compassion and humanity shouldn’t be applied only when convenient. “‘Blight of Apathy’ I think is the angriest I’ve felt writing, recording, and tracking a song,” says Jerkova. “I loathed just the general helplessness I felt at the time with what was going on. But what got me most was just the sheer brazenness and callousness of people in my immediate surroundings.”
EP standout “All or Nothing” features guest vocals from Jess Nyx of Mortality Rate and World of Pleasure, and demonstrates that Punitive Damage’s musical efficiency is only matched by their commitment to their cause. “Selective compassion, right to live at your discretion, humanity upon request,” Jerkova spits on the 55-second song, summing up the dismissive and oppressive mentalities that she despises. “It’s my criticism of the duplicitousness of humanity and compassion,” she says. “And a demand for a free Palestine, no ifs, ands, or buts.”
