Vegan Straight Edge collective CLEARxCUT have released their second EP. For The Wild At Heart Kept In Cages is a damning condemnation of society's apathy, destruction, and exploitation of the natural world around us. The band recently gained notoriety when a member of the collective characterized the outpouring of support for the rebuilding of Notre Damme cathedral as "insanity" when compared to the outcry (or lack thereof) for the loss of "80.000 (!) acres of tropical rainforest every day (not to mention the species that go extinct every day)". The album release also coincides with the start of public direct action by environmental action group Extinction Rebellion, who started their campaign April 15th. Listen to the record below.
From the band:
We will release our first full-length album called “For the wild at heart kept in cages“ on April 12th via CATALYST RECORDS.
The band was founded in 2018 by members of Heaven Shall Burn, Implore and King Apathy. We released our debut EP in summer 2018 via Catalyst Records, played the first live shows – including Fluff Fest in Czech Republic – and toured with Sect and Gust through Europe in fall.
Hardcore punk is still more than music to us. The world we all live in is getting darker and darker every hour. Authoritarian politicians everywhere, discouraging news about corrupt and brutal law enforcement every day and the ongoing exploitation of the natural world make it hard to believe in a bright and colorful future.
While pop songs about “getting drunk on the beach“ seem to be the soundtrack to the end of the world, we feel the urgent need to [address] issues like anarchism, human and animal rights, veganism, straight edge, feminism and the destruction of the environment within our songs.
For total liberation!
Our ... album features seven songs dealing with issues like environmental destruction, the ongoing exploitation of humans and animals within capitalist societies and industrial civilization in general, animal liberation, the benefits of a vegan diet & a straight edge lifestyle and the need to fight sexism and rape culture as a means of emancipation.
The message that connects all songs on this album is, that there is an urgent need for all the different struggles for liberation to work together to overcome a political system which dominates and exploits every living being on this planet.
From x Catalyst x Records:
CLEARxCUT’s sophomore release is as bold a statement as a collective can make. Following a long tradition of vegan straight edge bands who have chosen to ally themselves with the voiceless and to speak out against injustice wherever it exists. This is an album made with love and passion, ignited by anger. A perfect storm of melancholic notes which violently combust into hymns for the wild at heart kept in cages.
For The Wild At Heart Kept In Cages is available now to download or stream through the CLEARxCUT Bandcamp page. Photo by CallxMexKiller.
