Vegan Straight Edge supergroup SECT have released a new record. 'Plague Upon Plagues' is the fourth record for the band, and the first post-pandemic release for the band (their last record was in August of 2019). That said, the new record touches on the pandemic and the social and political consequences in which we now find ourselves. Listen to the new record below.
From frontman Chris Colohan:
This time 5 years ago I was in therapy (as I often promise I will try one more time) for the debilitating lifelong sensation that the world was imploding and the sky falling, the natural and social order teetering on the brink of collapse. Chalk it up to an excess of unsteady, shifting ground at a young and formative age. I’m not sure what psychologists are telling their patients or parents their children at This Point about their paranoias, “catastrophising”, Negative Automatic Thoughts or hypervigilance, but I still say all this is really happening, and always was. The question is why for so long we just kept whistling past the graveyard while so many clear points of no return (political, ecological, social) formally announced themselves. Music is the best therapy I’ve ever found, that’s the reason I hang onto it so stubbornly. It’s not that any of us have the answers, it’s that it helps to say the worst of what’s in your head out loud, if only to trade WTF?s with the community around you. To let some of the poison of desperation out.
The new Sect LP Plagues Upon Plagues comes out today, and it’s a milestone for me, the first time in 3+ decades and across many records and projects that I’ve ever gotten to a 4th LP with any band. Maybe this is the stunted view of that angry, anxious kid who never moved further than blurting out “wait, but that’s fucked up though!” in 1000 different ways, but I still love having this in my life, I don’t know it and wouldn’t want it any other way. Thanks to [Andy Hurley,] [James Chang,] [Steve Hart,] & [Earth Crisis] for sharing that feeling and having me on this whole wild international ride, my dear friend [Ryan Michael Patterson] for the incredible cover art and [Southern Lord Records] for getting behind it. See you out there somewhere. XO [Chris Colohan]
Drums track engineering by Justin Phelps. Mixing by Kurt Ballou. Cover art by Ryan Patterson. 'Plague Upon Plagues' is out now in physical and digital formats on Southern Lord Recordings.
