REVIEW: Rainbow Coalition Death Cult - United States of Amnesia
Rainbow Coalition Death Cult, a Seattle hardcore supergroup featuring members of Black Ends and Tax Evader, triumph on their confrontational debut LP.
Released: September 11, 2022
Twenty minutes of tightly-coiled hardcore; that’s what you get with the debut record from Seattle supergroup Rainbow Coalition Death Cult. I say “supergroup” because it’s easy to sense that the twist of uniqueness embedded in their music stems from their individual parts. Zach Purtell and Devin Wolf, both members in grindcore band Tax Evader, form a machine-blitz foundation. Black Ends’ Nicolle Swims contributes their project’s bluesy, minor-key sludginess. Bassist Maya Marie, whose solo releases feel more apropos to the stage at Conor Byrne than the pit of Chop Suey, adds commanding vocals that are both melodic and menacing.
Taken together, United States of Amnesia is a punch in the face, in the best way possible. Like a lot of good hardcore, it wears its relentlessly confrontational spirit on its sleeves. From the opening siren of “See It” to the breakneck “Failing Upwards” and its seamless transition into the chugging “Phat Pig,” the band doesn’t let up on its bristling assault. Yet in comparison to Tax Evader’s treble-forward powerviolence, the record’s well-balanced mix (thanks to engineer Don Farwell) ups the record’s accessibility factor.
There’s also variety in its righteous cyclone. “Funny Money” opens atmospherically and descends into the volcano as Marie’s vocals resonate through breaks in the din. “Blue MAGA” switches tempos on a dime, Wolf’s throat-shredding scream shaping out plainspoken utterances about the marginal degree of difference in the country’s twin parties. Swims inserts shredding stingers on “Farewell My Health,” while on closing song “Lies, War, Repeat” the project careens to a chaotic close, as if the band were scrambling to say what they need to say before the lights go off.
The marvelous “United States of Amnesia” represents the album’s eye of the storm, a three-and-a-half minute sludgefest wherein the band slows down the tempo for maximum poignancy. As Purtell oscillates between thundering tom hits and rapid double-bass blows, Marie’s octave-jumping bass notes coats the track in a Vantablack hue. Wolf’s lyrics center around a four-line stanza (“You’re in a cult/They’re in control/You’re pitiful/Do what you’re told”) that bookends the track, and when the guitar comes back in for a surprise coda, the band builds arounds his words as if they were a mantra. In a very real sense, they are.
To me, they raise a curious question. I originally believed the band’s name to be purely self-descriptive: a moniker depicting four people of disparate races, genders and sexualities coming together to forge aural razorblades. But Wolf’s words raise in me another interpretation. It could be an irony of sorts, something that captures a cruelly persistent problem in America: the way higher powers sedate our sense of resistance with hollow cultural victories that undermine our attempts to eradicate more pressing issues like systemic racism, transphobia, and the obscene wealth gap. Perhaps, in their respective iterations, it could be both.
Regardless, what’s more obvious is that at a baseline United States of Amnesia is a fantastic record. Were it just a one-off, it would be a successful foray into hardcore from its contributing musicians. The momentum of such a success, however, makes me hope the foursome pursues this project to even further highs.
Grab their album on Bandcamp below!