Justifications, the new band from two founders of The Red Chord, release Urge To Kill

Justifications is a new hardcore band built around two people who started another one together. Guy Kozowyk, the founding vocalist of The Red Chord, and Kevin Rampelberg, its founding guitarist, have released the group's first single, Urge To Kill, through Metal Injection.

They are not doing it as a duo. Mark MacDonald, of Austrian Death Machine, plays guitar, with Tony Hersey on drums and Jason Edney on bass. That is a five-piece with two guitars, which is a conventional shape for a band whose stated aim is directness.

"Justifications is intended to be direct and fun," Kozowyk said, calling the band a knee-jerk reaction to the world around it. Rampelberg framed the same idea from the playing side, saying the music is more direct and that this lets it connect with people differently.

The single makes the case in under two minutes. It is fast and blunt rather than technical, which is a deliberate change of register for musicians who came out of a band known for its density.

The recording was handled by people with long metal resumes. Kevin Billingslea, whose credits include Lamb of God and Cruel Hand, recorded it, and Zeuss, who has mixed and mastered for Hatebreed and Rob Zombie, finished it. Between them they have worked on a large share of the records that defined the sound this band is drawing on.

Kozowyk was specific about what he wanted from his own vocals. He said he was on a mission to deliver lines that sounded abrasive but were also legible, and that he values singers who are brutal and can still be understood. For a genre where lyrics are routinely lost, that is a working instruction rather than a boast about diction.

A debut album is expected at some point next year. No title, label or release date has been given for it, and no live dates have been announced.

Urge To Kill joins the new music we track on the release calendar, and more of this sort of thing sits on our metal hub. Elsewhere in the same scene, Hatebreed shared the title track of Fatal Paradox last month, and the Boston hardcore band Haywire signed to Roadrunner in August.