The members of the passionate, fired-up young hardcore band Broken Vow met at a Connecticut show just before the pandemic. Those guys now live all around the Northeast, but they’ve worked together to tap into a sincere, fiery sound that recalls the urgent and ferocious metallic hardcore of the ’90s. If you connect with the catharsis of present-day bands like Magnitude and Inclination, then Broken Vow’s music will probably strike a chord.
Broken Vow released a couple of promising promo cassettes during the pandemic, and they followed those with the powerful 2021 EP Sane Minds End. Now, the band has signed with Massachusetts hardcore giant Triple B Records, and they’ve announced plans for their full-length debut Anthropocene. First single “1.5” is a furious, anthemic track about witnessing environmental collapse. They really mean it. Here’s what singer Tommy Harte says about both the song and the album.
Every year, we lose 1.5% of wild nature to development, extinction, and general human intervention. This song is about the objective truth that humanity is squandering the privilege of the earth. This is not our dominion, and if we wish to survive we must exist in harmony with the earth and cease to view it as a foe to conquer.
When writing the lyrics for this album, I was heavily influenced by bands who tackled a wide variety of subject matter in a cohesive and thought-provoking way. Undying, Earth Crisis, Chokehold, and the more political-leaning Bridge Nine bands provided a lot of inspiration in that respect. The bulk of songs on this record are about humanity’s relationship with the earth, the pressing issue of our time. The generation this band comes from is one that never really knew environmental peace and from a young age has had to grapple with feelings of doom, guilt, and confusion around the topic. I’m not a genius or an inventor or a problem solver, but I am a human, so that seemed the best angle to come at it from. This record is about the anger that comes from watching those in power fail to slow our culture’s ever-quickening descent into environmental and social destruction. It’s about feeling hopeless and still refusing to give up hope. It’s about empowering the everyman, who has been taught to be at peace with his powerlessness. But most importantly, it’s about not being alienated from your own humanity despite the pressures of our culture and civilization. It is within this humanity that we will find the power to influence the change necessary to salvage what’s left of the world.
Below, listen to “1.5” and check out the Anthropocene tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 “Burning Your Throne”
02 “Kingdom Dies”
03 “Evil Armies”
04 “Function”
05 “1.5”
06 “Propaganda Of The Deed
07 “Shift Tactics”
08 “Reversal”
09 “No More Air”
Anthropocene is out 9/29 on Triple B Records. On Sunday, Broken Vow will play a show with Wreckage and Combust at the Shop in Hamden, Connecticut.
