BrooklynVegan is currently streaming the self-titled debut full-length from Bay Area hardcore punk unit ISOTOPE. Featuring former members of Stormcrow, Sanctum, Acts Of Sedition, Femacoffin, and more, the record was captured by Brad Lincoln at The Space Oakland, California, mastered by Kenko at Communichaos Media in Gnesta, Sweden, with cover art by Adam Kindred, and spews forth eight predatory tracks centered around war, violence, and a dying planet.
Issues BrooklynVegan, “Across these eight, whiplash-inducing songs, you can hear the Japanese hardcore and Swedish crust influences (plus a heaping dose of d-beat and some fiery metallic guitar solos), and ISOTOPE are masters at this kind of stuff. If you like hardcore of any variety, it’s nearly impossible to deny this LP.”
Stream ISOTOPE’s ripping self-titled debut, courtesy of BrooklynVegan, atTHIS LOCATION.
Isotope will be released digitally and on limited LP April 5th via Carbonized Records, the new label imprint spearheaded by Necrot drummer Chad Gailey. A cassette edition will follow in May. For physical preorders go to this LOCATION. For digital orders go HERE.
ISOTOPE is currently in the midst of a short West Coast tour with shows in Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle remaining. Additional performances to be announced in the coming weeks.
ISOTOPE Record Release Tour:
4/04/2019 Blackwater – Portland, OR4/05/2019 CBDB’s- Vancouver, BC
4/06/2019 Georgetown Liquor Company – Seattle, WA
ISOTOPE slowly alchemized from various elements in the West Coast punk and crust scenes that had been bumping shoulders in the pit for the past decade. Longtime Oakland drummer, Clza, had been itching to start another hardcore punk project since the final gasp of Acts Of Sedition in 2012. Fortuitously, Clza ran into Sikki Nikki on the streets of San Francisco not long after and said, “I really want to start a band that sounds just like Bastard.” They had crossed paths previously in the stenchcore heyday of 2008, as members of Stormcrow and Sanctum, respectively. Since the notorious Sanctum, Sikki had gone on to pulverize the Northwest with the band, Detonize, before moving down to the Bay Area from Seattle, joining Xeroxide and later Femacoffin.
Zone Tripper had also moved to Oakland around this time, after years of running the Pink Mailbox Punk house in Santa Barbara. He had played concierge to every significant national and international punk tour on the West Coast over the past ten years, as well as cranking out riffs in his own crust outfit, Desperate Hours. After the dissolution of Zone Tripper’s San Francisco band, Midnight Brain, he and Crimson Scarlet comrade Bazzy discussed the idea of forming a Burning Spirits Japanese hardcore- style ensemble. Sikki was working at the same job as Bazzy at this time, and was convinced to join the fledgling group as guitar player, instead of forming his own d-beat solo recording project.
The first three ISOTOPE songs were written as a trio with Zone Tripper on drums, Sikki Nikki on guitar, and Bazzy on bass. Clza was soon brought in to fill the drum chair and Zone Tripper switched to lead vocals. The lineup was completed with the addition of Scootch on second guitar, known for his work in Side Effects and as the driving force behind Oakland’s Manic Relapse Festival. The now complete band went about emulating its influences from the Far East with grim persistence, but in the process went on to create something new that was a synthesis of many other styles.
ISOTOPE played its first show September 2nd, 2014, as openers for Japanese hardcore legends Forward. The original ISOTOPE cast recorded a demo tape and the “Midnight Soldier” single soon thereafter. Scootch parted ways with the band sometime during the first year and band did some time as a four piece, including their first short West Coast tour. Not long after, K.P. – another Bay Area transplant originally of such Boston punk bands as Red Thread and Pink Nightmare – joined ISOTOPE on second guitar. This lineup kicked things up a notch by 2015, touring the East Coast and Canada in August around the annual Pittsburgh Skull Fest. More epic gigs and legendary partying ensued on a wild West Coast tour in January 2016, all on the strength of the “Midnight Soldier” single.
By 2017, ISOTOPE released a four-song EP, Wake Up Screaming, via France’s Symphony Of Destruction, in time for a triumphant performance as direct support for Japan’s Framtid at the 2017 Varning Festival in Montreal, and a subsequent East Coast tour with Glorious? from Sweden.
ISOTOPE has been a frequent guest on the punk festival circuit, flying in to play the inaugural Have A Good Laugh in Vancouver in 2016, Varning in 2017, Have A Good Laugh and Skull Fest again in 2018, as well as multiple appearances at Manic Relapse in their own back yard. The band’s first attempt to record an album was hampered by a series of unfortunate events (including the original recording studio flooding with raw sewage) and they finally completed the record, in a different location, in the fall of 2018.
“…one of the sickest hardcore crust records of 2019!” – Cvlt Nation
“From the steamroller of the initial track, ‘Departed’ through the closing blast of ‘Phoenix Ashes,’ ISOTOPE soars through track after track of electrifying and powerful hardcore punk. Rarely slowing down to catch their breath, they paint a relentless and desperate cry in a world of madness.” — No Echo
“…some seriously killer punk rock with all the crusty crustlets and hardcore focus that you need in your life. Plus, it’s on a super awesome record label called Carbonized that’s run by Chad Gailey of Necrot. — Last Rites
“…rip-roaring, crusty hardcore… no frills, no filler, just hard and fast punches to the gut with straightforward riffing, and classic guitar solos even. This is pit music – music for movement and release – but also plays nicely through headphones as get-‘er-done work tunes or through your car stereo while you blast down the highway…” — Invisible Oranges
ISOTOPE:
Chuck “Zone Tripper” Franco – vocals
Nick “Sikki Nikki” Cantu – guitar
Kristen “KP” Payne -guitar
Paul “Bazzy” Capito – bass
Clint “Clza” Baechle – drums
Chuck “Zone Tripper” Franco – vocals
Nick “Sikki Nikki” Cantu – guitar
Kristen “KP” Payne -guitar
Paul “Bazzy” Capito – bass
Clint “Clza” Baechle – drums