Heavy Song of the Week: The Casualties’ Punk-Rock Protest Anthem “People Over Power”

Heavy Song of the Week is a feature on Heavy Consequence breaking down the top metal, punk, and hard rock tracks you need to hear every Friday. This week, we highlight The Casualties’ comeback single “People Over Power.”

Heavy music came through during an intense week that saw protests on US soil and abroad. Dropkick Murphys took on ICE, Lamb of God laid bare society’s grim prospects, and H.R. of Bad Brains offered up words of hope (more on the latter two below).

Perhaps the most direct message came from NYC street-punk vets The Casualties, who returned with their first original song in eight years, “People Over Power.” The speed and energy of the playing is as tight and fierce as anything the band’s laid down — commendable for a punk group approaching its fourth decade. And that ferocity — sonic anger, if you will — lends weight and emphasis to the lyrics. Frontman David Rodriguez is fed up with it, and he makes his point known.

“We’re getting stomped by the world, by the government, by the bad news,” Rodriguez said. “We want systemic change, total transformation, degradation to the state. ‘People over Power’: It’s as simple as it sounds.”

Honorable Mentions:

Converge – “We Were Never The Same”

Alright, we’ve now heard the first and last songs from Converge’s forthcoming LP, an album that supposedly has a linear buildup of intensity from front to back. In that way, “We Were Never The Same” feels like skipping ahead and spoiling ourselves a bit, but we get a better idea of what the band meant by its initial description. This is certainly intense… in a way we weren’t expecting. Elements of noise rock, prog, and avant post-metal all intertwine into a brutal cacophony, the band wringing itself out for an epic finale that leaves the trappings of metalcore behind.

H.R. and New Age Doom – “Amaseganalo, Pt. 2”

Canadian experimental collective New Age Doom deserve major props for garnering the contributions of H.R. of Bad Brains, whose enduring message of love and acceptance feels particularly vital in this moment. On the closing track from their new collaborative album, H.R.’s lyrics and vocals cut through a surging post-rock soundscape, “calling for equality and dignity” as he rejects racism, war, and injustice.

Lamb of God – “Into Oblivion”

Lamb of God finally announced the album we knew they were sitting on, offering up the opening title track. Interestingly, all three singles from the album have a different sound, with the breakdown-heavy “Into Oblivion” falling more into a tech-y metalcore vein as opposed to the sludge and thrash we heard on the others. The song also outlines the album’s themes. “In general, the album is about the ongoing and rapid breakdown of the social contract, particularly here in America,” stated Randy Blythe. “Things are acceptable now that would’ve horrified people just 20 years ago.”

Powerplant – “Bridge of Sacrifice”

Among all the political dissonance, comic relief is a necessity, and UK one-man band Powerplant brings that in spades on “Bridge of Sacrifice.” Imagine a bedroom black metaller who somehow bought the wrong instruments (synths, drum machines, etc.), and instead of defaulting to dungeon synth, set out to make garage punk instead. The chorus steers heavy into Osees/Ty Segall land with the goblin vocals turning into a high-pitch falsetto, and those bands make an apt “FFO” comparison for this eccentric tune.