If you're a hardcore fan who doesn't know the name Warfare, then you surely know at least one of its members. The band is fronted by Triple B Records owner Sam Yarmuth, who's released a hefty chunk of the last decade's best hardcore music through his prolific label. Justice Tripp, frontman of Trapped Under Ice and Angel Du$t, plays guitar, and the rest of the lineup — drummer Sam Bosson, guitarists Ryan Boone and Ian Logan, and bassist Madison Woodward — are current/former members of groups like Trash Talk, Fury, Firewalker, Hoax, Kommand and countless others.
Warfare released their debut album, Declaration, in 2018 and then quietly dropped a split with Restraining Order back in November 2021, but today (February 8th) they're announcing their sophomore LP, Doomsday, and we're premiering its first two ripping singles. One is the album's title-track, a no-nonsense blast of early Eighties hardcore intensity with modern-day fidelity, and the other is "Drop Squad," a blistering duet with God's Hate frontman and AEW wrestler Brody King that switches between Yarmuth's throaty yowl and King's royal bellow.
Listen to both of them below and pre-order the record here. Then, read our interview with Yarmuth about his creative vision for Warfare, the band's history and what it feels like to finally be a frontman.
EVERYONE IN THIS GROUP — NOT TO MENTION THE GUEST VOCALISTS — HAVE ALL PLAYED IN OTHER BANDS THAT ALL SOUND DIFFERENT FROM ONE OTHER. WHAT'S THE UNIFYING VISION WITH WARFARE?
The original idea was to do a band with Bosson called Sam's Club where all the members were named Sam, but we had trouble finding other Sam's. So I wrote some songs and flew out to Cali in early 2016 to record them with Bosson. We had no other members in mind and didn't know what it would turn into, but we figured we'd just record it. Madison recorded the demo and also ended up doing Bass on the demo so we added him in. When I got back to Boston, I showed the rough version (just instruments) to Boone and he asked to play guitar. I then showed it to Justice when he was in town on an Angel Du$t tour and he said he'd play guitar so I went from playing guitar to just singing in the band. There is one version of a demo song with Dorian from Soul Search and Forced Order singing, but he ended up not wanting to do it all.
WHAT WERE YOU GUYS TRYING TO ACCOMPLISH MUSICALLY WITH DOOMSDAY? LYRICALLY?
Lyrically, I'm not reinventing the wheel at all. They're mainly about the very small handful of people I truly dislike on this earth and that's about it. Really nothing more to it. Musically, the idea was to take early Eighties NYHC like The Abused and throw in Warzone/Youth of Today style mosh parts. Also not reinventing the wheel by any means, but it's cool.
I HEAR SOME EARLY BOSTON HARDCORE INFLUENCE IN THESE SONGS, TOO.
There's def some A-Team influence in there which is one of my all time favorite Boston bands. But we mainly just stuck to doing fast early Eighties NYHC, but adding that late Eighties mosh flare to it. I think just naturally, living in Boston for almost 15 years [has made] some Step Forward, No Tolerance kinda aspects creep in there, too.
WHAT ASPECT OF THE RECORD ARE YOU MOST PROUD OF?
I'm pretty proud of everything. All the guys killed it on the recording of my very simple hardcore riffs. They took simplicity and warped it into something pretty killer. We were all pretty surprised how well it all came together, especially since it was all recorded in just two sessions. The cover art is also awesome, I couldn't be happier with it. Shout out to JST Monkey Man from Thailand.
THROUGH YOUR WORK AT TRIPLE B AND YOUR INVOLVEMENT IN THE SCENE, YOU HEAR SO MANY DEMOS AND SEE SO MANY BANDS PLAY. DOES THAT MAKE YOU HYPER-AWARE OF YOUR OWN VOCAL PERFORMANCES IN ANY WAY? LIKE, DO YOU APPROACH YOUR MUSIC IN A CERTAIN WAY BASED ON THE SHEER GLUT OF HARDCORE YOU CONSUME?
I'm extremely self conscious with everything involving this band because it's my little baby. I write all the riffs and lyrics and it's essentially my fucked up little brain child of a band, so whenever I show someone the songs or even when I was showing to the guys in the band I was constantly like, "Does this make sense? does this totally suck? Please be honest." I'm also pretty self-conscious at live shows since it's the first time I've sang in a band and I'm 33 at this point. I just don't wanna look like an old idiot up there, but so far people seem to be receptive to it all. I also know the dudes in the band wouldn't want to do stuff if it was all lame so I'm glad that they haven't been like, "Yeah, lets just not do this anymore".
WHEN IT COMES TO PUTTING OUT PROJECTS THAT YOU PLAY ON, DO YOU ALWAYS FEEL AS CONFIDENT ABOUT THE FINISHED PRODUCT AS YOU WOULD ANY OTHER TRIPLE B RELEASE, OR ARE YOU MORE CRITICAL OF YOUR OWN PERFORMANCES THAN YOU ARE OF OTHER PEOPLE'S?
I'm definitely more critical of just Warfare. I play in other bands that I've put out but on guitar or bass and I'm way more chill on those. I think I'm just way more paranoid about Warfare sucking than anything else. I'm very, very confident with this new LP though, way more so than the last record we did. This one felt much more natural all around in terms of writing, recording, and getting the whole artwork together. Even if no one buys it and it ends up being a mystery box item, I'll still be proud of it.
I'VE SEEN YOU AND OTHER TRIPLE B AFFILIATES USE THE PHRASE "THE RETURN OF FAST HARDCORE" RECENTLY. I KNOW YOU'RE BEING CHEEKY, BUT IT DOES SEEM LIKE WE'RE DUE FOR A WAVE OF SPEED TO COME IN AND QUELL THE SLOWER, MOSHY STUFF. DO YOU FEEL LIKE FASTER HXC HAS BEEN ABSENT FROM THE ZEITGEIST IN RECENT YEARS?
Yeah, I just said that to be an asshole and it worked. Twitter people are dumb as hell. Fast hardcore will always be present in some capacity in hardcore, but it's definitely taken the back seat in the more recent years to the heavier stuff — which I also love. Shout out Restraining Order for holding it down and for just being the best band going.
