Judgement Day NYC, Mind Over Matter of Fact (Inner Rage, 1993)

I've been meaning to post this 7" for literally three years now, as it's one of the rarer slabs of '90s metallic hardcore that I've been able to track down over the years, and I have absolutely no excuse for why it's taken me so long to get around to it. So, to get right down to business, I believe the Mind Over Matter of Fact 7" was the only non-compilation release from Brooklyn, NY trio Judgement Day NYC—probably best known for their appearance on the classic East Coast Assault compilation with the track "Inner Sanctum."

This four-song EP was recorded in 1993 and released by the awesome French label Inner Rage Records (the home of early classics from Starkweather and Fury of Five, among others), and sadly that about ends my knowledge regarding this band. I don't know if they recorded any demos prior to this, I don't know if they recorded anything afterward, and I don't know if any of the members went on to participate in other bands. I think they might have had at least one more song on a compilation that Inner Rage released called Harder They Come, Harder They Fall, but I don't have that compilation, so I'm not sure.

All I can do is state that these guys churned out some chunky metallic hardcore—at times a little faster, at times a littler darker, and at times a little more melodic, but always pretty heavy on the low-end and centered around those straight-up grooves. The insert also contains lyrics for a track called "The Other Half of We" that doesn't actually appear on the 7" itself. Go figure. So, yeah, if anyone else has some information about these cats, post a comment and drop some knowledge!

1. Judgement Day NYC "For No Reason"
2. Judgement Day NYC "Hard to Swallow"
3. Judgement Day NYC "'E' Go Trip"
4. Judgement Day NYC "Shotgun (outro)"

Obviously this one's long out of print, but believe it or not there is was one copy of this fucker on eBay for like $5 at the time of this writing, so... run a search and try your luck if you'd like to get your hands on the vinyl!

Edit: Judgement Day NYC's former drummer, Joe Fogarty, was kind enough to send me an email yesterday afternoon with some details about the band that I was completely unaware of. Here's what he had to say:

Hey, Andrew. My name is Joe, I was the drummer for Judgement Day NYC (August, '91 - March, '94). A friend of mine sent me a link to your page, so I thought I would send you an email with some info about the band.

The "first" Judgement Day formed in late-'89/early-'90 with Kevin and myself (both on the 7"), Mike on bass (later of Merauder, Candiria, Dead Air), and Andrew. We only played around four shows. Andrew left and in the early fall of 1990 myself, Mike, and Kevin, along with new vocalist "Black" Jessie (and Freddie Become the Kross later) changed our name to Rampage. We had a five-song demo that was a mix of hardcore, funk metal, and rap—a long time before it was cool. Rampage was a band from September, '90 - September, '91 and played around 10 shows. Around August, '91 Kevin wanted to get the Judgement Day thing happening again, so he and I got Dom on bass (he played on the 7") and Eric on guitar to join the band. We played our first show with this lineup in October, '91 and put out two demos: Quick to Judge (1991) and Don't Make Mistakes (1992, from which the song "Inner Sanctum" was later released on that comp). In '93 Eric left the band and we recorded the 7" as a three-piece. No other recordings after that.

Sometime later I left the band (I played around 24 shows with Judgement Day), but Kevin carried on. Judgement Day NYC officially broke up in late-1995.

Yes, we did have a song or two on that Inner Rage Records comp. They were songs we recorded for fun that were never going to see the light of day, but after I left the band Kevin gave them to someone to release (one track was a long "rock" song à la Alice in Chains, the other was a joke instrumental called "The Bearded Clam").

In '93 - '94, our original bass player Mike played some shows with us when we played with Nuclear Assault and Sheer Terror. The late Frank Collins from the Brooklyn metal/hardcore band Confusion was also in the band sometime in '92. After I left, Mike P. played drums, who later played for Life of Agony. Loki from the Bronx hardcore band District 9 played bass for a short time in '93.

I later played with such bands as Sifter (post-punk), Born (Queens hardcore), Inhuman (Brooklyn hardcore), Modern Like Appearance (emo/alternative), The Make (punk rock), Milagres (alt.-rock), Big Dakota (post-hardcore rock), and The Secret Life (indie rock). If you have any more questions or anything just let me know. And, hey, thanks for putting the music on your site.

If any other such emails come my way, I'll be sure to add the information to this post!