As touched upon last week in the latest roundup, the members of New Jersey's Surrender the Weapon are predominantly known for having been involved with For the Love Of... and Elements DEC—the latter of which I've covered extensively dating back over 20 years—amongst others. From the very first notes of the epic intro to "The Atrophy of Atrocities," I instantly knew that I was listening to what would become my favorite release of the year, and it would not be unreasonable to describe it as "progressive metalcore" given the complexities of the musicianship. The ingredients of the members' past efforts are certainly on display, but the end result is something more mature and exploratory. You'll pick up on the technical, metal-leaning For the Love Of... angle, but that band's semi-chaotic tendencies are mellowed slightly by the catchy melodicisms that I'd more associate with Elements DEC. Again, though, this is all elevated to another level. The riffs are just so varied and creative—especially the layering and interplay between guitar and bass, which are often so propulsive that vocals and drums can be responsible for the majority of the groove. Surrender the Weapon's music is as unusually beautiful as it is badass.
Hear the proof below, followed by an interview with vocalist Larry Cooney Jr. and guitarist Dan Sobon...
Surrender the Weapon started taking shape during the spring of 2023, about a year after Man Destroyed Man quietly ran its course. How did the four of you initially come together for this project?
Larry: Once the writing was on the wall that Man Destroyed Man was pretty much done, I started thinking of what I could potentially do next. I had actually talked to Scott (Surrender the Weapon's drummer) before Man Destroyed Man became a band about possibly doing something, but it just never came to fruition. Me and Dan have a mutual friend, JJ, who had a 50th birthday party we were both at. Once I saw him there, my wheels started spinning. Before the night ended, I asked him if he would be down to maybe start a new project, and I told him I was pretty sure Scott would be on board if he was. Obviously he and Scott have history with doing For the Love Of..., and although I think he had a little reservations, the pieces just all kind of fell into place. So, I would personally say it is all thanks to seeing Dan at our friend's 50th birthday celebration. If we had not bumped into each other that night, I really do not know if I even get the idea. Maybe I do, but that seemed to be kismet seeing Dan that night.
I do think it is relative to mention that I actually tried out for a band called She's Still Breathing somewhere way back around 2000 that Scott and Dan were doing at the time. We were also all friends from back when For the Love Of... and Elements DEC were active. That She's Still Breathing project obviously wound up not including me on vocals. Funny enough, the lyrics I wrote for one of those songs wound up being most of the lyrics for the Man Destroyed Man song "Upside Down is Flipped." I always like to believe most things happen for a reason.
Dan: I'll just add that Larry is correct. I not only had reservations, but was prepared to decline the invitation outright. The last four years have been difficult for many people, and I have dealt with multiple crises along the way. In November of 2021, I reconnected with my old friend and bandmate Eric Tisch (the singer of Strength 691). He pitched the possibility of creating new music, but I felt so disconnected and defeated at that time. I was in crisis mode and it prevented me from taking on any band projects. So, in 2023, when I ran into Larry at Jay's party, I was prepared to say, "No." All I can say is, multiple intricacies aligned to make this band possible.
I'm guessing that the outcome has been kind of a natural fusion of the members' pasts in bands like For the Love Of... and Elements DEC, because you can hear those roots in place as the foundation for something a little new and different. Were there any discussions about the direction, or did you all just get in a room and this is what happened?
Larry: From my perspective, which may be different from the other guys, I would say it was a bit of both. We initially just got in a room to see what would happen, but pretty quickly we also discussed the direction we wanted to take. Dan pretty early on said he wanted to write things in drop-D as all bands these days are tuning way lower. He felt just doing a different tuning would help separate us from other bands, and since we were all historically comfortable with that tuning, it sounded good to everyone. I was slightly concerned as all the newer music I have done these past five years or so was a lower tuning, so my vocals had to adjust to the lower-tuned approach and actually get a little deeper with my voice. So, the last few years I have gotten pretty comfortable with that deeper approach, but I then reminded myself it was the tuning I did back with Elements DEC, so I would probably be able to adapt accordingly. I ultimately discovered it works best for my natural voice, and with the lower tuning I am actually trying much harder vocally.
We all also agreed on the fact that we did not want it to be clearly based on any of our previous bands, although we also recognized those bands were definitely a representation of who we were at that moment in time. What I mean by that is once we really started talking about it, we all came to the conclusion that we are different people now than we were back then. We all always had a lot of different influences, even back then. We pretty much decided we wanted Surrender the Weapon to be a combination of all of our musical influences, while not just revisiting and redoing what we had done in the past.
I keep saying to people that ask that we are "mature hardcore." What I mean by that is we are playing music that we feel represents who we are now. Mature-ass dudes. We are definitely not just playing what we did in our 20s. I recognize we may let a few people down, and some people are expecting this band to sound like our older bands. While I hope that is not the case, I realize it may definitely happen.
I just hope people accept the band for what it is and not what it is not. The simplest I can put it is we for sure did not want to be a cover band of our past bands. Honestly, there was no fun in that for any of us. We all decided that a new project = a new sound.
Dan: We all met up prior to our first official practice and agreed to see what comes naturally, and you're right, the amalgamation of influences and past bands really translates in the outcome. Some of the best songwriting is inspired from emotionally-charged events, so writing in drop-D allowed me to tap into that mindspace, also giving it that deliberate mid-'90s nostalgic feel.
I remember early on, Scott (our drummer) conjured up a She's Still Breathing recording at one of our practices and it really gave me insight on what I thought worked and what didn't. So, I made it a point to "clear out the basement," so to speak: put all of my talent out there and try to tastefully balance some melodic scores with heavy riffing. Hopefully we hit the mark!
What everyone should also know is that Larry showed us a couple of riffs he was working on via group text within the first few band practices. This idea gave us a springboard and a direction to start the songwriting process, and later became the foundation of the chorus and verse for "Dance to the Rithm."
These three tracks were mostly written by March of this year, though "Dance to the Rithm" was originally titled "The Hare's Abyss." What has the process been like refining and recording the material in the eight months or so in between?
Larry: Actually, "Dance to the Rithm" was always my intended title for that song, and for a little while it was changed to "The Hare's Abyss" as the fellas thought "Dance..." sounded a little corny [laughs], so initially I relented. As time went on, I came to the conclusion that I really wanted to keep it "Dance to the Rithm." I realize it potentially sounds like some Miami-based pop song, but clearly it is the furthest thing from that. I liked the fact that there was a disconnect between the title and the sound. I also strongly believed it was important to reiterate the fact that I am discussing the algorithm as "The Rithm," just in case it was not crystal clear I was doing so.
Dan: I believe I was the primary one who voted for the song to be titled "The Hare's Abyss" [laughs].
Larry: I think we all thought we would get into the studio sooner than we did. Life gets in the way at our age. [Our bassist] JD welcomed his daughter, which obviously is a massive life event. He was out of pocket for a while dealing with that. I do think the fact that things did not go down as fast as we thought they may was a blessing in disguise. We were able to get the three songs incredibly tight, and also work on additional songs, so we really started discovering and refining who we were as a band overall. I think it was a great thing we actually took more time to get into the studio, as I am not sure things would have come out like they did otherwise. Maybe they do, but we were incredibly tight when we recorded, and everyone just banged their respective parts out. It was by far the smoothest experience I have personally ever had in the studio.
Dan: Those extra months we spent refining the material would prove to be invaluable, as I was still making changes to the melodic breaks in both "The Hum" and "Dance to the Rithm" up until the day of recording. You can clearly hear the evolution in those eight months. And that's the philosophy I like to operate on anyhow. If there's an idea that makes a song better, and it hasn't been recorded yet, we owe it to ourselves to entertain it.
Talk about the decision to release the EP as one long, continuous track. That's definitely an atypical move in this age where songs keep getting shorter and attention spans continue to erode...
Larry: So, the first thing I can say is unfortunately the vision of releasing the EP as one continuous track will only be realized on Bandcamp. There, the EP will be the continuous "loop," as envisioned. Hopefully it does translate on the streaming services as well, but they actually rejected all three songs as one continuous track saying it was a "megamix," whatever the hell that means. So, on the normal streaming services, it will be broken down into three individual tracks, although those tracks are divided in a way that they maintain the intended continuous song structure.
And, simply put, we all agreed it was okay to challenge the attention span of listeners these days. We knew we were/are taking a risk doing so, which is why eventually the three songs will be released as singles, and it is also why we are dropping the third song, "The Hum," one week earlier as a single. Dan had the idea very early on and we all thought it was a dope one. I will let him elaborate on the idea itself, since it was him who brought it to the table...
Dan: I'll admit that my ignorance of streaming music on digital platforms is what helped propel this idea forward, as I was thinking in terms of tracks on a CD.
In order to achieve this idea, I engulfed myself with the emotion of 1996 as well: a mélange of emotions ranging from hopeful, anticipation, and triumph; to disappointment, missed opportunities, and failure. So, that would ultimately override the concern of limited attention spans.
Not only did I write the songs to seamlessly connect, I also wanted to make sure that it had our own creative signature on it. I urge anyone listening to the EP that you'd get the most out of it if you initially play it on "repeat" or the "continuous play" option to appreciate how the ending loops back into the beginning of the EP.
I wouldn't say it's necessarily in-your-face, but the songs being seamlessly combined draws attention to the possibility of the lyrical content conceptually flowing together, too. Is that accurate?
Dan: Yes. When I originally pitched the seamless loop concept, Larry applied the lyrics appropriately to help actualize what I think is a pretty badass concept EP!
Larry: I would personally say there is a common thread throughout the three songs lyrically, and that thread begins right away with the opening track. The opening lyric of "The Atrophy of Atrocities" is just another way of saying we are witnessing in real time "The Decline and Decay" (see what I did there?) of what is considered socially acceptable behavior. Or, another way to put it, "Nothing's Shocking" these days. The two remaining songs are about my observations on why that may be. A divisive algorithm, which I feel is the most straightforward of the three songs lyrically and pretty much speaks for itself. In regard to "The Hum," those lyrics are about the constant sound of the gears of the machine/system, or the unknown force [people] perceive in their lives that is holding them down. Or, another way to look at it: what makes people paranoid. I know exactly what my intent was with the lyrics, but I do also try to write lyrics that are open to interpretation so that ultimately the listener can relate to them in a way that makes the most sense to them.
Apparently you already have a few more tunes in the works (and partially recorded), and I know you've been planning to try and get some shows lined up, so... what's next?
Larry: For sure record those additional three songs early next year and hopefully get out and play a few shows. We would also love to have a label release the material to get more ears on it.
Dan: Yeah, what Larry said. We just need more material. And however it organically comes about, I'm all for it. I've learned my lesson with rushing songwriting.
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Hear Surrender the Weapon's new EP in one continuous run, as it was intended, via Bandcamp. Those who prefer the streaming services can of course find it on Spotify, Apple Music, etc. Keep up with Surrender the Weapon on Instagram and Facebook, and please spread the word if you like what you hear!