Evil Island, the screamo collective featuring members of The Blood Brothers, OFF!, and in their most recent addition, ex-Glassjaw/Men, Women & Children guitarist Todd Weinstock, have announced their debut album “Terraform The Afterlife“. Ross Robinson (Korn, Slipknot) produced that outing, which will be released on August 14th through Blowed Out Records, a label he co-founded.
A music video co-directed by Patrick Lascu and Chelsea Deebo for the song “Animal” from that record has just arrived. Additionally, the band revealed the wealth of guest performers they enlisted for this record, including the first recorded vocal performance from Fugazi‘s Guy Picciotto since 2002. Picciotto said of that:
“Last November I got a text from Cody Votolato checking in and asking to talk on the phone. I had worked as a producer with Cody and his Blood Brothers compatriots on their last album ‘Young Machetes’ and those guys had become some of the dearest people in the world to me.
The experience of making that record was such a blast – both hilarious in terms of humor and hijinx but also hugely revitalizing to me in terms of getting to watch their musicality, their creativity and their camaraderie up close.I had been blown away by their reunion shows the year before and had thought they were even better than ever so I was expecting Cody to maybe drop news of more shows in the offing. I certainly wasn’t expecting him to drop the bomb that he, Johnny and Mark had formed a new band with Autry and that they were already fully in deep tracking an album with Ross Robinson back in the producer saddle with them.
I was even more surprised when Cody asked if I would be up for singing back-ups on one of the tracks. Given that my general attitude vis-a-vis the Blood Brothers is that I would take a bullet for any of them, I felt like I had to at least give it a shot despite not having sung on a recording since the last Fugazi album THE ARGUMENT back in 2002.”
Other guest performers involved with this record include Alexis Krauss (Sleigh Bells), Michael Gatto (XCOMM) and a very familiar face for members of the band, Jordan Blilie (The Blood Brothers). Evil Island vocalist Johnny Whitney (also of The Blood Brothers) commented of this record:
“Evil Island was born out of the firestorm of creative energy that Cody, Mark and I felt when The Blood Brothers reunion tour ended in 2024. My brain was on fire, I was gripped with a kind of mania. I had so many ideas rattling around in my skull that if I didn’t make something new with my friends, the psychic damage probably would’ve manifested as some exotic form of cancer.
I knew our story wasn’t over. More importantly, I knew our particular strain of feral pop hardcore felt more necessary than ever given that the world is boiling in bullshit. So we wrote eleven songs, brought Ross Robinson into the fold, then Autry joined the band, and suddenly everything locked into place.
With Terraform the Afterlife, we let Ross completely off the leash. What was supposed to be a two-week recording session turned into a five-month descent into something far bigger than we imagined. We built a musical world that’s dazzling, violent, joyful, ugly, melodic, brutal and
somehow still coherent. We put every drop of ourselves into this record. Terraform the Afterlife is the most creatively gratifying thing I’ve ever been part of, these songs will be fucked into my skull forever.”
As for “Animal“, which features guest backing vocals from Lis Di Angleo of Filth Is Eternal, Whitney added:
“‘Animal‘ felt enormous almost immediately. It’s the only song we’ve ever written that sounds authentically like us while also sounding like it could be blasted through the PA at a football stadium. Our pitch for the music video was basically, ‘What if ISIS started making TikTok dance videos?’ I don’t know if we achieved that, but I did get to smash a head with a sledgehammer, which feels like a good sign.”
“Terraform The Afterlife” track listing:
01 – “Melted Heart” (feat. Alexis Krauss)
02 – “Termantrixx” (feat. Michael Gatto)
03 – “Animal“
04 – “Tiger Baby“
05 – “T-Hexx” (feat. Guy Picciotto)
06 – “Evil Island Death Cult National Anthem“
07 – “Grow Spikes“
08 – “I Bought A Spell” (feat. Jordan Blilie)
09 – “No Good“
10 – “Moonlight Doomlight“
11 – “Blinding Rage“
12 – “King Death“
13 – “Suicide By Cop“
For pre-orders, see store.blowedoutrecords.com.
