Southern Lord welcomes Amsterdam, Holland's long-running hardcore punk kings VITAMIN X to the label for the upcoming release of the band's sixth full-length recording, Age Of Paranoia.
VITAMIN X has unloaded their energetic brand of rock and thrash-soaked hardcore punk since the late 1990s. Having operated through diehard DIY efforts, the band has amassed an arsenal of albums, EPs, singles, splits, and more across a wide array of underground labels, including Havoc Records, Tankcrimes, Underestimated, AgiPunk, Refuse Records, and many others. Their most recent two LPs were recorded by Steve Albini (Nirvana, Iggy Pop, Neurosis), and their 2016-released ''About To Crack'' video went viral and reached more than a million views.
Well-known for their energetic and explosive live shows which attract fans from across the metal, punk, and rock spectrum, VITAMIN X has toured around the world several times, from Japan to the United States, from South America to Southeast Asia, and beyond. The band has played on MTV and many large fests including Hellfest, Maryland Deathfest, and many others, and recently toured with Baroness and Harley Flannagan's Cro-Mags.
The newest chapter in the band's lineage, the new VITAMIN X full-length, Age Of Paranoia, was recorded by Igor Wouters at ARC Studios in Amsterdam. Packing sixteen volatile tracks into a white-knuckled twenty-eight minutes, Age Of Paranoia surges with rapid-fire punk angst packed with ripping rock leads and raised-fist gang-chant anthems. The album includes several special guest guitar solos by J. Mascis (Dinosaur Jr., Witch) and Bubba Dupree (Void, Soundgarden, Dave Grohl's Probot, Brant Bjork), and is completed with cover artwork is by Marald (Baroness, Kylesa, High On Fire).
VITAMIN X states of their liaison with Southern Lord, "This will be our first release on a major/bigger label as we've always operated in the do-it-yourself scene, even though bigger labels were interested in us in the past. We feel Southern Lord really fits with us, and Greg Anderson is an amazing guy, who just like us, comes from a hardcore punk background but is also into all kinds of other styles of music."
Anderson offers, ''VITAMIN X creates music that pushes boundaries within a genre that is typically limited, a really unique fusion of old-school hardcore and rock, metal, and punk."
Age Of Paranoia will be released on LP, CD, and digital formats May 18th through Southern Lord; watch for the artwork, track listing, audio samples, preorders, and more to be released in the weeks ahead.