Politics. Hatred. Endless war. We doomscroll as our rights are stripped away. Bombings.
Kidnappings. Mass shootings. The nightly news is a litany of brutality. Assassination.
Subjugation. Deportation. We argue with each other while the rich get
richer and cruelty is normalized. These are just a few of the reasons why the title
of The Casualties’ new album is Detonate.
Detonate is the second chapter in a new epoch for The Casualties. As their second
album with David Rodriguez at the mic, it solidifies the vocalist’s partnership with
drummer Marc “Meggers” Eggers and guitarist Jake Kolatis . “It’s like a new era for
the band,” Meggers says. “It solidifies that Dave is here to stay.”
As the follow-up to 2018’s Written in Blood and their first record for Hellcat Records—
the Epitaph subsidiary curated by Tim Armstrong of Rancid—Detonate sees
this new version of The Casualties locking into place. “We were in the studio for
Written in Blood about eight months after I joined,” Rodriguez says. “With this new
record, we really grew together. For me, it’s the proud moment where we clicked the
three Legos together.”