Alexandros Anesiadis (Tear It Down, Crossover, New Wind – author)
Was there a particular record or moment that inspired the genesis of Tear It Down, about crossover?
It wasn't the day I first heard the opening track on side two of the Cro-Mags' The Age of Quarrel. It wasn't when I bought Lethal Aggression's Life Is Hard... But That's No Excuse at All! LP, nor was it the day I nicked Excel's Split Image. It wasn't the first time I saw a Suicidal Tendencies fan wearing a bandana in my hometown. It wasn't when D.R.I.'s Kurt Brecht sent me a letter filled with gifts while I was only fourteen years old. It wasn't when I first laid eyes on Agnostic Front's Cause for Alarm cover and instantly fell in love with Sean Taggart's artwork. It wasn't the off-kilter speedcore assault of Attitude Adjustment, the manic energy of Beyond Possession, the “stick your fingers in the socket and see what happens” intensity of Cryptic Slaughter, the frenzied chaos of Septic Death, the hysterical fun of Ludichrist, the punishing riffs of Crumbsuckers and The Accüsed, or the uncompromising aggression of Broken Bones, Ratos de Porão, and Beowülf.
It was something much bigger.
It was the realization that this unique musical amalgam had the power to connect different subcultures, communities that, more often than not, had viewed each other with suspicion or even hostility. Hardcore kids, metalheads, skaters, punks, thrashers… crossover became a common language that dissolved boundaries instead of reinforcing them.
In an age increasingly defined by division and polarization, perhaps there is nothing more powerful than art that brings people together.
