CITIZEN Signs To RELAPSE RECORDS

Relapse Records has announced the signing of political grindcore guerrillas CITIZEN. CITIZEN formed in 2004 when Matt Widener (CRETIN),Derrick Psaros, and Mike Mihalik decided to take political grindcore one step further. Widener explains: 'Most political bands explore the problems of the world, the crumbling environment, despotic governments…that's step one for instituting change. But punk and metal rarely go beyond the shock phase. We wanted extreme music to reach the next step — that rally cry, where instead of hopelessness, people are reminded of their power to create change. Music that inspires, is stirring, proud, patriotic…that's the challenge for CITIZEN."

CITIZEN's driving d-beats and anthemic blasts will make their debut on Relapse in 2007 on an as-yet-untitled effort. This record will be a concept album allegorizing the fall of a nation, told in Homeric scope. "We're writing riffs like leitmotivs," Widener says, "to symbolize different concepts of freedom and revolution. It's more nuanced and less on-the-nose this time around. And the music is going even farther into unique CITIZEN territory — more parade marches, war cry-like blasts, the whole thing unabashedly propagandistic. I think we're stepping away from the bands before us and coming into our own.'

In 2005 CITIZEN released "Manifesto for the New Patriot" on Code Breaker/Earache, a 15-song compact that married punk-weighted grindcore with revolutionary lyrics culled from guerrilla warfare manuals. "Manifesto…" mixed the influences of NAPALM DEATH, ASSUCK, DISCHARGE, BRUTAL TRUTH, and TERRORIZER, with fragments of world national anthems, war ballads, and military marches.

CITIZEN tracks can be heard via its official web site, guerrillagrind.org.