Antagonist A.D. drop 'Pure Fear' from new 7", 'Through Fire'

A (mostly) new Antagonist A.D. 7" is coming at you in January 2020. 

Auckland city's finest, Antagonist A.D., will be starting out 2020 with a bang by dropping their new five-track 7" 'Through Fire' on January 17th via Greyscale Records. Alongside the recently released 'Pure Fear,' this next release comes armed with their two other big 2018 singles, 'No Justice' and 'A.P.M.D.', this new 7" containing two other songs, 'Bloom' and 'Gates Of Hell.'

Recorded and Mixed at God City by the one and only Kurt Ballou, 'Pure Fear' is just the classic Antagonist A.D. songwriting tropes. The menacing feedback, the usual breakdown patterns, the fun two-step movements, the tough fight riffs, the use of samples, Sam Crocker's savage screams - it's all there. Yet it doesn't quite hit as hard or as well as their two killer 2018 tracks, or even their downright mental Arkangel cover of 'From Heaven We Fall'; it just doesn't really grab me as much as their recent previous content has done. Although, it's still fine, and honestly, I'll never be one to say no to new Antag music.

As for its video, it's a combination of two things. The first is footage of protests, demonstrations, and police brutality, showing general themes of resistance and unrest that loop back around to the song's themes of paranoia and anxiety cultivated by the horrible things we see and hear every day when we look at our screens. The second part, however, makes for one of the cringiest videos the NZ hardcore act has ever put out, showing them and their friends sulking and aimlessly standing around in alleyways, walking around city complexes, trying to look as hard yet as disengaged as possible. It all looks like one of those lame hardcore crew videos you'd see on the Hardcore Worldwide YouTube channel. At least the old clips for 'Paul Allen' and 'I'm Just Not There' had some substance and intrigue to their visual bones. (I also really wanna know what Sam was listening to through his headphones, if anything at all.)

Watch it all below: