Ho99o9 are dying to be essential. The noisenik punks from New Jersey are finally releasing their third album, ‘Tomorrow We Escape’, and it’s their gambit to open themselves up to more people than ever before.
Embarking on this endeavour, they’ve realised that taking a breather is sometimes the best course of action. Known for their boundary-pushing, propane-ignited live shows – as darkened rooms become crazed riots of crashing bodies – at the heart of this since 2014 are vocalists TheOGM and Yeti Bones, who also craft the tunes. But to take Ho99o9 to the next level, they needed to take stock.
“You gotta go through some journeys. That’s why it’s good to take breaks in between albums, because oftentimes you have to go through life,” TheOGM opens. It’s been three years since their second album, ‘SKIN’, and eight years since their slab of industrial carnage debut ‘United States of Horror’, which, for a band, is a relatively spacious release period, especially in a world begging for the consistent churn and burn of material and content. But Ho99o9 have never really played by the rules.
Their sonics are an abrasive, cataclysmic collision of hardcore, rap, punk and general noise, with its creators often firing verbal assaults at the state of their nation. Rarely fitting into a box, they have a sea of mixtapes and EPs making up the detritus around them, acting like breadcrumbs leading toward their intended volition. Which brings us back to ‘Tomorrow We Escape’. This is the album the pair intend as a wrangling of their past and present, in the hopes of a brighter future.
The essence of their third album – released on their own 999 Deathkult label alongside Last Gang Records – is to conjoin the emotional heart with the chaos. Don’t be fooled: this isn’t a dilution of their trademark genre-clashing, politically charged, abrasive sounds. Instead, it’s fine-tuning them to appeal to the masses. Speaking to TheOGM, just about recovered from a two-week stint in Australia, this iteration of Ho99o9 is a fleshed-out version, bringing more dimensions to their feral energy. “There’s still that attitude there, but to make something that feels a little more emotional and not so one-sided, that feels good,” he says, “because it just speaks to us being human. There are other things going on than just the politics.”
Their first instinct was to “change the narrative”, as he puts it, intending to make an album where the songs appeal and strike more dissonant chords with their listeners. Cue ‘I Miss Home (Feat. MoRuf)’, a patient opener that distils the album’s theme with the line: “What you finna leave behind?”
But just as quickly as this new era is introduced, they’re soon back at the coalface, surrounded by ‘Escape’s chugging riffs, before ‘Target Practice’ brings the noise to the streets as it aims at braggadocious record labels and society. There’s a certain flow as the emotive – the good, the bad and the ugly – all merge into each other, the lighter touches being compounded by a follow-up of crushing distortion. Key to this was shaving down some of that abrasion. Not all the way to a blunted edge, though – instead, the circular saw of sound has hooks inset so they stick with you.
“We wanted to make a record that had just a little more melody, a little bit more catch, but still feels like Ho99o9, and that was the challenge for us,” he explains. “The album is called ‘Tomorrow We Escape’, and it’s escaping from multiple things.” One of these is sticking to the new mantra: “It ain’t just basement punk rock anymore.” Ho99o9 are going for gold – which, in a world obsessed with such, who can blame them?
“It’s certain things that I’ve learned, like with patience and time and care, the decision-making is different from last time, which translates into the music as well,” TheOGM continues. “Over the years, we’ve toured with some great bands. And when you think of Korn, or you think of Slipknot – okay, well, how did these bands break through to being this iconic brand? It’s the songwriting, it’s the branding – it’s all of those things. When I think of Slipknot, I think of ‘Duality’. You think of the melody, you think, okay, you’re the masked men. This is hard, but they still have a few songs that resonate, that you can sing along to, and that hit you in the heart.”
“It ain’t just basement punk rock anymore”
Of course, having been a band for over a decade means they’ve set their ways with a ferocious foundation of fans, which they’re aware might rock the boat a little. But you’ve got to break a few eggs to make an omelette. “The hardcore Ho99o9 fan is going to be like, Oh man, this stuff, they’re singing on it,” he laughs. “Oh, it sounds a little pop, but it’s about changing. It’s about evolution. Nobody wants to be in the same spot. You constantly want to elevate. You constantly want to push and be better – as a human being in life, and as artists – that’s what we want to do. This album is just that.”
The time that’s passed has indeed meant they’ve grown as people. They’re still keen to keep that fray of theirs alive, but they’re older – TheOGM has the perspective of being a father, too. “Now, there are certain things that when we started the band that I didn’t have. We were young and somewhat naive. We had more of an ‘I didn’t give a fuck’ attitude, you know what I mean?” TheOGM shrugs. “It’s not that we don’t still have that mentality, it’s just more refined,” he smirks.
On their journey to this point, they’ve often called in an impressive list of collaborators – from pop-punk royalty Travis Barker and Slipknot’s Corey Taylor on ‘SKIN’, to palatial goth queen Chelsea Wolfe and underground rapper Pink Siifu on ‘Tomorrow We Escape’. Ho99o9 can pull together this array with their don’t-give-a-fuck appeal and genre-eroding attitude.
Also featured are burgeoning UK metal favourites Nova Twins. Hitting it off after meeting the duo at a show in France – and bumping into each other on the festival circuit – Nova Twins eventually opened for Ho99o9 in London. “They’re awesome. Over time, I’ve seen how much they’ve grown, and we’ve grown as well. We just really fuck with what each other has going on,” TheOGM says. So it made sense for them to add vocals to the album’s fiery centrepiece, alongside Siifu and Yung Skrrt, ‘Incline’.
“We don’t need everybody to like it”
As for how all of this plays into their outlook on the future, TheOGM is already poised with the belief that this one achieved exactly what they set out to do. “When we’re able to sit back and smell the flowers, I think this record, and maybe our first record,” he says of their exemplary moments. But there’s one particular prize in his eyes: “When you go on Apple and you look up an artist, they have essential albums – that’s where my head’s at.”
This is the type of record that defines a band. It speaks to their inherent truth and showcases their sonic framework with excellence. “That record that 20 years from now, 50 years from now, people are like, ‘Yo, this is essential’,” TheOGM enthuses. It’s what, ultimately, they want ‘Tomorrow We Escape’ to be – to offer that signal to the outside world that the looming, thrashing, strobing sonic warehouse is open for all. “This record is going to put us in a space where people are like, ‘Okay, I’m not afraid to listen to this’,” he affirms.
But rest assured, that doesn’t mean Ho99o9 are opening the floodgates to all and sundry. “Our goal is not to make friends with everybody, because we don’t need everybody to like it. Everybody’s not going to like it, but the goal is to have more people in tune with what we’ve got going on, because there’s some great shit. Your favourite artist fucks with this shit, so once people get on, they’re gonna realise that it was under their nose the whole time.”
With that, TheOGM goes on to define what that precious higher plane is: “A statement piece is that record you can’t deny. All the great bands have it, at least that one record. Some people got 2, 3, 4, but if you got that one at least, solid forever…” He trails off into the aura of the thought. “It keeps me fired up. Man, it keeps me pumped,” TheOGM excitedly ends. “Until we get that, we gotta keep going.”
Ho99o9’s album ‘Tomorrow We Escape’ is out now.
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