Once live shows come back for real, you could put together a pretty amazing bill of just Mindforce and the side projects that Mindforce members have started during the pandemic. Mindforce, the great Hudson Valley metallic hardcore ass-stompers, have put out some ferocious music in the past year and change: The EP Swingin Swords, Choppin Lords, the one-off single “Reign Of Terror.” The members of Mindforce have also started up some serious kickass new projects like Colossus and Pillars Of Ivory. Today, another Mindforce-related band has released its first record, and it’s an absolute ass-beater.

The new band Sentinel features Mindforce guitar wizard Mike Shaw, as well as Age Of Apocalypse’s Jack Xiques, who’s also in Colossus and Pillars Of Ivory. Bassist Evan Schlomann comes from Casket Architects, and drummer Will Hirst is in the great Massachusetts band Restraining Order. Sentinel singer Ace Stallings is a Richmond guy who I know a little bit. Stallings books a lot of shows in Richmond, runs the Richmond Hardcore Shows Instagram page, and hosts the great podcast Forum Of Passion. For a long time, Stallings fronted the youth crew band Break Away. These days, Stallings sings for the band Mutually Assured Destruction, who released the great Fever Dream EP last year. That guy’s got a voice.

In Sentinel, these musicians have put together a band that doesn’t really sound anything like those other projects. Sentinel’s got a sound that combines blazing, triumphant early-’80s underground metal with straight-ahead brick-to-the-face hardcore punk. It’s not thrash, exactly. Instead, this band makes righteous midtempo stompers that leave room for a whole lot of guitar shredding. I really like it. Debut EP Sense Of Dread has seven new songs, including a cool ominous instrumental interlude, and one cover of “Dear Cops,” the 1992 anthem from the Japanese hardcore band Bastard. Stream the EP below.

The Sense Of Dread EP is out now on Streets Of Hate.