The Philadelphia band Blacklisted got started in 2003, and they made four albums and a few more miscellaneous records of damaged, intense, lyrically incisive hardcore before breaking up in 2018. Blacklisted got together for a couple for a few reunion shows last year, but there doesn’t appear to be any more Blacklisted activity on the horizon. Instead, a couple of former Blacklisted members have a new band, and they just announced their debut album.

In 2021, former Blacklisted frontman George Hirsch got together with a few other Philadelphia musicians, including Blacklisted bassist Dave Walling, to start a new band called Staticlone. Very quietly, Staticlone self-released three very cool EPs in the last few years. I’ve discussed them in Stereogum’s monthly hardcore column, but I didn’t post the EPs in main feed because I didn’t want to bring Staticlone more attention than they seemed to want. Now, Staticlone have signed with Relapse, and their full-length debut Better Living Through Static Vision is coming out in a few months. It seems like they’re ready for people to notice.

George Hirsch, who sings and plays guitar for Staticlone, wrote all the songs on Better Living Through Static Vision. Lead single “Honeycomb” is a grimy and relentless piece of hard-rockin’ D-beat. I thought I was going to look really cool comparing it to Disfear, but then the band’s press release dropped the same name, so now I just look like I’m parroting that. Nevertheless, if you know who Disfear are, then you should be excited about that. If you don’t know who Disfear, or if you haven’t checked out Blacklisted, then you have some homework, don’t you? Check out the “Honeycomb” video and the new album’s tracklist below.

TRACKLIST:
01 “Better Living Through Static Vision”
02 “Honeycomb”
03 “This Light Burns Like Poison”
04 “Sullen Me”
05 “Moths”
06 “Alone In Philadelphia”
07 “Patching Holes In A Dead Star”
08 “Thin Places”
09 “Lens Flare”
10 “Red Eye”

Better Living Through Static Vision is out 3/7 on Relapse.