Freaked-out, explosive Seattle post-hardcore band the Blood Brothers broke up in 2007 and then got back together for a 2024 reunion tour. Thus far, the Blood Brothers haven't released or announced any new music since getting back together, but now there's a new band with a lineup that includes three of the five Blood Brothers. Johnny Whitney, one of the two Blood Brothers frontmen, now also leads Evil Island, which also includes guitarist Cody Votolato and drummer Mark Gajadhar, as well as former OFF/...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead bassist Autry Fulbright.
Evil Island came together in the wake of the Blood Brothers reunion tour, and they released their debut single "Tiger Baby" back in April. Later this summer. the band will release Terraform The Afterlife, the new album that they recorded with Ross Robinson, notorious producer of the Blood Brothers' 2003 classic ...Burn, Piano Island, Burn. (Since recording the album, Evil Island have added another member, ex-Glassjaw guitarist Todd Weinstock.)
Terraform The Afterlife has contributions from some cool guest vocalists. Johnny Whitney's fellow Blood Brothers singer Jordan Blilie appears on one track, as do Sleigh Bells' Alexis Krauss and XCOMM's Michael Gatto. Most importantly, though, former Fugazi co-leader Guy Picciotto sings backup on a song called "T-Hexx." Picciotto has produced and contributed to a lot of records since the end of Fugazi, including the Blood Brothers' final album, 2006's Young Machetes. But Picciotto hasn't sung on a record since Fugazi released their own final LP The Argument in 2001 — a quarter century ago.
"Tiger Baby" and Evil Island's new song "Animal" both have some of the Blood Brothers' bug-eyed jitters, but the songs are a little more controlled and directly catchy than what I'm used to hearing from those guys. It's a continuation, but it's not exactly the same. "Animal," it's worth noting, has backup vocals from Filth Is Eternal's Lis DiAngleo. Here's what Johnny Whitney has to say about the band, the album, and the new song:
Evil Island was born out of the firestorm of creative energy that Cody, Mark and I felt when the Blood Brothers reunion tour ended in 2024. My brain was on fire, I was gripped with a kind of mania. I had so many ideas rattling around in my skull that if I didn’t make something new with my friends, the psychic damage probably would’ve manifested as some exotic form of cancer.
I knew our story wasn’t over. More importantly, I knew our particular strain of feral pop hardcore felt more necessary than ever given that the world is boiling in bullshit. So we wrote eleven songs, brought Ross Robinson into the fold, then Autry joined the band, and suddenly everything locked into place.
With Terraform The Afterlife, we let Ross completely off the leash. What was supposed to be a two-week recording session turned into a five-month descent into something far bigger than we imagined. We built a musical world that’s dazzling, violent, joyful, ugly, melodic, brutal and somehow still coherent. We put every drop of ourselves into this record. Terraform the Afterlife is the most creatively gratifying thing I’ve ever been part of, these songs will be fucked into my skull forever...
"Animal" felt enormous almost immediately. It’s the only song we’ve ever written that sounds authentically like us while also sounding like it could be blasted through the PA at a football stadium. Our pitch for the music video was basically, "What if ISIS started making TikTok dance videos?" I don’t know if we achieved that, but I did get to smash a head with a sledgehammer, which feels like a good sign.
And here's what Guy Picciotto says about his decision to get back on the mic:
Last November, I got a text from Cody Votolato checking in and asking to talk on the phone. I had worked as a producer with Cody and his Blood Brothers compatriots on their last album Young Machetes, and those guys had become some of the dearest people in the world to me. The experience of making that record was such a blast — both hilarious in terms of humor and hi-jinx but also hugely revitalizing to me in terms of getting to watch their musicality, their creativity, and their camaraderie up close.
I had been blown away by their reunion shows the year before and had thought they were even better than ever, so I was expecting Cody to maybe drop news of more shows in the offing. I certainly wasn't expecting him to drop the bomb that he, Johnny, and Mark had formed a new band with Autry and that they were already fully in deep tracking an album with Ross Robinson back in the producer saddle with them. I was even more surprised when Cody asked if I would be up for singing back-ups on one of the tracks. Given that my general attitude vis-a-vis the Blood Brothers is that I would take a bullet for any of them, I felt like I had to at least give it a shot despite not having sung on a recording since the last Fugazi album The Argument back in 2002.
It was 2001, but who's counting? Below, check out the "Animal" and "Tiger Baby" videos and the Terraform The Afterlife tracklist.
TRACKLIST:
01 "Melted Heart" (feat. Alexis Krauss)
02 "Termantrixx" (feat. Michael Gatto)
03 "Animal"
04 "Tiger Baby"
05 "T-Hexx" (feat. Guy Picciotto)
06 "Evil Island Death Cult National Anthem"
07 "Grow Spikes"
08 "I Bought A Spell" (feat. Jordan Blilie)
09 "No Good"
10 "Moonlight Doomlight"
11 "Blinding Rage"
12 "King Death"
13 "Suicide By Cop"
Terraform The Afterlife is out 8/14 on Blowed Out Records. Pre-order it here, and check out our 2024 Blood Brothers feature here.
