It was always going to be different. Regardless of what ended up happening between Strung Out’sprevious record—2019’s Songs Of Armor And Devotion—and this new collection of songs, it was alwaysthe band’s intention to step away from themselves a little bit with it. Although Dead Rebellion—theband’s 10th album of their remarkable 35 year career—was written during the height of the pandemicand is, as all Strung Out albums have been, a reaction to the world at large and their own personalexperiences within it, the band had already decided to end that chapter before Covid. A new beginninghad long been in the works.“We got to that point where I felt like if we kept going we’d be repeating ourselves,” explains vocalistJason Cruz. “And you know, we’re a fucking metal band—a punk metal band—and there’s only so muchyou can do before people start writing you off as losing your roots or whatever. We all have sideprojects, so we use those to go into left-field, but I think that this is the most we can do and keep ourfan base and actually take them in just a little bit of a slightly different direction. It’s more mid-tempoand more heavy, less worrying about speed. We were trying to be more melodic.”That’s not to say these 12 songs don’t pack a punch, but, at the same time, the way the five-piece—these days completed by guitarists (and founding members) Jake Kiley and Rob Ramos, bassistChris Aiken and drummer Daniel Blume—focus on melody over riffs is definitely noticeable. Take, forinstance, the way opener “Future Ghosts” begins in a frenzy of riffs and drumbeats before settling into akind of hypnotic aggression, or how the frenetic undercurrent of “White Owls” quietens down, its powercondensed into a hushed whisper before once again soaring off in an impassioned burst of emotion.Similarly, “Life You Bleed”—one of many requiems here for modern living—tiptoes quietly at first butthen accelerates into a fully-fledged rock anthem.Elsewhere, “Cages” is a vicious indictment of the fractious, polarized and technology-driven nature ofsociety, while “Empire Down” is a self-reflective ode about living up to the pressures and expectations ofbeing in this band. ‘We are the orphans of a revolution song,’ sings Cruz; elsewhere in the song, hequotes the chorus of the 1964 Nina Simone song, ‘Please Don’t Let Me Be Misunderstood’. When thealbum ends a few tracks later with the breakneck (yet still melodic) intensity of ‘Plastic Skeletons’, Cruzreturns to the importance of that same revolution song. ‘Everybody dancing for applause,’ he sings,‘when the song is how we rise above.’“People always talk shit about religious people and spirituality,” says Cruz, “like ‘Oh, you believe in aman in the sky.’ But then the same people come up to me and look to me like I, or my songs, have theanswers to their questions. Because everyone’s looking for something, everybody needs something.Sometimes, as a dad and as a husband, I wish I could call my dad or somebody and just ask ‘What thefuck do I do here?’ Everybody needs a Northern star. So while those two lines kind of contradict eachother, at the same time they lend to each other that we’re all just looking for something and we all putour belief in something, no matter how ridiculous or superstitious it is. And those things can let youdown, but they also can rise you up.”Regardless of the pressure it may have put on the band, and despite Cruz’s insecurity that being aNorthern star could let people down, Strung Out’s songs have been lifting people up for three-and-a-halfdecades now. Dead Rebellion is no different. In a world that Cruz sees as incredibly divided, one that—ashe outlines on the afore-mentioned “Cages”—sees people constantly building what he calls “ideologicalwalls” around each other, his hopes are this record can help tear them down.“The key to this record,” says Cruz, “is technology and divisiveness—divisive language, divisive attitudes,divisive ideologies. I feel I was abandoned in a way, by a lot of things. What happened to bringing peopletogether? I thought that that’s what we started doing this for. It’s still a huge part of who I am and itseeps into the lyrics – trying to just find some common ground with people again and remind people thatwe’re all the fucking same. At the end of the day, when the lights go out, we all want the same thing.And that’s where the title Dead Rebellion came from – like, we got so far and here we are right backagain, just fragmented and at each other’s throats constantly.”That, then, is the crux of Dead Rebellion. Produced, mixed and recorded by Shawn McGee at ArtistryRecording Studio in Las Vegas, it might represent a new chapter for Strung Out, but it’s guided by thesame principles that have always driven them. And while Cruz he says he’s never thought of Strung Outas political band, this record—like all Strung Out records—has captured the zeitgeist and the self-destructive political climate, especially in the USA, perfectly.“I struggle with the political thing,” says Cruz. “I don’t think we’re political. I think we’re just human.We’re a bunch of guys who are like everybody else. We’re not that smart. We’re just five guys that hadnothing in common and we’ve proved to the world that you can come together and make somethingbeautiful if you put your bullshit aside. It’s as simple as that.”Overtly political or otherwise, Dead Rebellion is nevertheless a record informed by and reacting to theworld we live in, as well as all the experience and wisdom that Cruz has attained over the years. It’s alsoone built on the unwavering principles that the band have had at their core from the very beginning. Sowhile Cruz hopes that it can help unify people, he’s more than aware that that’s very likely too much toask. But that doesn’t mean he’s not going to try.“I know that’s not going to happen,” he admits. “We’re too far gone. There’s a saying ‘You can never goback home’, and I feel like the horses are out the stable and they’re running wild. So this is mydeclaration of war, in a way—a war to stay true and to just go down like the person I know I am, to staytrue to myself and to stay true to my brothers–and go down believing what I know is right, to lookpeople in the eye and give them a chance, and to listen and to try my best to bring people together. Andthat’s the that’s the hill that I’m going to die on.”

“A War Against You” is the sound of IGNITE taking a stand and delivering a record without borders or boundaries. The much-anticipated follow-up to the Southern California band’s 2006 watershed moment, “Our Darkest Days”, “A War Against You” affirms that IGNITE is still rooted in the energy and melodicism of hardcore’s salad days, while proving themselves not merely a great punk or hardcore band, but a great band in their own right.

Formed in 1993 in the suburbs of Orange County during the height of Seattle Grunge and the Epitaph Records punk revival, IGNITE have made a career defying convention with against the grain music and thought provoking, politically charged lyricism. From prior efforts including “Call On My Brothers” (1995), “Past Our Means” (1996) and “A Place Called Home” (2000), the band’s records have distinguished themselves with complex arrangements, triumphant hooks and IGNITE’s calling card: frontman Zoli Teglas’ unmistakable, soaring vocals.

Not only have IGNITE become an international touring force, headlining sold-out venues and festivals across the world, but recent history also found the band members individually exploring new creative avenues that have only served to galvanize IGNITE itself. Most notably, Teglas took up vocal duties for Cali punk mainstays, Pennywise, whom he fronted on their critically well-received 2012 album “All Or Nothing”. “From the outside, it may have looked like we took our time between records, but it was probably the busiest time of our lives,” Brett Rasmussen (Bass) says. “Zoli played in Pennywise. Craig [Anderson Drums] was playing in Strife. Brian [Balchack – Guitar] was writing and recording with Into Another. I was touring with Nations Afire. But through it all, IGNITE continued to tour and grow.”

“Playing in Pennywise was amazing but playing in IGNITE I can focus just as much on the message as well as the music,” says Teglas, recounting his time outside of the IGNITE fold. “For 20 years, Pennywise had a message that their other singer [Jim Lindberg] wrote. I appreciate both bands and what they each have to say. I’m thankful for the time I had in Pennywise, but in IGNITE I can speak my mind about social issues. My calling has always been to play music to make a change. I still have that calling. As clichéd as it sounds, I still have that fire that burns inside of me.”

Cut to early 2014. IGNITE found themselves reenergized, rededicated and back in the studio with longtime producer, Cameron Webb (Motörhead). “This is the third record we’ve worked on with Cameron,” says Zoli. “He understands us as people and as a band better than almost anyone.” The sessions became a collective soul-searching for the band; who spent the better part of a year and a half writing songs for “A War Against You”. “When we started writing the album, we were kind of trying to force the record be a certain thing,” states Rasmussen. “Once we finally let go and let the songs happen like they were supposed to happen, the songs took their own direction.”

“IGNITE is in a different place from when they made ‘Our Darkest Days’,” says producer, Webb. “I think after being a band for a long time, it was healthy for them to go off and play in other bands and then bring those experiences back to make this record. They found out that Ignite is where their passion really lies.”

From the album’s strident opener, “Begin Again”, the inspirational “Where I’m From” to the driving “Nothing Can Stop Me”, which was written about a friend of the band’s battling cancer, “A War Against You” not only sums up the classic IGNITE sound but expands on it, proving the veteran band a musical force to be reckoned with. In fact, IGNITE have long distinguished themselves beyond the punk and hardcore sects, playing packed acoustic performances in Europe and Southern California. Recent years have even found the band sharing European festival stages with the likes of Twisted Sister and Rise Against, amongst countless others, and winning over the most varied of crowds every time.

“We’ve always tried to play to the most diverse crowds we can,” says Brett. “We’ve gone out on the road with punk and hardcore mainstays like Bad Religion, Misfits and Suicidal Tendencies but we have also ventured out with bands like Goldfinger, Sevendust, and of course, in Europe we play with tons of metal bands like Machine Head, In Flames and Motörhead.” In fact, Machine Head themselves, recently covered IGNITE’s classic “Our Darkest Days/Bleeding” on a recent release to critical and fan acclaim.

In true IGNITE fashion; “A War Against You” speaks volumes from both personal and political perspectives.

Teglas’ lyrics remain as positive and upbeat as ever, yet tempered with age and experience. “A lot of this album is an ode to my family, an ode to the immigrant struggle,” says the frontman, who has long written about his own Hungarian heritage in IGNITE’s lyrics; a topic that surfaces on the track, “Alive,” as well as the album’s haunting closing track, “Work.”

Current events including the Syrian refugee crisis in Europe as well as man’s ruination of the environment (which comes to the fore on the track, “The Suffering”) echoes throughout “A War Against You”. IGNITE has long been a band with a message and the new album broadcasts that news from the front in no uncertain terms. For example. “Oh No Not Again,” a massively anthemic track on the album, provides a stirring snapshot of life during the everyday wartime. On the meaning of the album’s title, “A War Against You”: “It’s about humanity and the sadness that war has always brought and how hard it is to be a bystander, a displaced person, an immigrant,” the frontman states. “That is ultimately all of us. The war-mongers make a ton of money and everyone else gets to pay to the price.”

“One of the first songs I ever wrote said; ‘Education without action does nothing’,” remarks Teglas, who is actively involved with Sea Shepherd as well as his own Pelican Rescue Team, which has rescued untold numbers of injured and endangered seabirds. For IGNITE’s frontman, this has always been a “more than music” proposition. “My calling has always been to play music to make a change,” says Teglas. “If I’m not going to do that then I shouldn’t be onstage.”

Two decades in, IGNITE are still screaming for change and here are the postcards from the war against you.