N is for No Warning

I'm never gonna work another day in my life. 

When I interviewed Chris Morgado for the STILL pending Drug Dogs #3, we talked a lot about this band (the zine’s still in development hell btw). The thing that many people will remember about No Warning is how they went from writing arguably one of the most classic LPs of 2000s core (like Morgado said on the Trumbull blog, no matter how bad everyone wanted to write them off as generic tough guy mosh-foolery, Ill Blood uses absolutely NO recycled riffs anywhere, all killer) to schlepping out a sorta ok LP that pandered to mainstream audiences. Yeah, lots of idiots like to pretend to dig it in an attempt to show how open minded they are or something ridiculous, but they know in their heart of hearts that Suffer Survive just isn't great. End of story. I can, however, still get behind how shamelessly it was touted as being their ticket to fame and fortune.

This band in their prime, NYHC via Toronto, was baller, and in no small part because of the rumors attached to them. Having a demo tape of Ill Blood songs re-recorded with white power lyrics, a certain affinity for Biohazard comparisons and a definite rep for being dicks on message boards got people talking and/or hating...which meant I was paying attention.

I don’t think this art was ever used anywhere, but I’m told that during Suffer Survive era, it was on their website as “fan art” which is laughable in itself. I like that there’s an original version of it (featuring a naughty symbol and a giant minotaur schlong respectively) and then a “censored” version. Cool stuff.

I’ll never tire of the 7” and Ill Blood, but a tour with Machine Head in promotion for Suffer Survive still gives me douche chills as I look back on it.

[Edit: it's now 2018 and I've come around on Suffer Survive. I dig it now]