Philadelphia grind maniacs Total Fucking Destruction—led by former Brutal Truth drummer Richard Hoak—have led their own campaign of musical destruction for the past two decades, leaving behind a trail of carnage in the form of splits, EPs and full-lengths. The latest confirmed kill is their fourth LP, the aptly-titled #USA4TFD. Juxtaposing a deadly-serious outlook on the future of the world (“World War 4,” “A Note to My Future Self”) with a playful sense of humor (“Anal Trump is Gay,” “Jesus Christ Poseur”), Total Fucking Destruction rip through 23 songs in a flurry that’s over before it has time to sink in.
Give Praise will unleash #USA4TFD on October 26, but Decibel is streaming the whole album now, a week in advance, for your listening pleasure. Hoak also indulged us for a conversation about the rapidly-deteriorating state of affairs in the United States, Pungent Stench and the role of humor in TFD’s music. Check it out and, as Hoak would say, listen loud!
#USA4TFD is obviously a play on your name, but is it also a reflection of how you feel about the future of the country?
We try to speak truth to power in our own small way. The metadata presented by Total Fucking Destruction on the #USA4TFD album is, of course, a celebration of the slow-motion apocalypse now in progress. All humans live in the future now. But #USA4TFD is also a message of energy and strength for everyone living this crazy, fucked up daily life of the modern-day global corporate/military/entertainment/technology complex. Stay strong, stay loud!
There seems to be a lot of social commentary mixed with a lot of humor on #USA4TFD. What was on your minds when writing the record?
Total Fucking Destruction has been honored to be a content provider for the global underground music scene for over 20 years now. At times, Total Fucking Destruction does use humor to reveal the emptiness and contradictions of modernity, but our songs are deadly serious, the songs are our lives. We live and grind with the ecstasy of uncertainty in mind at all times. Our brand is built on this foundation!
On the song “A Note to My Future Self,” there are two spoken rants. Who are the people speaking?
“A Note to My Future Self” is about getting older faster, and about how time feels like it is increasing in velocity and running out all at once. One day, time stops and we are alone in a room and we are falling off the edge of the world. Nico is a friend who lives in France and runs the Xenokorp label. The other rant is made from letters written years ago between some elders I knew.
Does “Jesus Christ Poseur” have anything to do with Soundgarden or the late Chris Cornell?
No, though when I was on tour in the 1890’s with Brutal Truth/Pungent Stench/Macabre, Martin Stench and I cranked the Superunknown cassette on the tour bus four or five times a night, every night of a 90-date tour. It was a fucking awesome party and possibly one of the factors in Pungent’s breaking up back then. “Jesus Christ Poseur” addresses those who sell out their core values for power, fame, money, ego and expresses hopes that they might burn in Hell for real.
How does writing a Total Fucking Destruction record work? Is there a main songwriter? How long does it take?
It takes fucking forever sometimes. I write the lyrics; they are my true stories of the nihilism of everyday life. Sometimes the lyrics inspire the riff, otherwise we burn the kill and jam repeatedly. Sometimes songs just appear out of the ether, like “Grotesque Fornication,” “Eats Moscow” or “Anal Trump is Gay.” #USA4TFD took a couple of years to come together, so it goes…
Once #USA4TFD comes out next week, what happens next for TFD?
Well, either modern civilization will crumble catastrophically or TFD will play Maryland Deathfest 2019 and some other shows and fests TBA. We just played Rapid Decay Fest and did a short tour with the Slave to the Grind documentary; John at Jarvis Management and Luc at Doomstar Bookings have been helping us out. We are gonna play a kickass show in Philly on Nov. 2 with Sulaco (Erik Burke on guitar!!), Die Choking and The End A.D. There’s a new recording in progress called “To Be So Young at the End of the World.”
Thanks to Paul at Give Praise Records for putting the #USA4TFD album out and mega-thanks to grind freaks and supporters of crazy music all over this sick planet. Stay loud, we love you all, we wish you all peace, love and total fucking destruction!
