All Out War

Since the early 1990s, New York’s All Out War have operated as a hardcore crossover unit that folds thrash metal into their aggressive foundation. Drawing from Slayer, Agnostic Front, Cro-Mags, and Sick of It All, the group produced landmark thrashcore releases with 1997’s Truth in the Age of Lies and 1998’s For Those Who Were Crucified. Even while balancing both styles, they stayed central to the American hardcore community and continued to appear at its festivals across the Atlantic. After 2003’s Condemned to Suffer marked a peak before the 2010 breakup, a 2013 reunion tour revived activity, leading to 2019’s Crawl Among the Filth and the blackened hardcore album Celestial Rot in 2023, both of which showed renewed songwriting alongside stronger production values.

Formed in the early ’90s, All Out War cut several demos plus the 7" “Destined to Burn” and performed locally in Newburgh and N.Y.C. The original lineup of Eric Carrillo on bass, Brad Mader and Taras Apuzzo on guitar, Matt Byrne on drums, and Mike Score on vocals issued Truth in the Age of Lies through German label Gain Ground in 1997 and launched their first tour. Subsequent personnel shifts left Score and Carrillo in place; the band shared bills with Deicide, Agnostic Front, Napalm Death, and Earth Crisis. Victory Records issued the follow-up For Those Who Were Crucified in 1998, which sparked unfounded speculation that All Out War was a Christian act. They toured alongside Buried Alive, Reach the Sky, and Shadows Fall, and after playing the New England Metal Fest in 2001 the group disbanded. They returned in 2003 for a CBGB benefit that prompted Condemned to Suffer on Victory, featuring Score and Apuzzo with bassist Andy Pietrolungo, drummer Jesse Sutherland, and guitarist Jose Segarca. That configuration managed a two-week European run and U.S. dates with Misery Signals before dissolving; the departing members formed Nerve Gas Tragedy. Score later reinstated former members Antonelli on guitar and Carrillo on bass, then added Jim Bremer on guitar and Lou Iuzzini on drums. This lineup recorded Assassins in the House of God in April 2007, which again prompted erroneous Christian-metalcore assumptions. After the tour Iuzzini departed, replaced by Lou Medina for 2010’s Into the Killing Fields. Following further European and American shows the band split once more, remaining inactive until reforming for a tour and the double A-side 7" “Drowning in Damnation”/“Show of Force.” Two years afterward they reemerged with another roster adjustment—Jesse Sutherland returning on drums alongside Taras Apuzzo and Andy Pietroluongo on guitars—to release the Dying Gods EP, their first for Organized Crime. The same lineup completed the band’s most extensive U.S. tour to date and issued the “Accept No Masters” single in 2017. In 2019 the members regrouped at a New York studio for Unbeaten Records debut Crawl Among the Filth, produced by John Naclerio. They later switched to Translation Loss for the uncompromising blackened hardcore release Celestial Rot in 2023.