American Steel

In its earliest incarnation, American Steel was a band that sought to absorb influences at the far ends of the musical spectrum – Crass, Fang, The Clash, East Bay pop punk, Irish folk songs, motown, soul – and outstrip them all in both melody and intensity. Starting in 1995 as a loosely organized trio who traded turns at the mic (and occasionally instruments), the group soon recruited a permanent drummer and invested in amps, tuners, and eventually a van, and embarked on a five-year run of touring that would see them criss-crossing the North American continent dozens of times, starting in basements and backyards and eventually crossing into the club circuit. 
 American Steel’s recorded output is as different from song to song as it is from album to album. The first three American Steel records (1998’s Untitled, 1999’s Rogue’s March, and 2001’s Jagged Thoughts, all of which were recorded by Kevin Army), each take an innovative, complex, and sometimes schizophrenic approach to songwriting. The songs on Destroy Their Future range from the simple and stripped down to the bombastic and over-the-top. American Steel set Dear Friends and Gentle Hearts apart from their past recordings by melding Rory’s introspective often personal lyrics, with soulful aggressive energy that extends the range and scope of what can be classified as punk.