“Thinking about how there was a lot of bands that were doing something cool, I was like, ‘Maybe it's time that we do an Albany comp,’” says Adam Merindino.
Merendino is an active member of the hardcore scene in Albany, New York, which has been seeing a boom in participation over the past few years. Aside from playing guitar in Cold Kiss, he books shows under the ALBHC moniker, fronts a new band called Evil Mind, and now, along with Vinny Jaeger, of the bands Wrong Move and Grand Street, has worked to produce the region’s latest hardcore compilation.
Featuring eight bands, Albany Style Hardcore 2024 represents the current state of the underground scene in New York’s Capital Region while simultaneously paying tribute to the area’s rich history. Sharing a name with a series of 7-inch comps—one from 1988, one from 1999—the record showcases the diverse happenings of the area. The eight songs presented run the gamut from power violence and post-hardcore to metalcore and crust punk.
With the compilation already out on streaming services and the CD release show just a few weeks out, Merendino took the time to speak with us regarding how it all came together and what to look forward to from the Albany area in 2025.
How did the idea for this compilation start?
I'm always piggybacking off Syracuse a little, I guess. Similar to how I decided to start the Albany Hardcore Instagram account based off Syracuse having their page. They did a four-song digital release that was a song from four Syracuse bands—thinking about that, and thinking about how there was a lot of bands that were doing something cool, I was like, "Maybe it's time that we do an Albany comp."
I always thought it was cool that there was a 7-inch called Albany Style that was Albany related. All the bands on them were way before my time, so there was stuff that I never even listened to. I knew who Wolfpack was; I knew who Substance was. But the bands on the second comp I didn't really know.
I couldn't afford to put it out on 7-inch because it's too expensive, I definitely couldn't afford to do it on an LP because it's too expensive, and then Vinny [Jaeger] from Wrong Move—and he's in Grand Street and also War Nerve—he texted me one day like, "Yo, I've been thinking about wanting to do a comp," and I called him immediately because I had literally been toying with the idea the entire time. So we just kind of shot ideas back and forth for a little bit and then I just started getting the ball rolling.
I reached out to Matt Bradley from Sunbloc; he does a lot of layout work for Closed Casket Activities. I was like, "Hey, we kind of want to do this comp, would love for you to do the layout." Me, him and Vinny got on a Zoom call in November—maybe December—of last year. We just thought up a bunch of different ideas—how do we want to make the layout work, how do we want to do it? We thought of what bands we wanted to ask to do it.
We wanted to try to really make sure that most scenes in Albany were represented, at least that had their toes in the hardcore world, and it just started from there. Vinny and I spoke about it and we wanted it to be exclusive songs for the comp, not a song that's going to appear on a later release. These songs are only coming out on the comp.
What was the time frame for all this?
I can't give you that exact—it was a nightmare, for sure. Basically, Fall of 2023 we started asking what bands would be down to do it and what bands could do it. I knew, personally, that Cold Kiss had a song. We recorded three songs and only put out two. Then we just reached out to ask what bands were interested.
Bands that we asked that said they couldn't do it were Sunbloc and Halo Bite. Sunbloc was getting ready for their release of Enemies At All Times, and Halo Bite had just recorded at God City, and I think that at the time they didn't have any songs that they wanted to take off of their release that they were planning to put out.
So, Fall of '23 we got the band list together and everyone confirmed, and I remember asking to have their songs ready by January, and then January became February, February became March, and it just kept slowly getting pushed out.
But I want to say that we had all the files ready and we sent them over to our friend Ryan Slowey. Some people had their songs mastered and some people didn't, so we had him make all the files uniform, and then once we had all of that, I spent a lot of time talking to Matt about how we wanted the layout to look.
Vinny and I had talked about it and we wanted to bring back the moshing guy that's on the cover [of the ’99 Albany Style comp], but have that redrawn so it looked like it was the same character but in 2024. That artwork was done pretty quickly, and then once we had all those files togetherwe sent it all over to Matt and we spent a lot of time making sure the lyrics were correct for the lyric sheet and getting all the recording credits correct.
Then we brainstormed about what else we wanted to include in the layout, and we decided we wanted to have a photo, so we did this group photo at the Fuze Box [Albany venue]. It was supposed to be on the Albany Skyway but it was raining so we got everybody at the Fuze Box on a Sunday at like 10 in the morning.
It was meant to be an open invite, like, if you feel like you should be in the photo, then you should come—anyone. If you go to a show, if you are in a band, if you book shows, if you run a zine, or if you moshed at one show and you really love Albany hardcore and you really want to start coming to shows—it was meant to be very inclusive.
Our friend Chris took some photos at the Fuze Box, and we took a group band photo. So everyone who was there that is in a band who was on the comp had their own photo taken. If you have the CD it opens up and the gatefold is all the people in bands that were at the photoshoot across the two pages. The back tray card is the group photo of everyone.
I like that idea. It reminds me of the United We Stand compilation CD from Albany in the ‘90s.
I don't think I've ever held a copy of United We Stand, so I've never looked in the booklet, but that makes sense. I definitely have seen that somewhere in the past, and it makes sense to have it fold out and have it have the group photo of everyone in the center.
Did you reach out to the people involved with the older Albany Style comps?
I think Steve Reddy [of Equal Vision Records] had a hand in putting out the first, and I think Dave Stein [of Combined Effort Records] had something to do with it. So my friend Joey, who works at EVR, reached out to be like, "Hey, are you cool with them revitalizing Albany Style," and he said yeah.
We purposely asked if Steve wanted to be involved because of his involvement with the first, but he was too busy. I think EVR was just getting ready to move from their location to where they are now in downtown Albany, so he had no time for anything. But he kind of gave his quote, unquote blessing.
And then, Nate Wilson did the second one with Gloom Records in '99. We reached out to him to make sure that he was cool with it. We also reached out to the band Albany Style through Vinny's connection with Bob Riley [of Stigmata], and Bob Riley is an OG and knows everything about everything when it comes to Albany and Troy hardcore.
READ MORE: Gloom Records Founder Nate Wilson Reflects on the History of His Label
We thought, it's been over 20 years since the last one, so we thought it was an appropriate amount of time to make a snapshot of what's going on.
Even aside from the Albany Style comps, it's been a while since there's been an Albany-focused compilation, right?
The last one I think was the Step Up Presents one, Off the Meter. It was a dual disc CD. Chuck from Spiritkiller's band Endicott was on it. There was a lot of bands. I think there was 30 bands on it.
Can you give a rundown on the bands on this new comp?
First band is Cinnamon. They were really new at the time, and we had asked Sunbloc first, but they couldn't do it. Keefer [Monk], who plays bass in Sunbloc also plays guitar in Cinnamon, said that Cinnamon would have a song and would be interested in doing it. We didn't have a lot of fast on the comp, so we thought it was perfect.
I'm really glad they're on the comp because now they are playing a lot and they are playing a style of hardcore in Albany that really no one else is doing. It's faster power violence-inspired stuff.
Second track, Grand Street is definitely not for everyone. The song is so polarizing because it's straight up rap. It's like rap meets Maximum Penalty. It couldn't be the first song, so I put it second and really wanted that song to shine because I think it's really, really good. If there's a band that I want people to check out more on the comp it's Grand Street.
Third is Cold Kiss, which I won't say much about. The song on the comp we wrote in like two minutes at practice one day and decided we wanted to record it, and it came out good enough that we could use it for something. We recorded it when we recorded "Measure the Loss" and "Pushing 4 War" [from Promo 2023].
Prize—we knew we had to have Prize represented on it. I think they're arguably the best band in Albany. They play a form of music that I barely understand. The drummer of that band, Ben [Fredette], he had always wanted to be in a Kiss It Goodbye/Deadguy type band, and that's what Prize started as.
Their sound now has kind of evolved into something that I don't really know. I like how it sounds, but I can't speak on it. This will show my lack of musical repertoire, but Pat Dwyer, their guitar player, will always tell me they're going for a kind of Jesus Lizard sound, and I've never listened to that.
Spiritkiller is next. Chuck [Cure, vocalist] has been someone that I have tossed ideas back and forth with as I've been booking shows or doing the comp, or just overall ideas of things that I think would be cool for Albany. And they have been a band that has been around in this current wave of Albany bands so I felt that they needed to be on it.
Wet Specimens. We really wanted to have the faster side of hardcore represented, and Eric Pressman who plays bass in Wet Specimens is someone that I talk to like every day now at this point. We both help each other out when it comes to booking shows and passing out flyers, and really trying to work towards a common goal.
I felt that not only did the punk side of the music need to be represented, but I wanted his specific representation as well because he does a lot; him and Jay Krak [of Schenectavoidz] together. Eric puts a lot of thought into the shows he's booking, and the overall success of Albany, which is the same vibe that I have too when I'm booking a show. I really wanted to have his musical output represented, and that's one of my favorite songs on the comp as well. It sounds awesome. It's fast and dark sounding.
Wrong Move, unfortunately they're no longer. Wrong Move has been a band in Albany for a long time and they recently broke up. They were down to record a song for the comp and they're probably the heaviest band on it. I felt that shined a light on the heavier side of Albany hardcore.
And then Bad Impressions. Charlie [McClosky, vocals] is very enthusiastic about Albany, and all the conversations that I've had with him have been super positive. I just wanted to make sure that his band represented the youth in Albany right now. They're playing a kind of metalcore style of music that there's not really a lot of bands doing—the metalcore that would play a hardcore show.
There's obviously a very vibrant metalcore scene in Albany with bandsthat play more mosh metal-influenced stuff that doesn't really cross over into the world of hardcore, per say, but Bad Impressions plays something along those lines that fits that vibe. Bad Impressions just made sense to round out what was going on in Albany right now.
So what else is going on in Albany in right now?
There's more new bands since the comp happened. Wet Specimens has been playing a ton, I think they just did and ten or 12-day run of shows not long ago. Schenectavoidz has been playing a bunch. There's a group of kids in this band called NOIR that are like my favorite kids coming to shows right now. They mosh for every band, and they mosh each other and get stoked about it. They also mosh like that at bigger shows and kind of have each other's backs.
I started a new band where I'm singing, called Evil Mind that's with our friend Ryan Slowey, who did the finishing audio touches for the comp, and Ben Shaw, who plays in Cold Kiss, and also our friend Spencer [Marzello] who was in my old band, Trife Life.
There's this screamo band Coquette. Vinny from Wrong Move and Grand Street started a new band with a bunch of people from western New York called War Nerve. There's just overall a lot of people starting bands.
READ MORE: A Guide to Current Bands Inspired by 2000s Hardcore
Sunbloc put out an EP called Enemies At All Times that's incredible; it's in my top releases of the year, not even just because it's a local thing, but it's something everybody should listen to. Spiritkiller has a new record coming out. Halo Bite put out an EP. Cold Kiss is getting ready to record a couple new songs and some old songs to shop around to any labels that are interested. The Evil Mind demo is currently getting mixed and should be out within the next couple weeks
We did the annual Black Friday show this year with Soul Blind, and that went well. We just had the Tune Low Die Slow fest at Empire Live [hosted by The Acacia Strain]. That was a big success based on my conversation with Vincent [Bennett] of the Acacia Strain. They're planning on doing it again next year, so I've been giving my suggestion on bands I hope will play.
The Fuze Box is still doing shows. The last show that happened there was Mindforce and there hasn't been a show since, but there will be a show announced for February.
I'm currently speaking with kids in this band called Guts. They're a bunch of RPI students. I just met with another non-hardcore affiliated person from RPI about doing shows at RPI and I'm trying to set the first one up for March or April. There was a venue called The Red Square back in the late 2000s that did shows that is now called Ophelia's. I believe Dan Asylum is going to start having shows there. Son of Egg is doing shows.
People want to play Albany. People are still coming to shows—every show that is happening, even with small bands. I mean, I had 82 people show up to a show at [vegan burger restaurant] Wizard Burger, which is crazy. The people talk about it on podcasts all the time, everywhere—they're waiting for the bubble to burst and go back to shows where there's only 30 people at them, but fortunately that still hasn't happened. People are still coming. It's very much still a thing.
Tyler Krupsky has a studio called Pacemaker Studios in Clifton Park and he also does guitar setups and repairs. Him and his partner have a house that they essentially converted into a studio. That's an important thing in Albany, like a scene run studio. There's a handful of studios in Albany, but this is a good spot that's a better option.
And there’s a release show for the compilation that’s coming up?
The release show is Saturday, January 18th at No Fun [in Troy, NY]. Wrong Move is not a band anymore so they are not playing, and Bad Impressions could not play, but the other six bands are. If you see the flyers, the lineup you see is not the lineup for the show. The lineup is going to be decided by a game of dice about 15 minutes before the first band is supposed to play.
One member from each band is going roll, just like a game of cee-lo, and it's going to go highest to lowest. The person with the sixth highest dice score gets to choose their spot, the fifth chooses their spot, and so on and so forth. That information won't be posted anywhere and no one will know except for this bands. It's kind of a pact that everyone has, to encourage people to come out to watch every band. You won't know who's playing until you're in the room and you see that band setting up.
No Fun is a 200-cap room, so the first 200 people in the room get the comp for free. It's kind of something we've taken from Step Up. Step Up Presents used to do that for the releases where it's $25 for the show and you get a free CD on entry. I remember when I went and saw Stigmata and It Dies Today at Saratoga Winners I got the Do Unto Others CD for free for coming to the show.
I think that hits on everything on the comp unless you got something I missed.
I also want to mention that if you go to a show and a band is playing a song on the comp, a lot of them have been saying that I put out a comp, but it was me and Vinny; it wasn't just me. I want to make sure that that's very well known.
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Albany Style 2024 is available on streaming outlets now.
Tagged: cold kiss, evil mind, sunbloc, wet specimens, wrong move
