The world is falling apart one day at a time, and the majority of us sit and watch as if attending a public hanging—more and more, our interest is piqued by the appalling, leaving nothing but a collective smattering of empty “thoughts and prayers” in response. When stripped of the bloated, festering egos that so many cling to in order to feel important, we are nothing more than ugly animals. In a society that is predominantly dormant, Retox brings this reality to the forefront in a forward-thinking way, commanding our ever-rapidly-decreasing attention spans and determined to provoke some kind of visceral response, good or bad.
Centralized in Southern California and consisting of Justin Pearson (The Locust, Dead Cross, Head Wound City), Michael Crain (Dead Cross, Festival of Dead Deer), Ryan Bergmann, and Kevin Avery (Planet B), Retox is marked by a speed and sound that seeks to shatter apathy. A grimy, abrasive punk ethos is at the heart of the band– a distinctive sci-fi surf rock meets scumbag stage presence they’ve mastered. Always sonically experimenting and perpetually melding the raw with the refined, the band only settles on defining their genre as “annoying.” Expect anything but indifference.