shatter those eardrums, courtesy of punk/hip-hop pioneers game rebellion’s ferocious ‘a decade of disaster (2002 – 2012)’

When Game Rebellion burst onto the scene in 2002, they were a necessary antidote to the tedium of nu metal. By the time they parted ways in 2012, they were still frustratingly ahead of their time. Over the past 6 years since their split though, something happened: music caught up.

Released last week, A Decade of Disaster is less a greatest hits album than it is an introductory course. The band opens with “Trapped,” about as clear a distillation of their sound as possible. It’s fiery, ferocious, and tight as fuck. They launch immediately into the Beethoven-riffing “Lights Out.” It grows from haunting to a little goofy to eardrum-shattering in seconds. This was a band that took genre-smashing to its most logical extremes years before the trend took over.

Game Rebellion goes for maximum variety on A Decade of Disaster, mixing in R&B “Laydown,” dub nods “Maria,” and even a little dubstep bass wobble on “GTFO.” Their best cuts close out the album. “Save Me” and “Sun” finds the band firing on all cylinders. “Save Me”‘s mix of classic punk and heavy social criticism could have been released last week (I guess technically it was).

It’s a sad aftershock of how quickly things can change in the age of the internet, that few of the albums Game Rebellion pulls from on A Decade of Disaster are easily available. Luckily the band is clear to mark it as “Part I.” Stay tuned for Part II. And in the meantime, check out this classic blistering video of them performing “Sun” back at the 2008 AFROPUNK Fest.