Tsyrik: Local scene has its special history, as every music style played in Russia or whatever, its roots go back in 80s, at the sunset of Soviet Russia. There were also numerous hardcore and punk rock bands here appearing and fading during the 90s - 2000s, and all it had some special character, a bit odd, due to be born in Soviet period and so on… 

But nowadays hc punk scene has a lot of variety and is interesting, there some really good bands are still around and appearing every month, and really worth of being checked, and not only in bigger cities like Moscow and St Petersburg (where scene is incredible), but in smaller distant towns as well. There are a few punk clubs in Moscow where different punk and metal gigs always happen. Also, there were attempts of making squats in different cities, but all they were doomed to a failure and were rudely closed by police due to the fact of current state regime, so that’s how everything looks like.

For the really worthy bands here are some we often share the scene with and who are our close mates:
DUKE NUKEM from St. Petersburg - it’s brilliance of RFHC, TANK mixed with Burning Spirits hc like Death Side, Poison arts etc.

DISTRESS - Well known Russian long-playing d-beat act from St. Petersburg. Throughout the years they are still one of the most powerful bands from here, good old friends of ours and high class drinkmates!!! *check their last EP! 

REPTILOIDS from Moscow - raw hardcore punk, they sadly split not long ago, really intense one, check their EP releases, it’s a real slaughter.

REPRESSION ATTACK from the town of Ryazan - old school stenchcore from the very depths of hell, who have released an album, and also a single or two.

KARZER, St. Petersburg - psychedelic stenchcore, really distinguishable stuff with some cassettes released.

FURTHER CHARGES from Moscow/Voronezh, southern Russia - already mentioned above intense and angry UK '82 punk rock, with a cassette demo released a year ago. I joined 'em in 2016 when the guitarist of the band, our big friend, sadly died. 

CHAOSBRINGER - russian Bolt Thrower, with a killer album released recently.

Also great non active bands, who have released amazing records which are highly recommended to check:

BLOODSUCKERS (St.Petersburg) – raw hardcore punk KAAOS style. 

UNBROKEN BONES (Izhevsk) - featured in EL ZINE some years ago, great Russian harcdcore band, 80's UKHC meets USHC.

SHITWORLD from Moscow, raw punk in Swedish style like Discard, Asocial etc.

Maybe I forgot something but that’s enough to represent current Russian hardcore scene.

Are you guys politically active? I have seen from the general news and internet media that there have been some big protests against the Putin administration from time to time, since the protests against the election in December 2011. And there has been the military intervention in Ukraine since 2014. Sounds like Russia has had many big political events recently. Any thoughts on these? Are there many anarchist-punks there who are involved in any actions? Or is it totally separated from punk? Like only Liberals do that kind of protests etc..?
(And while I’m writing this, I heard the news that Putin is “officially” re-elected!)

Tsyrik: Being younger we were much more active regarding this question, were taking parts in different anarchist/antiwar/animal rights actions. It was a great part of our lifestyle, all the members came from punk hc scene which always refused all that shit which modern world is poisoning us with, and local scene became very political by the mid of 2000s. The streets were full of nazi skins, cops were ultra violent to any kinds of social minorities and it was really tough time, but full of memorable moments connected with those activities from that period, it was a great time, really honest and absolutely INSANE bloody hell. 

Since that time the tables have not turned much, maybe there is not so much violence on the streets in big cities, but it is still threatening in smaller distant towns which mostly live on their own and nothing can strongly influence the situation. 

Years passed and due to many personal issues, misunderstandings with other activists, conflicting ideas, and many other obvious reasons we all concentrated much more on making music, putting all the anger and negative experience into it. So, comparing everything with the early years we barely can be called big activists now, anyway we still share and believe in all this stuff we stood for in those days of old, what is expressed in the song lyrics maximally. 

For the local left movement now there are enough activists but evidently not enough to make big changes because the government is really merciless here for everything which can be a real or visible threat for its ideology and the whole regime. But there are still those who don’t conform. 

I understand that inner conflicts always happen between activists. I think it’s same everywhere unfortunately. By the way, did you read or study Kropotokin or Bakunin when you were active on those actions? They are most important and fundamental anarchist philosophers from your country and I’m just curious how activists there treat and understand them as the men from Russia.

Tsyrik: Bakunin and Kropotkin left a huge legacy to the followers of anarchist movement all around the globe, so their fundamental works are usually familiar to people who are deep into it and who live by these ideas. For myself I tried to make it read many times but I didn’t completely got through it as I was a lad of 16 or 17, seems to be too volumetric for the young punk you know ahahah so maybe Conflict’s and Crucifix’ lyrics used to be more reasonable and relevant for me of that age than this pillars of anarchism to get into the case. 

I understand that they are not easy to understand with brief reading especially when you sre young.
How about the current situation there?

Tsyrik: For now there is strong authoritarian regime with its “conservative” ideology, which doesn’t tolerate anything that doesn’t fit in or anyone who can be called a rebel or anti state The serious threat for freedom of speech and choice is growing and strengthening here. The visibility of other political alternative here is an absolute fake and a part of the game to make the citizens more blinded, divided and misunderstood, a ridiculous and merciless propaganda from the media is set against Russians in western countries, which also makes the whole affair more complicated. This shit works and takes its benefits day by day and people are really into all this stupid crap without realizing they are deeply stuck in shit we were thrown into for ages, all is very apparent and dumb as fuck… no-one gives a toss what is really happening and it is terrifying and now it seems to become a big threat for our future. 

Paul: All this stuff about protests against the election of Putin is just a mockery. In Russia there is absolutly no real opposition, and now there is no chance that it can appear. For real, only liberals do such "protests" to advertise themselves and get more money. System encages people in their own life problems creating tons of shit like specialy just for us to solve. Personaly now I see no other ways to protest but to take no compromises in our life paths and to aim for thing we realy need and don't let them to buy us or cheat us with their inversed morals.There were real punk protests but more often about shit we got strictly suffered from like when some punks got beaten real hard by cops, or when ecologists protesting against cutting down the forest to build the fair-road got beaten by boneheads by the order of some criminals involved in this road construction. After this protest on TV you see only short mentioning that "some football fans made some riots" because they don't want anyone to know that such things even can happen. About the problems in Ukraine I see no protests, but there is an insane struggle still on the border in Donbass and lots of boneheads went to military operations taking place there just to have some fun killing people. So some antifascists went there to fight them to prevent them coming back from war with even more perversed mind and bloodthirsty. That's what our song Life Lost is about.

Could you tell me more about the Donbass situation? As we don't get much information about the Ukranian situation in Japan where most information are from American media and not in detail at all. They were mostly like «Ukraina wants democracy and join EU and the US supports it. But Russian government interferes with it». 

Tsyrik: When the Ukrainian revolution happened it caused military actions in the east part of Ukraine where lots of Russian people dwell.  Since the war started there were also some rebel forces who have been known as Lugansk people republic and Donetsk people republic. There was a terrible slaughter and genocide of civilians by the Ukrainian army forces and it was  especially hot there in the first months of the conflict. Ukrainian armies assaulted the East of the country with heavy artillery, pro Russian authonomic forces fought them back and still do. 

It should be said that lots of ultra right nazis took a part and became huge power in the Ukranian revolutionary action, then they formed their own army forces which are consisted of nazis and are officially sponsored by the Ukrainian government, such as Azov battalion and some others. They are the first line of this conflict from the Ukrainian side, so lots of Russian ultra right cunts joined to fight against pro Russian rebels. These boneheads are exactly mentioned by Pavel- they were doing time in prisons or were wanted here in Russia for killing in the streets, so they moved Ukraine and made careers in the state army or police forces of Ukraine. Meanwhile some Russian atifascists along with different other people joined pro Russian rebels and fought against Ukraine nazi army forces. That’s all I know on that case, lots of political propaganda takes place so its hard to be objective discussing all of the affairs Western and Russian media show the polarized situations from visions of only their own profits. But death and dying of civilians is the only result, people killed, dwellings destroyed for nothing - total crazy militant shit, our songs “Death Holder” and “ Life Lost” are reflection on this terrible war crime. 

I see… It is difficult to imagine that Russian far-right joins Ukrainian army to just kill Russian-Ukrainian people.
Recently I read some articles about present Russian contemporary thought. One was by this dangerous guy Aleksandr Dugin (it was some part of his book: “The Fourth Political Theory” which was in a philosophy magazine here) who was a leading organizer of the National Bolshevik Part and other related stuff and whose philosophy is somehow based on this Italian neonazi/occultist philosopher Julius Evola. I read Dugin is close with Putin and has some extreme imperial-nationalistic/fascistic ideas through Neo-Paganism (like Paganism could be related to Slavic Myth and it criticizes modern “progress” and leads people to more like fascist direction) or Neo-Eurasianism. The magazine I read also said that now Russian contemporary thought could be divided into three: Liberalism, Communism and Nationalism. And they are usually totally separated like each is a different world. Do you have any thought on this kind of stuff and current Russian condition on politics/philosophy? As Russia has had many influential people in its history in terms of these. 

Paul: About Dugin:Today Dugin has nothing common with National Bolshevik Part and he never was into neopaganism. He is orthodox Christian with a weird understanding of Neoplatonism. I don't know a lot about his thoughts but I know about the concept of Traditionalism he supports and promotes. It's another new understanding of neoplatonic philosophy. used to criticise modern world as world of spiritual downfall.

The real bad thing about him is that the way to fight that downfall that he sees is to build a state with a strong authority ruled by Emperor-philosopher that will be built on synthesis of Christian model of the kingdom of heaven, Plato's Politeia and ancient Indian caste society. Their idea is to built society reflecting metaphysical structure of world that will force the real world to merge with kingdom of heaven. Instead of Julius Evola better be mentioned Rene Guenon and his "The Crisis of the Modern World". For a long time he opposed Putin, but later he saw him as enough strong leader that can lead us to Imperialism that is the first step to his project of concervative revolution, so he has started supporting him. 

But he is not really popular in Russia, people found him asocial, cause he looks like he probably suffers megalomamia and sometimes talk totally insane shit like that God is against Internet or that all beardless men are homosexuals and perverts ahhahaha. So he lost his job at Moscow State University because professor can't be involved so much into politics, and that's it. 
In todays Russia philosophical thought i see nothing coloful. And political thought is realy divided on Liberalism, Communism and Nationalism that are always totally against at each other and can have no constructive dialogue. Our condition I see as wildness cause of downfall of humanitarian education and loss of interest of most of people to anything but freedom of consumption they finaly got after USSR broke up and the Iron Curtain fell down.

It's really interesting to know how Dugin is seen there. 
By the way, do you have any thought (either politically or philosophically) that you currently believe or sympathize? I bet it's not those three political views. Probably Anarchism?
But not sure how Communism in general is perceived there now as the country whose history has the "failure" of Communism. Like when you see the US now, Bernie Sanders, a socialist politician and the former candidate for the Democratic party's presidential election some years ago, is still popular among non-liberal leftists. And in UK, the leader of Labor Party Jeremy Corbyn is seen as Marxist. So in those "First world" countries, Communism or other related thoughts are reconsidered as a realistic way of actions or life (in Japan it doesn't seem like that though. There are many "liberals" and a few leftists and almost no anarchists. Same in the hardcore punk scene). Let me know if you think anything on this. 

Paul: I feel frustrated about any hope for political ways to change our lives for better. No one needs and no one cares about guys like us, common people think we are just stuck in our childhood for too long. Even if we have a nice relationships with people around us, our kin and them have too different dreams inside of us. Lots of people still think that we are some insane satanists, but this is just because we have too much of a different basis of ethics. I can't trust or sympathize to any political movement because for any of them we are too inorganic. 

In Russia communism is seen like some retro stuff for grannies. It's supported by people feeling nostalgic for the old days and for the country they grew up in, because USSR and RF are pretty different countries in some ways and in some days they lost all that they believed in, when idealistic Soviet image of our country crushed and it's true face was revealed. 

I don't know if it’s good or bad that there is some communists in the "first world”. For real i think it means nothing, because splitting human thought on a few directions opposing each other is for real a "mental cold war" situation... or maybe just a delirium of society that consists of people feeling finally lost. We all better think about how to be real Humans not pieces of shit.

Well, let’s go back to more stories of the band. You have toured and played shows in Europe. How do you feel about those experiences meeting local punks in every city? Some years ago I have traveled to Europe, from France, Germany, UK to Poland, Serbia, Macedonia and Greece and of course I felt some differences especially between “West” and “East”.

Tsyrik: We went on tours in Europe for several times and all the time we got mostly positive experience and brought a shitload of unforgettable moments and funniest stories ever. Touring is the main point for every a band along with making albums. For me personally this is the best thing I can do in my life or one from this short list of my activities. 

We saw completely another life when we started going abroad to gigs, and there’s no need to compare lives in our country and in the west because of it’s absolutely different- mentality, life styles, abilities, local customs and features of all kinds. I just can say that it is much more productive to tour Europe than Russia. The venues and people are mostly incredible. P. A. systems are also on high level so most gigs are really amazing. DIY punk culture has old roots on the west and for Russia it is quite young and odd in some ways…. But I should admit that support on Russian gigs is much more insane, wilder and more powerful than in Europe. Huge pogo and slamming at every gig, so Russia is also a place to be toured at. Foreign bands are usually stunned with the support they get here… tour life is awesome and it is worth all the odds we have to face with to manage it and make it happen. 

I saw pictures on your Facebook page, some “big” bands like Discharge, Antisect, Mob 47, and recently Power Trip have played in Moscow. How were those shows?

Tsyrik: Those shows were top notch, and the gig with Discharge was the best and the most significant for me. It was the first gig we played with the current line up. We were nervous and got pissed very fast to calm down a bit but at last we did well and it was a great night. Guys from DISCHARGE were amazing. We drank Russian vodka together until Rat got too drunk hahaha. It was splendid. 

The mini tour with INSTINCT OF SURVIVAL that took place last Summer was also a total RISE OF CRUST. We met our real brothers from another mother. Those were the greatest gigs and party time for last several years here.

You have a song called “The Man behind the Sun” and mentioned Unit 731. How did you get the idea to sing about this notorious brutal unit of our embarrassing ancestors?

Tsyrik: I was deep into this dreadful story of 731 unit, reading the facts and details of it shocked me to the bone so that’s why the song appeared. The title was taken from the movie THE MAN BEHIND THE SUN which shows all the shocking terror and disgust of their activity in China during the war. Sick shit… 

There are, of course, some historical revisionists here who insist that the whole facts of Unit 731 are fabrication by China or leftists in Japan…
What do you usually do besides playing in the band?

Tsyrik: Play in other bands! They take all my spare time, drinking and raising hell is also our big duty here hahah… also should say that there’s no welfare for the unemployed so we have to go to bloody work and it takes a big deal of time too which sucks.

I just watched a new Russian movie “Loveless” (Нелюбовь) by Andrey Zvyagintsev. It was a very depressive and sad story where solitude in this modern society encroaches humanity. Have you seen the movie? Do you think it represents today’s Russian society?

Tsyrik: Sorry I do not know about the movie but our drummer said he’s seen it and tells its quite honest representation of some Russian realities.

What is your image towards Japan in general or Japanese hardcore punk? Do you have any bands you like from here?

Tsyrik: We always have been keen on Japanese scene and bands- huge addicts of it. Mostly hc punk, but metal also, and some other genres as well. 

For me the most favorite are DEATH SIDE, POISON ARTS, GISM, RANDY UCHIDA GROUP, CROW, THE COMES, VIRUS, WARHEAD, ZADKIEL, SABBAT, SOCIETIC DEATH SLAUGHTER, DISCLOSE, CONTRAST ATTITUDE, KURO, XENOLITH OGER, 44 MAGNUM, ZOE, TETSU AREI, FRAMTID, ZOUO, S. O. B., BASTARD, SL(A)NG, REALITY CRISIS, EFFIGY, LIP CREAM, FINAL BOMBS, CONFUSE, THE SEXUAL… a numerous list of bands, 

Modern scene is also very different and insanely crushing. Axewield, Isterismo, Akka, Zay, Disturd and many more - all that I heard is intense and very powerful. We will be happy as fuck to share the scene with some of these bands on our Japanese tour!!! 

Any last words to punks in Japan? Anything you want to do during the upcoming Japan tour?

Tsyrik: Looking forward to our together tour with Zay!!! No doubts that visiting Japan will be one of the most exciting things in our lives. Excited about it as fuck and waiting for it with the hugest interest and feeling of complete happiness!!!
HOPEFULLY SEE YOU SOON PUNKS OF JAPAN!!! Thanks for amazing interview, Satoshi! Cheers from Moscow!
KANPAI!  

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A new Radioactive song from the upcoming split 7" with EEL (Doomed To Extinction DTE30).
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