God’s Hate Released The Hardest Album of 2021

Drummer Colin Young On The Making Of “God’s Hate”
God's Hate reppin Van Nuys
God's Hate Photo credit Kylla Barsell

On March 12th, 2021, as a majority of Americans anticipated the return to shows with the increase of vaccination rates and a ton of upcoming tour announcements, Southern California-based hardcore band God’s Hate released the perfect soundtrack to mark the return of the underground. From the wildly violent Samurai-with-two-machine-guns album art to the crushing death metal influenced beat down hardcore riffs, the self-titled album by God’s Hate quickly became my favorite album of 2021.

The lyrics “Life is Hard/Be Harder” barked by vocalist – and full time professional wrestler – Brody King provide a fitting inspirational theme for the year as we continue to weather the storm of an ongoing pandemic and a constantly changing reality.

While Brody is the voice of the band, its drummer (and former guitarist) Colin Young that is the true Wizard behind the curtain.

I spoke with Colin about what all went into the making of my favorite album of 2021.

I've heard you mention in several interviews that you spent a long time on the process of writing and recording the album. How long did you actually take on it?

It damn near killed me! I don’t even think the rest of the band knows the number of nights I spent with my eyes open just rearranging riffs and parts internally. The process started with the “Number One” riff sometime in mid-2016, and then it was like one song every 3-4 months for the next three years until we recorded the music in August of 2019. Then Brody, Taylor and I basically spent the better part of another year writing lyrics during the beginning of Covid. At first we were pretty frustrated with the pandemic delaying the process a bit, but it ended up coming out at the perfect time.

This album is a huge level up from past God's Hate releases in many different ways. Did you have any fundamental shifts in songwriting approach going into this album?

Fundamentally, my goal was to hyper-focus on recreating what we in the band as fans of HARD hardcore music love about the many bands that influenced us. There was never a second where I thought “ah we can’t do that.” The coolest bands to all of us, and the records that stand the test of time, are the ones that remind us that there are no rules.

You play drums on this album, but in the past you played guitar for God's Hate. What made you switch it up? And who all is playing guitar for the band now?

I am a barely functioning guitar player. It is an absolute miracle that I made it through the few years that I played guitar in the band. When writing the drums for this record, there was also a moment of realization that was just like, I don’t want to teach these to someone, I want to play them.

With guitar, I am good enough to write, but it doesn’t translate the same once I’m standing up or someone is in the room. I need a guy. Thankfully now I have 3!

You guys received a pretty huge reaction to this album when it was released. Were you at all surprised with the amount of positive feedback you've gotten for it?

Man, that was one of the most emotional days of my entire life. Twitching Tongues was divisive from day one, so I had never seen such a positive response to something I was part of. I will never forget it. We are all very grateful and inspired by it.

You just got back from playing these songs live at a few shows in Texas this past weekend. How has it been playing these songs live?

God, it f*****g rocks. I’m normally the guy who says no to shows/has a terrible time on tour, but now I’m the one asking what’s next and going out of my way to get things set up. These songs have made me love playing music again. We’re just getting started.

Which songs go the hardest live so far?

“Be Harder” has been great. It’s an anthem that was tailor made for a live audience. The biggest surprise, and thankfully so, since we really were hoping would get over live, is “The Valley Beyond”. The big pit part is so obvious when it hits that you can visually see the people who haven’t heard it recorded just thinking like “ah, ok, that’s pretty hard.”

If you yourself were a pro wrestler like your singer Brody King and you had to use one of the songs on this album as a theme, which would it be?

“Violence Unlimited” intro drum fill on a loop. Just the fill. Over and over. People would hate it.

Since KISW is a Seattle radio station, what's your favorite Seattle (or Northwest) band of all time?

F****n PEARL JAM baby. “Ten” isn’t just a clever name, it is in my top ten records of all time.

Featured Image Photo Credit: Kylla Barsell