Polonium - Seraphim

Polonium (pre-Austerity Program) releasing 'Seraphim' (stream "Angry")

Before Justin Foley and Thad Calabrese formed The Austerity Program, they had another band in the mid-’90s called Polonium. Foley recently revisited that band’s material and re-recorded these 20-year-old songs for a new album called Seraphim, that’s due April 8 via Controlled Burn (pre-order). Here’s what Foley says about it:

It probably sounds like bullshit when we tell you that we were pretty isolated living in New York City in 1992. We were. Sure, lower Manhattan was burning with activity – CBGBs, Brownie’s, the Mercury Lounge, C-Squat, the Knitting Factory, even the goddam Wetlands – and Brooklyn was just starting to take off. Up in the middle of the Bronx, though, things were dead. Don’t get me wrong; hip-hop and meregue poured down Kingsbridge Hill and boomed off the apartment buildings all up and down the Grand Concourse. But for those trying connect to the 90’s American Noise Rock Renaissance, Fordham Road was miles and miles away from any of it.

That said the two of us – Thad Calabrese and Justin Foley – knew things were different when we brought back a copy of Bolt Thrower’s “The IVth Crusade”. Having grown up in mid-America, we were smart enough to avoid what we’d encountered of metal in high school. We’d instead filled up our record shelves with nearly anything put out by Dischord, Touch and Go and AmRep. But Bolt Thrower wasn’t hair spray or squealy guitar solos. As the relentless double bass drum rained down from the turntable, we knew what we had to do. It didn’t really matter that no one would ever hear it. We needed more music like this but didn’t’ know where to find it. So we decided we were the ones to make it. And so we did.

Ahead of the album’s release, we’re premiering the song “Angry.” It’s a punishingly heavy, industrially-tinged doom/death that sounds pretty immediate given its old age. You can stream it below.

Polonium won’t be playing any live shows behind this release, but the Austerity Program plays pretty often (including with UXO and Flipper recently). Stream “Angry,” along with the previously-released “Bastard,” below.

https://soundcloud.com/controlled-burn-records/angry/s-d2kXX

Tracklist
Bastard
Paleface
Kitchen
Kids on Top
Mean
Nebbish
Angry
Tuberculosis
Homesteader
Bali Hai