REVIEW: Trans Day Of Revenge by G.L.O.S.S

In a time where governments are passing laws that prevent people from using the bathroom of their gender identity and gunmen are shooting up LBGT+ spaces, G.L.O.S.S.'s music is essential. Their music attacks the hatred that trans people face every day with anger and brutality. With their latest EP, the band continues and improves their assault against the powers that try to hold them down and shows the world why they might be the most important band around today.

For the whole of this five minute EP, the band is on the attack and never lets up. The production on this record is much cleaner than on their 2015 demo, but none of the rawness felt on their debut is lost on this new project. This record doesn't attempt to change the sound of hardcore punk, rather, they manage to be fresh and lively using a sound that so many bands have beaten into the ground. It is no small task to sound as interesting as G.L.O.S.S. do after more than thirty years of hardcore music.

This would be a great album if the lyrics were mediocre, but Sadie Switchblade is a trenchant and robust vocalist. Not content to just talk about trans issues, which they do superbly well, the band embraces intersectionality and talk about race. Some of the most powerful lyrics on the release are about the struggles people of color have to face, sometimes on top of being trans. The lyrics and vocals carry gravitas like few other bands out there.

Whirr's transphobic tweets, as awful as they were, did the great thing of bringing G.L.O.S.S.'s powerful sound onto the masses. G.L.O.S.S.'s music is essential listening for anyone, whether they're an ally like me or someone who feels disenfranchised because of a system that has failed them. I've chosen to not give this EP a numerical score because it is barely music, it is a force of nature that demands your full attention without any remorse.