Resistant Culture

Resistant Culture's root structure extends deep in the tree of music that has given life to many generations of bands and subcultural identities. In its original form going back to the late 1980s, the band was called Resistant Militia. This band was one of many emerging at the time in the L.A. area that combined the arts of punk and metal to incite a new movement that was heavy, dark, and reflective of the politics of extinction. Seminal bands such as Resistant Militia and Terrorizer helped spawn genres including crust, grindcore, and other subcategories united by thoughtful anthems of resistance and autonomy and bone-crushing mosh-inducing riffage. Resistant Militia saw countless musicians come and go; besides Anthony, only one other member has persevered beyond the last several years. Katina, a classically trained guitarist brought a high degree of sophistication to the musical and technical aspects of the band. Needless to say, she brought an empowered masterful female presence to the often male dominated metal scene. Katina and Anthony have been sustaining the Resistant name through various musical incarnations for about a decade. This unit, plus a couple more passing drummers brought the band through its 2000 full-length CD release entitled "Ancient Future" and through to 2003 when they recruited anarcho-punk hessian, Ben Axiom, who coincidentally recorded a crust-punk record at 16 in 1997 entitled "Establishing a Culture of Resistance". Influenced by bands such as Napalm Death, his study of the arts of metal and resistance led him to his respected antecedents in Resistant Culture. If the circle had not come full enough by this point, another dimension of the legacy came into being; Jesse Pintado (TERRORIZER/NAPALM DEATH) a long time friend and former band-mate of "Tony Militia" (A.K.A. Anthony Rezhawk) had been writing, recording and playing with R.C. on and off for two years before his tragic abrupt death in August 2006 (R.I.P.). The last contribution Jesse made to the world of music was the monumental long awaited Terrorizer follow-up release "Darker Days Ahead." It was his recent involvement in Resistant Culture that laid the foundation for Anthony Rezhawk’s vocal performance on this historic album. In October 2006, Mike Brickman joined adding yet another voice of resistance to the radical message of Resistant Culture. Having toured both nationally and internationally with thrash band Hirax, his roots in heavy music added much to the band. His diverse musical background brought in previously unrepresented elements. Most importantly though is his common drive towards positive healthy empowerment through music as opposed to the rampant patterns of self-destruction that plague the music scene. The initial vision of blending metal, tribal grind, and punk has found the right mixture of experience, age, and personality. It's the seamless musical development of hardcore and tribal music that has weaved the indigenous flute, rattle, tribal drum and chant into an organic and flowing tapestry. The indigenous influence in the music is the personal relation to native culture from two members in the band; Anthony and Katina. In 1991 Anthony had a vision of empowering native youth through music that fuses traditional indigenous instruments and philosophy with extreme contemporary music. With Resistant Culture for a name it represents a struggle of a people, a philosophy, and a culture on the brink of extinction. As a band and concept, Resistant Culture goes beyond touring and playing throughout southern California, they often play at and help organize a variety of grass-roots events to help benefit the community. It's the idea of bringing extreme music with a progressive spirit that has kept Resistant Culture on a steady and evolving path that has moved and influenced musicians, other artists, and its growing fan base. Resistant Culture hopes to be a positive and empowering response to the emptiness of most formats of modern music. Whereas all peoples were once tribal and singing along to songs that taught them stories of origin, balance, respect, and harmony with each other and the Earth, modernity's anthems are of waste, self-destruction, self-indulgence, cultural decline, and ecological negligence. While narcissism and nihilism have poisoned the spirits of all trapped within the sterile walls of industrial civilization, Resistant Culture hopes to provide an alternative approach that involves the reclamation of health, community, and autonomy on all levels. They want more than anything else for all those influenced by their music to look under their feet and beyond the industrial horizon and to reconnect with their long lost relatives, the Earth, the sky, the sun, and all of relations. They want to provide the soundtrack for a new cultural uprising based on respect for nature, indigenous culture, and autonomy for all beings.