Guitarist Todd Jones and vocalist Ryan George got a pitch at last year’s Sound and Fury festival.
Van Nuys-based metallic-hardcore band God’s Hate asked Jones to jump onstage and perform a song from his project that hadn’t been active in about two decades.
“Colin (Young) reached out to me, asking if I wanted to join them on stage because they were going to do a Carry On song,” Jones said. “I told them I’d do it if Ryan could sing it, and they agreed.”
Jones and George took the stage, and fans of Carry On could be seen stage-diving and moshing in appreciation of the collaboration between God’s Hate and the Carry On members.
“From the perspective of the guy who wasn’t there, it was awesome,” said guitarist Corey Williams. “It was incredible to see my friends up there playing the song again, and getting that killer reaction.”
Fans who enjoyed last year’s performance can look forward to a full Carry On reunion at the Sound and Fury Festival, happening at Exposition Park on Aug. 15-16 among other groups including Angel Du$t, Koyo, Beton Arme, Obituary and more.
Jones, Williams and George will be joined by drummer Nick Jett and bassist Greg Bacon for a performance marking 20 years since the band’s final shows and celebrating 25 years of the band’s debut record, “A Life Less Plagued.”
“We’re going to keep these reunion shows limited, and we’re not going to be an active band and write music or any of that afterward,” Jones said.
“If your dream is to see the band, hop in the car, train, or plane, and get some tickets because there’s not going to be a whole lot of them,” Williams added. “We’re just trying to enjoy playing music with our friends and the 25th anniversary of our record by playing a few shows. We want it to be special for you and for us.”
The band’s debut album was the first full-length release on the hardcore label Bridge Nine Records, which would become the iconic label it is today. Before becoming Carry On and launching out of Los Angeles, the band was based in San Luis Obispo and briefly went by the name Preserve. George met most of the other members of Carry On at local hardcore shows, including Jones and Williams, who were members of Stand Your Ground, a straight-edge band from L.A..
On “A Life Less Plagued,” Carry On’s sound was a fast, aggressive expression of straight-edge hardcore punk. Jones said that the group was inspired by youth crew hardcore, which has been characterized more by its optimism and morality. Bands in this hardcore subculture mostly came out of the New York scene and centered ideologies of veganism and vegetarianism as well as abstaining from drugs and alcohol, also known as being straight-edge. Carry On helped give it a space on the West Coast.
Minor Threat, 7 Seconds and SSD were at the helm of the music, with members who were straight-edge and lyrics focused on brotherhood and community values. Some of the leading bands in the movement included Youth of Today, Chain of Strength, Gorilla Biscuits, Bold, Judge, and Side By Side. The musical influences ranged from thrash metal to more melodic hardcore styles.
“We were definitely hardcore people through and through,” Jones said. “That’s what we identified with on a cultural and musical level, but growing up in or around where we lived in Southern California in the time we grew up in, too, Metallica was always on the radio and Corey and I really always loved Slayer.”
Williams said he was listening to a lot more crossover between metal bands such as Anthrax and Suicidal Tendencies before hardcore took over his music diet. They also listened to other genres such as power violence, but that didn’t really populate in Carry On’s music. Even with metal, there wasn’t a presence of heavy metal riffage in the music, but you can hear a smidge of it in the gallop picking of “Roll with the Punches” on “A Life Less Plagued.”
The album, released in Oct. 2001, helped establish Carry On as a force in Southern California hardcore and earned them shows alongside other bands in the scene, including Floorpunch, Ten Yard Fight, Lights Out, Champion and Life Long Tragedy. However, the band mostly fell out of the public eye and hardcore soundscape following the release. Rumors and allegations that Williams had broken edge (stopped living a straight-edge lifestyle) led to the band’s dissolution, but the group didn’t officially disband until 2005.
That year, members came back together to play two final shows in L.A. alongside Champion and start other projects of their own. Jones formed Terror, but left the band two years later, shortly before the recording of their second LP. Williams formed Internal Affair, George started singing in The Adored and later co-founded Youth Code, and Jett joined Piece By Piece on vocals before becoming the drummer on Terror.
While Jones and George are not straight-edge, Jones said he still enjoys much of the music that has emerged from the subgenre over the years. Williams added that he can look back and appreciate the statements they were making with their music at the time.
“We’re very fortunate to have been a part of that,” Williams said. “You see how many people those records touched, most of them long after the band broke up. One of the best parts about it is that Ryan wrote them in a way where they do feel personal, and people grow attachments to it for different reasons.”
“I feel like now I can listen to that record as an outsider and as a fan because it was just so long ago,” Jones added. “All those songs don’t belong to us anymore. They belong to everybody who has an attachment to them, and maybe they mean something different to them than they mean to me, or the band. I’m just glad we get to play them again.”
As the band gears up for a few more reunion shows, Jones and Williams said the guys seem to be in good spirits about performing together and playing at the Sound and Fury Festival. Most of the group is spread out, including Williams, who lives in Long Island, New York, but he’s been making the effort to practice despite a few setbacks.
In 2014, Williams was diagnosed with fibromyalgia, which affected his ability to play guitar, and he had to quit Manipulate, with whom he played. He was eventually able to get it under control, but last year he had a stroke which left his left arm very weak, and it didn’t seem like it was going to be a possibility he’d be able to join his old friends for the Carry On reunion.
“Having something positive and incredible to look forward to really pushed me, and I put a lot of work into it,” Williams said. “I spend every night playing guitar because I want to make sure that I can give it my best. I was never the greatest guitar player in the first place, so I don’t think anyone has any crazy expectations, but I think I’m playing guitar pretty well. I might not be going through the set list every day, but I’m making sure that my hands are getting in the exercises they need to make sure that, when it comes to game time, I’m on.”
Sound and Fury
When: Noon, Saturday, Aug. 15 and Sunday, Aug. 16.
Where: Exposition Park, 700 Exposition Park Drive, Los Angeles.
Tickets: $159.80 for the weekend and $88.90 for a single-day ticket at soundandfury.la.