Category Archives: vegan bands and musicians

We asked Avvika’s Filip about the frames of vegan intersectionality

Posted on by PalangL

We asked Filip, guitarist of the czech-swedish vegan anarchist band Avvika, about the ethical frames of vegan intersectionality and how to politically navigate veganism as an activist praxis and tool for liberation. In the lyrics of their song “Eternal Treblinka” Avvika speak about the correlation of totalitarian genocide and the taboo of speciesism as the totalitarian zoocide rooted in the epistemics of human hierarchical “objectivity”.

Filip: Personally, veganism is an important commitment in my life. I am happy every time I see new people turning vegan and honestly a bit sad when people turning back to this way of living. As well, people like to say that “it’s everyone’s choice”, but is it everyone’s choice to have a slave or beat their wife? I will still be on the side of the oppressed rather than fully respect the choice of somebody taking control over someone elses life. Yes, it might sound overexaggerated, but that’s a problem of those who read it, not mine. That’s the whole problem coming from speciesism – to see some beings as “just” animals and peoples choices as a principle with higher value.

Though, I find veganism as a path rather than a solution. It’s a choice how to live in the place and the time I/we live in. For me it’s a way, not a goal at all. It’s the least, the most passive act and basic ground of what each of us can do or choose. It’s just a start within the long run for animal liberation. I consider human beings as animals too, so for me it goes hand in hand with anarchist revolution, whatever that means. Veganism is also an act of solidarity.

Veganism got a bit trendy in some circles, which I can’t say I am a big fan of. I think, that to realize something shall come through (self) education or more sources of information rather than from fashion. Because what happens is that people quickly become vegans without really knowing why and then they conclude that it doesn’t make any sense to them, so they stop. But still I obviously welcome this trend much more than if it was trendy wearing fur, or go hunting, you know.

I think it is a mistake to think that nowadays you can boycott anything by just choosing a different product. Let me show some examples of what I mean: Most known vegan milk companies are owned by the biggest dairy corporations of the world. I heard there is some (anti)social media page called something like “compassion pizza” and there is list of places where you can get pizza with vegan cheese. These sellers never wanted to make a vegan restaurant or even don’t care, they just realized that they can sell a bit more if they include vegan cheese to the menu, so “compassion blog” actually made free advertisement to all the restaurants which mostly profit from selling meat and dairy products. That’s what I find dangerous about this trend.

Many people think that the choice of vegan cheese and soy cappuccino makes some change. All the food industry is a greedy monster (actually not just the food one, any industry is evil to all life). And especially so called green capitalism is a great example of how this system takes whatever comes from people who have some potential to question or critique inequalities and power structures. The system takes it, absorbs it, turns it into some product and sells it back to you. That’s why capitalism is more efficient than any dictatorships. It makes almost everything possible if you can afford it and people believe that that’s the freedom, just to get higher in this competition to be able to pay for it. It’s „democracy“ when you can have nearly everything if you have enough money, and it’s even easier if you are white and “at best” male. Then you have an „equal way“ to power.

That’s not freedom! We live in a „man made hell“!

We created a mantra which is now much bigger than us, than any each of us. The most of people’s values and relationships are capitalist ones; to see something or somebody else valuable according their social status or profit potential. The animal industry with vivisection is just a peak of insanity and ignorance of this society. And it is a big example. I don’t believe in liberty and harmony within capitalism. Capitalism with it’s own stupidity like economical competition, global “free” markets, the prison system, national states, police and more and more … . All of that is not gonna change by buying vegan coffee. That’s why I wouldn’t call veganism (without anticapitalist critique) as ethical.

I see the way to animal liberation through abolishing  thedomestication of animals (including us people). Domestication by work, money, industry, church, alcohol, social (gender, sexual) norms, etc. All of it just creates an alienation. Yes, I know that many could oppose these opinions and say that people with these ideas can just move to the forest and shut up. But I am talking about abolishing domestication, not hiding from it. Last, but not least, in a region where I am from, or even country (probably like in the most of Europe) there is not much natural (not man-made) forest which is not considered as private or state property where one could stay and live wildly without further repressions anyway.

We have to strike back, not hide or escape!

No one is free, untill all are free.

GO VEGAN! GO FURTHER!

Filip//AVVIKA

Avvika – Eternal Treblinka

You can find an explanation of this song here. Here are the Czech and Swedish translations of the lyrics.

The beginning of Genesis says that God created man in order to give him dominion over fish and fowl and all the creatures. Of course, Genesis was written by a man, not a horse. There is no certainty, that God actually did grant man dominion over other creatures.

What seems more likely, in fact, is that man invented God to sanctify the dominion that he had usurped for himself over the cow and the horse, over the pig and the bird. Yes, the right to kill an animal is the only thing that all mankind can agree upon, even during the bloodiest of wars.

We have been at war with the other creatures of this earth ever since the first human hunter set forth with spear into the primeval forest. Human imperialism has everywhere enslaved, oppressed, murdered, and mutilated the animal peoples.

All around us lie the slave camps we have built for our fellow creatures, factory farms and laboratories, Dachaus and Buchenwalds for the conquered species.

We slaughter animals for our food, force them to perform silly trics for our entertainment and delectation, gun them down and stick hooks in them in the name of sport. We have torn up the wild places where once they made their homes.

Speciesism is more deeply entrenched within us even than sexism, and that is deep enough.

The most calamitous and fragile of all creatures is man, and yet the most arrogant. Is it possible to imagine anything so ridiculous as that this pitiful, miserable creature, who is not even master of himself, should call itself master and lord of the universe?

The domestication of women followed the initiations of animal keeping, and it was then that men began to control womens reproductive capacity, enforcing chastity and sexual repression.

A greedy monster devouring with a thousand mouths.

The spirit of Capitalism made flesh.

European explorers and colonists, who at home abused, slaughtered, and ate animals to a degree unmatched in human history up to that time, sailed forth to other parts of the world representatives of a religious culture that was as theologically arrogant and violence-justifiying as any the world had ever seen.

In the made-for-TV culture the only addmitted genocide is now part of history. “It’s comforting – it’s over”.

But aren’t the Auschwitzes of today animal farms, transports, laboratories and slaughter houses that are so carefully hidden from view? Where the most defenseless of the world’s victims are merely seen as material.

Nowhere is patriarchy’s iron fist as naked as in the opression of animals, which serves as the model and training ground for all other forms of opression.

Sight, sound and smell. Death on monumental scale.

No one wants to hear it, no one wants to see.

All unseen and unheeded, this horrible crime is

buried out of sight, wiped out of memory.

…thou shalt not be a perpetrator; thou shalt not be a victim; thou shalt not be a bystander. …”If learned throughout society, those three commandments could help people see that choices we make determine the extent to which we are perpetrators, victims, or bystanders in a society that has long been carrying out a holocaust against animals and other beings and ecosystems while declining to recognize it as a holocaust.”

“the point of understanding the Holocaust in Europe is to prevent and halt other ones, not to remain narrowly focused on that particular one, traumatic though it was.”

Credits: from S​/​T 12″, released26 February 2014

Connect:

http://avvika.musicforliberation.com/
http://avvika.bandcamp.com/

Steve from the The Drag Hook about the urgency of ethical veganism to make the U-turn against global destruction

Posted on by PalangL

Steve, vocalist of the vegan hardcoreband The Drag Hook from Cleveland, told us about ethical veganism:

Veganism is an important step on the road to acknowledging and ending suffering worldwide. The fact that the human body has evolved to run most efficiently on a completely vegan diet is a side benefit of living as close to a cruelty free life as is humanly possible in the world today.

Once we stop ignoring the fact that creatures with the capacity to love and enjoy their lives are being tortured and murdered every day in the name of gluttony and greed, we can start addressing this problem and every other form of needless destruction we inflict on this planet and all those we share it with.

We as human beings have a long history of doing terrible things to each other and to all of our fellow earthlings. We must right these wrongs or go extinct trying.

-Steve Osborne XVX
The Drag Hook

Ignorance Is Complicity

they live in the space you ignore
they die on the killing room floor
because they’re born for you to waste
they give their lives for the way they taste
this is real monstrosity
ignorance is complicity
Breed them in new mutated forms
so fat they cant lift themselves off the floor
dying in numbers too large to record
sold to your plate before they are born
this is real monstrosity
ignorance is complicity
everyone knows the difference
between chained and free
there will be a war
until every cage is empty

Not In My Name

let them suffer no more for me
let the walls that cage them topple over, let them be free
let the hand that grips the whip be severed clean
let eyes that witness and do nothing, no longer see
carry their cries out to every ear
let no one enjoy their pain without having to hear
Bread to be tortured and killed
raped into existence then fed to the world
this will not be my legacy
i wont go down with the rest of my species.

Both these tracks are from their January 2014 release: Lethal Dose.

Connect via
Bandcamp: https://thedraghook.bandcamp.com

Marseille based vegan band Velvetine

Posted on by PalangL

We asked Stef from the Marseille based French band Velvetine about how they would describe themselves as a vegan band:

Ethically / politically: The members of Velvetine are vegan, antispeciesist, antisexisist and antiracist. Our third opus “Un jour ordinaire” is dedicated to animal liberation. Velvetine plays in places militant as in not militant places, to spread the antispeciesist message as widely as possible.

Velvetine’s style: using guitars, voices and machines, distilling an electro-rock blend of savage poetry. Colored by subtle harmonies, Velvetine draws up a tormented and powerful mood from deep running roots in ethnic and noisy music. The release of our next album is planned for spring 2014.

Un jour ordinaire

Des oiseaux empalés rôtissent dans les vitrines.
Des corps démembrés garnissent les étals.
Sur le pont des bateaux, des poissons tressaillant
Lentement s’asphyxient

Dans des hangars fétides, de mornes vies s’écoulent
On coupe à vif, des becs, des dents, des testicules
On enfonce des embucs jusqu’au fond des gosiers
Partout roulent des camions bourrés de condamnés
Ceux qu’on va égorger, saigner.

En ce jour ordinaire, ceux qui ont peur et mal
Se comptent par millions
En ce pays en paix, la torture et le meurtre
Sont le lot quotidien
Et maintenant, et maintenant
Ça dure encore
Et maintenant, et maintenant

From Velvetine’s album Septembre which also thematized Animal Liberation.

Connect via

Bandcamp: http://velvetine.bandcamp.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Velvetine/377544125513

Svarteskerm: Christian punk and veg*ism as being a constituent part of the love for the Creation

Posted on by PalangL

Elof from the Swedish Christian punkband Svarteskerm told us about their stance on the ethics of veganism and vegetarianism:

For us as a band inspired by the teaching of Jesus compassion is a big deal. How do we as humans (individually and as a community) grow and develop our compassion? Vegetarianism/veganism is one of the things that we believe is a way to grow your compassion. How can you respect the Creator If you abuse the creation?

Not all of our members are vegan/vegetarians but all is in a process to grow in compassion towards all of Gods creation.

For us it’s important not to judge people but to inspire and help them take steps towards a more compassionate lifestyle, if someone stops eating animal products completely and another starts to have vegetarian Mondays from listening to our music we’re happy to have helped. On every journey there’s a first step and a second and a 113th… We can only help people take a (small or big) step, not change them altogether.

With that being said, eating meat is both stupid, cruel, egocentric, harmful (to animals, creation and humans and yourself) so please stop doing it!

Svarteskerm – Maktlös

Connect via

Bandcamp: http://svarteskerm.bandcamp.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Svarteskerm/36537262026

Nunca Es Tarde’s Veg X Wolf on being vegan in Panama

Posted on by PalangL

Veg X Wolf singer of Nunca Es Tarde:

Being a vegan hardcore kid in a non-vegan scene

Panama is a country where ethic veganism doesn’t exist, since we are little they make us believe that eating other living things, taking they’re newborns food (milk) or eating their menstruation (eggs) is something completely normal.

The fault of this is the lack of information, organizations for the ethical treatment of animals don’t exist in panama and in the hardcore scene there aren’t people who want to get involve on veganism (giving information/educating others about this).

Even though only 2 members of nunca es tarde are vegan and that most of our lyrics are about straight edge or about supporting the hardcore scene we always give informative flyers about ethic veganism every time we are invited to a gig and we have a few songs about this subject.

Compasion / Compassion:

Estas feliz con esto? / are you happy with this?
Asesinas por placer / you kill for pleasure
Consumis por tradición / you consume because of tradition
Donde se fue la razón? / where has the reason left?

Basta ya! Basta ya! / stop it now, stop it no!
No mas consumo y maltrato animal / no more combustion or animal abuse!
Basta ya! Basta ya! / Stop it now, stop it now!
Ahora es cuando debemos actuar! / This is the time when we have to act!

Cual es el punto? / whats the point?
Cual es la razón? / Whats the reason?
Esta en ti! Es tu decisión / its in you, its your decision
No consumir, no asesinar / no consumption, no killin
Yo decidí por ellos luchar. / i have decided to fight for them

Basta ya! Basta ya! / stop it now, stop it no!
No mas consumo y maltrato animal / no more combustion or animal abuse!
Basta ya! Basta ya! / Stop it now, stop it now!
Ahora es cuando debemos actuar! / This is the time when we have to act!

From the release: http://nuncaestarde.bandcamp.com/track/nunca-es-tarde

Connect via
FB: https://www.facebook.com/NETxCrew
Bandcamp: http://nuncaestarde.bandcamp.com

Knives and Forks for Freedom on awareness and the complexity of ethical veganism

Posted on by PalangL

Vegan punks, Knives and Forks for Freedom

Cody, multitasking member of the political hardcore punk band Knives and Forks for Freedom from Canada, tells us his thoughts on the complexity of ethical veganism:

For me, living in the industrial capitalist world, there is almost no reason not to be vegan. I believe that not enough people are truly aware of the consequences of supporting industrial animal agriculture. It is safe to say that the majority of the population is mostly unaware, or chooses not to acknowledge the reality of the practices of factory farming and slaughterhouses. Animals are born into a life of confinement in poor conditions until their brutal slaughter, very often done without anaesthesia. It’s very obvious that this is the reason slaughterhouses are not made of glass walls and are often located in remote areas, safe from public awareness. Otherwise, so much less people would knowingly support this industry.

I generally have a reasonably optimistic view on humanity though. I’m sure most people would be opposed to these practices if they were more aware of them. After all, many people like animals, such as their pets. No one would want their dog or cat to have to experience a life of confinement, neglect and torture. But because of the complete disconnect with where this food comes from, no one really thinks about it. It seems that most people are led to believe in vague myths that this food comes from traditional family farms where animals live happily. But instead, what we have is intensive factory operations whose primary goal is to create profit as efficiently and cheaply as possible.

On top of all of this, industrial animal agriculture generates so much pollution and causes great environmental damage. It also requires so much more grains, soy and water to feed livestock than the food created from plants. It’s just very inefficient and unsustainable. So by simply refusing to support the industry, it creates less demand for the products and then creates less harm. So for me, the refusal to support these industries is also rooted in an anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist way of thinking.

At a larger level, we live in a culture based on hierarchy and power. Animal’s being forced to spend their lives in confinement and poor conditions for people’s benefit is one example of that. I think we’re also vaguely led to believe in a “survival of the fittest” myth, which ultimately just serves to normalize the idea that it’s completely fine for the dominant class to rule and exploit those who they consider “inferior”. In the case of non-human animals, this denies them their sentience and their own right to live. As such, it’s absolutely essential to be critical of power relations in all levels in society. In the case of veganism, it is simply about making small daily choices to simply not support industries built on exploitation. Our comforts and pleasures should not exist at the expense of the lives of others.

Please Don’t Eat Me

Well I know it’s not the best you’ve ever had,
but I sure don’t think it’s all that bad.
Is it enough knowing that nothing living had to die?
I know you’re used to your meat, but soy is worth a try.

The cows never saw it coming,
relaxing in the green pastures of lies,
never knowing the humans’ insatiable hunger.
No time for this cow now, but who is next?!
Please don’t eat me!

“This tofu tastes terrible”, is all you can ever say.
And “who cares about a fucking cow anyway”,
but have you ever thought about the life they live?
We take so much from this planet, that we never give.

To the death you’d argue it’s about health for you.
Well what’s good for that cow to eat, is fucking good for you too.
If we planted that grain in the fields where they eat,
it would end world hunger and no one would have to eat meat.

There’s no reason for us to still do this.
We have the technology to surpass this savageness.
Humans are much smarter than all other animals on earth,
but when we act like animals,
do we doom ourselves to die…like animals?!

Album: I’m Not Fucked Up, The World Is, released 2011

Dic of the Hour

The dictator of choice wasn’t chosen by you,
but chosen for you.
Believes in America and his country,
believes we do not have a voice.

Put in place, by the powers that be.
I’ve learned enough, they’ll never have control of me.
I’ll keep screaming, ‘til I have no voice.
One day, we’ll remove the dictator of choice.

They laugh, while you slave for your daily food.
People are slaughtered in the streets every minute,
people just like you.

A new dictator; how many times will they do it?
How many times will no one notice?
Until the whole world, is fucking third world!?

Album: Who’s in Control?, released 2012

Connect through:

Bandcamp: http://kafff.bandcamp.com
FB: https://www.facebook.com/4freedom4all

Holy on their AR veganism, on belief systems and intersectional approaches

Posted on by PalangL


Holy vegan hardcore from Milan

Stefano, singer of Holy told us about animal rights, veganism, belief systems and intersectional approaches:

The four of us approached veganism in very different ways and time, I think that mostly what we share is that we all became vegans because we have a critical view of the world around us.

The biggest strength of the meat industry is the “don’t question” approach, consuming animals or animal product is something that in most cases is done without consciousness, no one ever wonders about how cows turned into steak, it’s not something considered questionable at all. Just part of the everyday normal life.

It happened in a certain moment of our life that we started questioning it, of course punk has had a huge influence in the process of making this choice. It’s because of punk that we perceived veganism for the first time as a political choice, and not only as some kind of fashionable hippy diet. When we started this band, we’ve put our opinion about animal rights in the spotlight, so we knew that there could have been misunderstandings about our band name’s origin and meaning.

During these years, more than once we had to make ourselves clear about the fact that we are not a religious band, but we are 4 rationalists/atheists. The way we practice veganism, as I said, is as a conscious lifestyle, and I can’t imagine anything further from this than religion.
It is a CHOICE, not an act of faith, and we’re committed to this not to save our souls, or empower our karmic whatever. We are vegan because we care both for human and for non-human life; we don’t see humanity as the center of the universe, nor the top of food chain.

I grew up in Italy, which has still a Catholic culture. This made me think how deep the roots of speciesism are. If you try to think about the idea that men are created in the image and likeness of God, you realize that this people is basically telling you “you are not an animal.” You’re something above all life, and below God only, and this is not only because this is written in the Old Testament, this is because the Catholic Church is still against evolution theory, and still supporting and spreading this shitty idea of creationism. This is a hetero-normative patriarchal Church of a god that created man out of clay (but not women of course, who are just a product of an extra rib.)

You have to know that in Italy the relations between church and state are still regulated by a 1929 agreement Between Mussolini and Pope Pio IX. Catholicism is still considered the main religion, is still a class in primary school (although it is optional), and we still have crucifixes in our classrooms. This means that the Christian imprinting is pretty effective on children at first, and also on the whole population.

Some eastern religions are known for being more “animal friendly” or even for preaching explicitly not to eat meat. Through the years these religions fascinated western people because for some reason they’re perceived, as more “human” and peaceful compared to monotheist religions.

What really depress me is not religious people themselves (as an Atheist, I stand for the freedom of questioning), but the fact that most of the people (to be honest 100% of the ones I’ve met) who approached vegetarianism through religion, seem to be incapable of connecting it to other aspects of life and politics. I mean, I don’t care if the Bhagavad Gita tells you to eat cheese and yoghurt, but how can you consider yourself and intelligent person if you stop eating meat to spare animal lives on one side, and on the other you are still contributing to death, consuming dairy products, because your god told you so? An act of faith is weak by definition: an individual makes choices and reinforces those choices, themselves, even thou it’s oblivious that the choice could be wrong.

This is one of the many ways of how veganism is intersectional to me, it’s both the result of many choices that lead me to what I am today and one of the foundations of what I will be tomorrow. As a thinking person, not just as a vegan.

Asleep

Give us today / our poisoned bread / our daily piece of trash / our dose of forgiveness / altars for those who torture / gallows for those who care / how long will the lambs / be so bloodthirsty? / the sleep of consciousness / built cities and gold paved streets / monuments to its own failure / to praise / to bless / to sleep / forever.

Album: Self Titled 12″ released by Hell Yes! (2012 release)

FREE DOWNLOAD: www.mediafire.com?a5bt7rzkz7rhnae

Restless

I’ve been told a better place awaits
I’ve been told we’ll lay and rest in peace
I’ve been told love lasts forever
Over our dead bodies
I’ve been told no more suffering
I’ve been told no more pain
I’ve been told but if I ask now nobody answers
And my knuckles hurt, my nails are worn
There’s no gold at the end of the road
I’ve been told but if I ask now
Nobody answers
Is anybody out there?
It’s only gravity
Pushing us down so fucking down
Until the ground will swallow us

Album: The Age Of Collapse (2013 release)

Live at Aladdin Jr in Pomona CA (USA) June 2013

Connect via:

Bandcamp: http://holyvegan.bandcamp.com/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/holyvegan

Band of Mercy, Texans, Veganocrats

Posted on by PalangL


Band of Mercy, courtesy toomanyweapons.com

Band of Mercy, Texans, Veganocrats

Singer, guitarist Daniel from theHoustonTXbased vegan hardcore Animal Liberation Band of Mercy told us about vegan effectiveness, possibilities of leading by example and basic intersectional veganism:

My main concern, at this point in my life (after being vegan for 8 years, and being an animal rights activist for more than 5 of those years), is the issue of promoting vegan culture. Of course, the basis of why someone stays vegan throughout their life usually comes from maintaining veganism as a philosophy based on ethics, as opposed to being a  lifestyle that affords them the most personal pleasure (let’s face it, most dietary vegans will make exceptions to what they feel is a restrictive lifestyle). Unfortunately, the ethics of veganism aren’t the most appealing aspect of veganism to most people. So what is our best approach to help the most animals and reduce the greatest amount of cruelty to them?

As activists, we must consciously remind ourselves that most people DO care about animals to some degree, and that most people do not wish harm upon them. Most people accept animal cruelty as an obscured part of our food system, fashion industry, clinical fields, and so on, simply because they think things have always been that way, and that they are powerless to change things. It’s not that they wish cruelty onto animals–rather, they feel their personal sacrifices to help animals would likely not be worth the effort.

What I have found has worked best for me, in my personal life with friends and family, as well as in my activist life, is to be an educated example of personal empowerment. I have taught myself how to thrive as a vegan, and I have made it a point that all those around me see how I am thriving as a vegan. After all, everyone wants to thrive in their lives. We must aim to show people that veganism requires more discipline than sacrifice– and more importantly, that the discipline we teach ourselves to live by will enhance and benefit our lives, not wear us down or limit our potential to have fun and be happy.

I have become stronger and healthier on a vegan diet. It requires some education to learn how to eat optimally as a vegan, and it does require some planning and discipline, but my physical and mental gains from eating optimally make my life more enjoyable, as I am able to do more activities that I enjoy for greater lengths of time, even as I get older. I eat a wider variety of foods, and I enjoy the rituals of eating more now than I did as an omnivore. Food is now a celebration in my life, not just something I must consume as a matter of hunger and convenience. Not only this, but many variations of vegan food and clothing are in fact cheaper than animal-based alternatives. Through veganism we all stand to gain physically, mentally, financially, as well as knowing the peace of mind that comes with thriving while causing the least amount of harm to others.

We must empower ourselves with the knowledge of how to live vegan in an optimal way, and then we must share that knowledge with those who are curious about veganism so that we may build vegan culture. For those who are not yet curious, we must live so boldly that we invoke their interest. We can not tear down the ways of old without offering the population newer, better ways to live. They will join us when they see us laughing, when they see us succeed and lead in the workplace, when they see us staying lean and healthy into old age, when they can see that our intellect is not just one dimensional–that we read books and make creative contributions to the world outside of the concepts of animal rights. We must show that we are well-rounded, well-developed individuals who have educated views.

While the ethical arguments are always abound in the world where people want to question us or be skeptical of us for not eating animals, and in this world of cruelty as the norm where protest is so often necessary, we must be able to shift our focus beyond the ongoing debates when necessary. We must become leaders who shed the light on a better, healthier, more positive way to live. In the end, that is how we will save the most animals.

Band of Mercy – Eat to Win

There is a war, and me must fight
But we won’t win if we don’t eat right
Billions are suffering, so we must prevail
You want Vegan Power?
You better eat KALE!!

Tofu, rice, and beans – BEANS!
And dark leafy greens – GREENS!
Fruits and nuts and seeds – SEEDS!
Partake of these to smash enemies

War is upon us, like it or not
No hippies or weaklings, we need juggernauts
‘Cause change never comes from asking nicely
You want Liberation?
You better eat broccoli!!

Tofu, rice, and beans – BEANS!
And dark leafy greens – GREENS!
Fruits and nuts and seeds – SEEDS!
Partake of these to smash enemies

Born to lose, eat to win!
Toughened by tempeh, strengthened by seitan
Born to lose, eat to win!
We scoff at the phrase “protein deficient” (HA!)

(“Where do I get my protein? What, are you a fuckin’ idiot??”)

Show them a vegan like they’ve never seen
Primed to deliver one million ass beatings!

Tofu, rice, and beans – BEANS!
And dark leafy greens – GREENS!
Fruits and nuts and seeds – SEEDS!
Partake of these to smash enemies

Connect via:

FB: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Band-of-Mercy-the-band/130053330369316
Bandcamp: http://bandofmercy.bandcamp.com

 

Davey xSABOTEURx on vegan AR intersectionality!

Posted on by PalangL

xSABOTEURx at the Asylum 2 – Birmingham, 8.04.2013

We asked Davey, the bassist of the former UK vegan band xSABOTEURx, about his view on ethical veganism and animal rights intersectionality:

Basically for me veganism has always been for the animals and that’s how I would imagine it would stay. The band tackled issues of homophobia and sexism too with our vocalist at the time being gay.

We also come from a background where there’s a lot of privilege and consumerism in hardcore and honestly that’s just never been what it’s about for us.

Our politics have always been about liberation, both human and animal, and that’s something that should always continue on for us.

xSABOTEURx – Reaction

“In a world that’s fueled by the suffering of others,
ignorance is no longer an option. I would rather see
the world for what it really is than blind myself with
excuses. No longer will I stand by and watch as the
innocent fall victim to selfish desires. No more.”
Abstinence from a culture guilty of atrocity,
industries that profit off other beings misery,
mind altering substances that keep thought distracted,
pay heed to our crimes,
this is my reaction.
How many more have to suffer?
I can no longer stand by and do nothing,
as life is destroyed by human consumption,
slaves to convenience,
faith in a bottle,
this is my reaction in a world so hollow.
VEGAN STRAIGHT EDGE
Rape,
Vivisection,
Murder,
Exploitation,
Suffering,
Misery,
This is my reaction,
I won’t stand still.
Won’t stand still.
Won’t stand still.

xSABOTEURx – Unjustified

Compassion for those you once called friends,
lost among false notions of survival,
tradition is delusion in a modern age,
where substitute can take deaths place.
Slaughter, unjustified.
Slaughter, unjustified.
Animals aren’t commodity
or ours to control
industry to industry,
all will fall.
The hunters hunted,
the demons exposed,
no compromise for those who oppose.
Mass liberation from the hands of moral corruption,
those who’d brand a currency on sentient life.
Now is the time!
Mass liberation
from the hands of moral corruption.
Righteous vengeance on those who oppress.
It’s time for us to recognize,
retribution of nature’s calling.
Every second that’s spent waiting,
leads to another demise.

Both track are from xSABOTEURx – Demonstration, released in May 2013.

Via FB: https://www.facebook.com/saboteurxvx

Orel Ofoi, singer of Paris-based vegan band FTA, on animal ethics and veganism as global ethics

Posted on by PalangL

Orel Ofoi is the singer of the Paris-based vegan band FTA. We asked Orel about how she sees animal- and vegan ethics and their contexts:

My idea of the ethic regarding the respect of animals and animal protection is really a global ethic: The respect for animals will have an impact on environmental protection and on the respect for human beings themselves.

In the Judeo-Christian religion, for instance, the majority of people read the biblical text with the notion that humans stand at the centre of the world, and that they have to dominate the earth and the animals, thus dismissing the image of the human as a shepherd: who is a friend and protector face to face, on the same ground with the environment and other lives … .

I think that we should see the relationship between humans and animals as a relation of “co-creatures”, based on respect, love and protection of the others.

The Earth is our mother, and the human is the most dangerous animal for her and her environment.

An individual awareness all over the world would be necessary to see a real evolution; one, by fighting those who’ve become cancerous to the planet, who murder us physically and alienate us on a daily basis; I speak about Monsanto for example or also the lobbyists (pharmaceutical or agro food, etc.).

I believe that it is necessary to support ethical producers and to not hesitate with sharing the message, because we need to stick together and to be united to see a real revolution and a real ethical evolution.