INTRODUCING: Entry

As hardcore punk continues to be synonymous with the idea of musical rebellion, it becomes increasingly important that its ideologies continue to be transferred through the decades. Sure, the imagery of hardcore in 2020 differs to the grained screenshots of 1970’s chaos you can find sprawled across the internet, or maybe even your parents are fortunate enough to re-live, but the message at heart has never changed. More familiar with this theme than most are California’s ENTRY, a quintet bought together by an adoration for the proverbial middle finger that is punk rock.

Though guitarist Clayton Stevens is still a prominent figure in the brilliant TOUCHE AMORE – referring to ENTRY as a side project feels derivative – and what started as a mutual desire between Stevens and vocalist Sara G to press record while they performed an art style they loved, has quickly mutated into a 10 armed, fire breathing monster.

Recounting her first desires to take a more detailed look into punk rock like reading a quirky diary passage, Sara discusses her disillusionment with her locale in the years creeping up to teenage life as a major factor in her search for something else. “My family eventually moved to this really small town,” she recalls. “It was super white, super conservative, and I really didn’t fit in there at all, everything I believed was just totally different to everyone else. Even when I go back to visit family now it’s pretty weird, not somewhere I ever want to live again.”

Admittedly the story of a near teenager finding disdain in their local surroundings to then eventually front a hardcore outfit is common place in the genre – but ENTRY‘s beginnings actually differ to most. Meeting Stevens at a show that Sara had driven the band that would become CODE ORANGE to – the duo’s adoration for the likes of MINOR THREAT, and CONVERGE would expand into email sessions between the two exploring song ideas.

Describing the conversation as quite literally “Hey, write some songs, if I like them, I will write lyrics for them” Sara became quickly enamoured by the concept. 2017’s No Relief EP was a nail biting scorch of the potential they had at hand, but new record Detriment is a nine track cataclysm: all the pace changes of RANCID with the attitude of THE CHARIOT. ENTRY are still keeping things grounded though, the band’s ideology is still very much within the independent ethos.

“With ENTRY we kinda just do whatever we want, it’s like: ‘you wanna play three shows in someone’s basement this week? Let’s do it’ or ‘our friends are rolling through town, let’s play a show.” This ethos stretches across the quintets songwriting too, and though Detriment is home to at times uncharted levels of intensity, tracks like Demons show instead a focus on instead emitting intensity from its atmosphere. It’s the kind of track that couldn’t really be written under any other scenario, as Sara goes on to elaborate on their zero pressure structure.

“At some point we kind of just joked around and started playing that [the opening riff for Demons] and we just liked it, and kept it. Kinda like ‘oh here’s a riff that gets slower and slower’ then we realise it’s cool so we decide to keep it. There was never a part where we outright decided to have a slow metal song at the end of the record.”

Potentially what’s most important about all of this is that Sara and co are still inspired by the ongoings of punk rock today, which thankfully they are. Sara barely hesitates before sharing her sentiments. “Absolutely, even if I look around now I feel like most of the people I know that are doing the most for society are people that I met through punk, and especially here in LA – tonnes of bands are super political now, and it’s great that it’s still going pretty strong.”

It can’t be understated how bands like ENTRY are pivotal to not just the survival, but the continued growth of alternative music. Brash, harsh, open, and violent – the five piece fit as well in today’s hardcore environment as they would have in 1980. Armed with belief in their own independence, a cutting new record, and a desire to instigate change to boot: this Californian monster only seem to be scratching the surface of the mark they could potentially leave on hardcore.

Detriment is out now via Southern Lord Recordings.

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