The music community that lives together reunites together: In recent years, many of the northern-Virginia and D.C.-area screamo bands that warped punk back in the late 90s and early 2000s and went on to influence contemporary heavies (Touche Amore, anyone?) have reemerged. The group of bands in that scene—which includes City of Caterpillar and Malady, among others—would be incomplete without Majority Rule, whose three members teamed up again last year for the first time since they called it quits in 2004. As singer-guitarist Matt Michel told zine-turned-blog Disposable Underground the band regrouped after Page 99 guitarist Mike Taylor asked him if Majority Rule would want to partner with the band for a string of benefit shows: “The idea of being able to make a greater impact with what we could raise as bands rather than what we could give as individuals was a big motivator.” The groups raised close to $40,000 for a handful of organizations that focus on advocacy for immigrants and refugees, LGBTQ rights, and reproductive freedom, among other progressive issues, according to the Washington City Paper. Majority Rule have since decided to continue their reunion, in part to raise funds and awareness for local causes in each city they play. Last year, the band reissued the three releases they put out in the early 00s on the longtime punk-hardcore label Magic Bullet Records (which was based in the same Virginia scene at the time) via founder Brent Eyestone’s new music company, Dark Operative. Majority Rule’s 2003 swan song, Emergency Numbers, is particularly worthy of deep study; its acerbic guitars and flesh-lacerating vocals are quick to scald, and the group’s veiled lyrics suggest that just below the surface there’s so much more of their world to discover. v
Majority Rule’s screamo songs burn hard more than a decade after they broke up
