Singled Out: Aftermath's Smash Reset Control

12-09-2018

Aftermath recently released their new music video and single "Smash Reset Control" from their forthcoming album "There Is Something Wrong". To celebrate we asked Kyriakos "Charlie" Tsiolis to tell us about the track. Here is the story:

We have been called a pioneering crossover thrash band over the years for our demo Killing the Future. Don Kaye of Kerrang once wrote it was "too damn fast" in describing it. We knew we had accomplished our goal. That was 1987. In the same years, we decided we wanted to slow it down. We went on to become one of the first progressive/technical bands and ultimately wrote and released a debut record called Eyes of Tomorrow that was dark, complex, atmospheric and progressive. Not a crossover track or riff to be found on over 60 minutes of music. We went on to sue Dr. Dre for trademark infringement in 1996 when he decided to form Aftermath Entertainment. We got signed to Interscope Records, decided to change the name to Mother God Moviestar release a record that sounded nothing like Aftermath, do a tour, and call it a day.

In 2014, Divebomb records contacts us about reissuing Killing the Future on CD. We go to the vault and remaster the tracks. Forcing myself to listen to those songs for the first time since we recorded them, I fell in love with their attitude, speed, energy and aggression. We reunite to do the Headbanger's Open Air fest in Hamburg, Germany that year and as part of rehearsing we decided to write a new song for the gig. We kept on writing. One of the tracks we wrote was Smash Reset Control. We wanted to capture the crossover sound of the 1980s. We weren't sure how it would come out. So many bands say they are returning to their roots and then they record something that sounds nothing like the old stuff. Not to mention any one in particular, but I'm sure you know of a few of them. So when Smash came out sounding the way it did, we were blown away. It was plucked right out of 1986. The lyrics of that track needed the music to sound and be a crossover thrash track. The message is simple: it is time to Smash the current power structure, Reset the system and take back Control. Actually doing it is the hard part. When we decided to release it in advance of the record, we wanted a lyric to be more than lyrics sprayed across the screen. Josh Vargas was the editor we picked to do the video, he got the message and we made some tweaks to his images to get it across in the way images can. It's not about violence even though the images have those scenes, it really is about telling people that violence will be the result if things don't change. It has a positive message that if we all wake up we can change all of this and regain what has been taken. It isn't about the left or right, conservative or liberal, it is really us against them. Them being the top 1 percent of the 1 percent against the rest of us. If we realize that it really isn't the puppets that we call our leaders that really control, then we can all be united instead of being divided by the nonsense, the wedge issues, the talking points on and on. The track is about unity. Brought to you in breakneck speed.

Hearing is believing. Now that you know the story behind the song, listen for yourself and learn more right here!