WE STILL KNOW...
Collateral / Burning Lord Split EP out now
February 6th 2026 - the COLLATERAL / BURNING LORD SPLIT EP is finally here. This had been a little over a year in the making, but our love for both of these bands stems back to their respective demos.. Initially, Collateral & Burning Lord were pioneers of the “playing straight up hardcore” wave in a time where that was not super popular.. alongside bands like WRECKAGE and whoever else.. As HARDCORE continues to come back to its true form and more bands play this roots style of HC … what better way to celebrate it than a split release from kings of this shit from Boston & South Florida.
This is a split release with our friends over at Fortress Records. There is also an exclusive variant available from Doug @ Tribe Dream Records. Both labels have exclusive variants that are dedicated to the Miami Heat & Boston Celtics (both of which we hate.. but a nod to local sports teams is always cool in our book).
Our love for Burning Lord has been well documented. We’re lucky to work with them in any fashion.. but we’ve been rocking with Collateral since their inception as well. I remember seeing them play a pre-show for House Of Disorder in 2022 or 2023.. whenever their demo came out.. I’d been listening to the demo obsessively and this was the first time I’d seen em. The set popped and the energy was high, everyone was hyped up. I asked Mikey and Sid if we could do a record together then, and it never came to fruition, so when this opportunity came about, we jumped on it. and here we are!
Buy Your Shit From Streets Of Hate
VIDEO EVIDENCE OF COLLATERAL PLAYING THE LAST AMERICA’S HARDCORE FEST FROM THE SOH ARCHIVE.. SEEING THE LIGHT OF DAY OF THE FIRST TIME RIGHT HERE AND NOW…
Here’s an interview we did with Fortress Records CEO / Drummer Of Collateral (Mikey Morales) via text yesterday (Feb 5th)
Q : Let’s start with some basics. How’d you get into hardcore?
A : So I guess it’s a bit of two things, I’m showing my age in more ways than one here but
1. For people around my age Tumblr was like THE huge online thing (circa 2011/12). I was really into a lot of post hardcore stuff at the time and eventually I started seeing people post actual hardcore bands like TUI, Bitter End, Backtrack, Terror etc.
2. Right around this same time that my friends in high school and I are showing each other all these more grounded bands that aren’t just mall-metal or rock bands we grew up on, we start hearing about local gigs that are happening right down the street at this place called the Talent Farm. People I knew were going but I hadn’t gone until Title Fight played there in 2012 and some older kids were flyering for some local shows coming up soon after and it was a bunch of shows with bands like Blistered, Hit List, Losin’ It, Axis, etc. Pretty much have not stopped going to shows since then!
Q : How was the SFL scene when you first started comin around.. how’s the scene there now compared to back then?
A : I feel like vibe these days reminds me a bit of when I first started coming around, a lot of mixed bills, a lot of kids that liked all kinds of shit coming around to every kind of show not just Hardcore. I think that’s been a great cheat code historically to keep new heads poppin in and out.
I’d say even though the 2016-2020 block of the SFL scene are some of my favorite years being involved in hardcore it was also the point here where we had like the least new people ever coming in. The shows and bands were still so great cause almost everyone that was in those rooms cared so so much.
I sometimes think that we probably just got so used to that being our reality that maybe we weren’t as welcoming as we should’ve been, as a whole community, to newcomers.
Honestly things are so great right now, aside from some venues being lost we’ve got so many kids coming out to shows, we’ve got a lot of new bands made up mostly of kids that have now been around for a couple of years if not less. The uncs are being outnumbered but thats probably for the best!
Q : What are some of the newer SFL bands you’re fuckin with most? And what’s the best hardcore record to ever come out of the SFL hardcore scene?
A : Exit Life and No Truth are sick and are kinda wielding the torch on metallic hardcore. Barricade and Ballpark are also sick and are holding down some more fast style hc.
Another band that kinda missed me when they first popped up but watching them play their newer songs live lately has completely captivated me, this band Enemy To All, they’re the only band down here that I’m aware of that’s doing Converge/ Swarm of the Lotus kinda weirdo metallic hardcore, they’re pretty cracked.
Best Hardcore Record out of the SFL scene is tough…. No dickride but maybe Object to Persona by Be All End All. If I had to go a lil older I’d say Massive Fucking Headwounds by Mehkago NT…
and if I had to go even a lil more older than that… honorable mention, Morning Again - The Cleanest War. Probably has all my favorite MA songs back to back with no bs.
Q : You fuck with this ..
A : Ohh ya, they bring out mad demonic ancient Miami heads. One time I saw em at Churchill’s, I think they were opening for Leeway and this old ass dude jumped on stage and threw a mic stand, like those reaally heavy bottomed ones, at someone in the crowd. The show got put on pause while the ambulance came to carry out the receiver of said mic stand. It was about to get shut down but they ended up moving it to another, even smaller Miami venue called Shirley’s (the green room for Gramps for those who might be familiar with Gramps) and Leeway did their set there at 2am.
I ended up driving home instead of that second half of the show and its probably one of my biggest regrets ever. Everyone who went told me it was the most insane show ever and I don’t even think there’s any video proof of it happening….
I raise you this …
(Moral Of This Section … Listen to ANGER & OUT OF SPITE.. OLD SCHOOL SFL HC)
Q : Ok Back on track …When did you start playing in bands? What was the first one that you played in that you thought was good
A : I had three pretty bad bands before through up until like 2015 that I won’t bring to light..
I think xelegyx is the first band that I look back on and I’m like damn it was a cool band and a cool time but I also think the drums sound actually sound so bad on recording, maybe charmingly bad at the very least, which is how I feel about some legacy hardcore band demos that I love too
Q : Yea I think xELEGYx is the first band of yours that I was aware of to.. I could ask about all the bands you played in but let’s just jump right into Collateral shit.. when the band first started how’d it come together? Had you played in bands with any of those guys before
A : Tobby was the initiator on that, he had a buncha riffs, even lyrical / drumming ideas, it was all very realized. When I came to jam the songs we tightened it all up and I think we wrote 1 or 2 of the demo songs together as a band if Im not mistaken.
I’d never done a band with any of outside of my immediate close circle so I was a bit nervous on like band chemistry and what not. I was already friends with them all though, just not as close as we are now ofc.
Q : My timelines all fucked up, what came first Collateral or Fortress Records?
A : Fortress was originally gonna just be a fanzine, but the idea to do it as a label instead happened at Collateral practice when I realized about how awesome the songs were and I thought it could be a cool way to do something for the scene since there wasn’t a whole lot going on around the time (freshly post covid)
Q : Right so the Collateral demo was the first Fortress release.. how quickly did you have other bands and people hitting you up to do stuff for them
A : Honestly the first few things I put out was me reaching out to homies that I could tell knew the vision for the label that I had in mind. Originally I wanted to keep it sfl only but that was short lived (pretty much just year one) between there not being enough going on down here at that time plus there were bands I was interested in that weren’t from here. Some of the more recent stuff has been people actually hitting me up to do a release
Q : Yea I feel like Fortress pretty quickly became a staple label in the scene.. it’s been dope to see. Which leads us to now.. the release of the Collateral / Burning Lord split. We started talking about this at FYA 2025 and it only took a little over a year to get our act together but here we are. Besides being in Collateral you had a pretty heavy hand in getting this record laid out, the art situated and all that. What was the process like for you getting this thing together compared to say.. the We Still Know 7” or other releases you’ve done on Fortress in the past
A : Thank you bro, I honestly feel sometimes like I’m still playing catch up compared to other labels so I appreciate that
It was kinda similar to dropping WSK in the way that a lot of the duties were split up, something I just now realized has only happened with those two releases cause everything else on the label I handle alone. Maybe also easier this time around just cause I’m a little more used to the record drop preparation shit now, especially after the last few months that have been the busiest for me thus far.
Also the constant … uh… delays … gave me more than enough time to get the art made (tha homie Hustleman) and do the layout
Q : To close this out, what’s next for Fortress & for Collateral now that the splits out?
A : Next up for Fort: Street Hassle - “Salt of the Earth”, the debut EP by some all-stars in the Syracuse scene
Next up for Collateral: We’re finishing up writing a full-length LP that hopefully will be out sometime in the Summer of this year!
Q : Thanks brotha - lastly, what’re your top 5 favorite NYHC band? In any order..
A : Cro-Mags, Citizens Arrest, Breakdown, Agnostic Front, Killing Time
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Nicole :
Hum - Downward Is Heavenward
Supertouch - The Earth Is Flat
Charli XCX - Wuthering Heights
Momma - Welcome To My Blue Sky
Sin Against Sin - Demo
Josh :
Rites Of Spring - S/T
The Clay - Middle East Combat Area
Unified Right - LP
College Basketball Podcasts
Whatever the DJs play at High School Basketball Games…
Alex :
Recollection - Vivid Dreams
Discontent - Processing Upheaval
Tegan & Sara - The Con
Shift - Spacesuit
Everybody Takes One - We’ve Got What It Takes