Pride may become popular every June, but queer and trans artists exist just as loudly across the other 11 months of the calendar. And they’re hardly backing down. Milwaukee-based post-punk skramz band RIOTNINE‘s new EP death before detransition is a staunch example. Written about the many facets of life touched by transgender identity, the four-song debut, released June 2, comes from the heart of the midwest DIY scene as both an artistic feat and political stance against rising national transphobia.
Musically, the release draws clear inspiration from the entirety of the punk and emo movements, from the moody and instrumentally experimental “isolated,exiled” all the way through to the traditionally thrashing seven-minute-long closer “skramzgender.”
Sharp guitar sounds and precise production are a constant across the EP, but the band’s skills shine through whenever they go outside the box. The EP’s second track “eliza” showcases the technical strengths of RIOTNINE; it opens with an airy acoustic introduction, before building to that harder sound that opener “isolated,exiled” established. After a percussion interlude and palpable time signature change, the song builds again. In the titular track “death before detransition,” jazz-adjacent elements are expertly layered in — including horns — in a way reminiscent of (now-defunct) local group Really From. It is not only well-done, but it also fits sonically, elevating RIOTNINE from standard DIY emo to real up-and-comers in their scene.
In an Instagram post, the band commemorated the release by describing death before detransition as “an EP of fear, anger and distraught. The politicalization, and consequential polarization, of our identities has infested many LGBT freedoms, spaces, and art forms with hatred. We do not know a way out of this, but we must continue our fight together. Fascism is not solely a beast of ignorance, it is forged in complacency.”
While RIOTNINE continue focusing their energy on building community in their hometown of Milwaukee, we’ll be rooting them on from here in Boston.