Biography
Moscow Death Brigade is a band from Moscow, Russia that plays a mix of hip-hop, punkrock and electronic music. The band's music and masked appearance emphasize its stance against racism, sexism and homophobia. The band does not consider itself a political band and claims that their views are just "human".
The band was founded in 2007 under the name Hoods Up 495. The members come from the hardcore punk scene and have worked with among others, the streetpunk band Razor Bois and the crossover band Siberian Meat Grinder. Common to all members is a fondness for the hip-hop of the 1980s / 1990s like the Beastie Boys, Cypress Hill, or the Transplants and an anti-fascist attitude. After renaming they changed to their current style to connect aggressive rap with guitar-heavy hardcore beats, followed a year later by releasing a second self-titled demo tape with three songs.
In 2014 the group released their first EP called Hoods Up, a reference to the former band name, on the German label Fire and Flames Music. The EP attracted the attention of Europe's punk scene and ensured that the band became known outside Russia's borders.
After extensive tours through Eastern and Central Europe, including among others with Feine Sahne Fischfilet, a split EP with the fellow Russian anti-fascist hardcore band What We Feel called Here to Stay was released, followed by another split release on Audiolith Records with the bands Feine Sahne Fischfilet, Los Fastidios and What We Feel. The latter was a benefit EP whose proceeds benefited the families of murdered Russian antifascists.
In May 2017, the band released the single Brother & Sisterhood and announced both a new album and the continuation of their European tour in the fall.
In February 2018, Moscow Death Brigade released their first full-length album Boltcutter on Fire and Flames Music. Expanding their musical style further the band produced an entirely electronic record combining styles like Drum’n’Bass, EDM, Hardstyle, Dub and more. The two MC's and DJ continued rapping on every track with lyrics about unity, touring, graffiti, street activism and struggle against discrimination. Following the release of Boltcutter the band embarked on a two-part Euro tour playing more than 40 headlining shows across the continent and in the UK, as well as appearing at various DIY and commercial festivals like Boomtown Fair (UK) and With Full Force (Germany). The band also opened several shows for Feine Sahne Fischfillet in this year.
In 2019 Moscow Death Brigade was signed to German booking agency Destiny Tourbooking and went to play another Euro tour, returning to Boomtown, playing at Xtreme Fest (France) and opening for Madball in Spain.
On April 10, 2020 the album Bad Accent Anthems was released. With it the band continued experimenting with electronic sounds, but also returned to more punk rock and heavy metal inspired beats, as well as implemented electric guitars in some of the rave songs.
The album release tour for Bad Accent Anthems was to be the biggest tour for MDB yet, with more than 70 shows and festivals planned for Europe, UK and the band's first tour in the US. The band was supposed to perform at famous music festivals such as Punkrock Bowling (Las Vegas), Roskilde (Denmark) and Exit fest (Serbia). However, due to the COVID-19 pandemic the entire tour and all the festivals were cancelled with most of the shows moving to 2021.
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