Amyl and The Sniffers: channelling the aggression of Minor Threat into 2024

Posted On October 6, 2024October 6, 2024

Although their lifespan as a band was brief, Minor Threat have remained a constant inspiration to punk acts since their rise and fall in the early 1980s. Over the course of three EPs released between 1981 and 1983, the Washington, D.C. group revolutionised hardcore in a way that continues to be felt in acts that are emerging today.

With a palpable sense of rage in their music and the vitriolic lyricism of frontman Ian MacKaye, Minor Threat emerged at a time when the UK punk scene was beginning to soften and lose its influential grip over the rest of the world. They offered an alternative that was truly counter-cultural and favoured DIY ethics over adhering to any industry-manufactured ideals or complying with image standards.

Alongside Black Flag and Bad Brains, Minor Threat are among the notable trailblazers in US hardcore punk, and for good reason. Their riffs were played at breakneck speeds, the vocals were guttural screams, and their message was straight to the point, unlike the post-punk and new wave that was emerging around the same time, which shrouded itself in artsy and philosophical musings.

This may sound like a formula, which is a view that hardcore punks might be dismissive of, but the simplicity of its ethos is why the notion that ‘punk will never die’ still rings true, and there are more than a fair share of acts in existence around the world that still share this same modus operandi. Emerging from Australia in 2016, Amyl and the Sniffers are one of the truest representations of this in action today.

Since their self-titled debut album in 2019, the Melbourne group have risen to notoriety for their similar brashness and couldn’t-give-a-fuck attitude. Vocalist Amy Taylor doesn’t mince her words when delivering her lyrics; the bile and anger are heard in every line she belts out, and she’s far from shy when it comes to conveying her message through often vulgar turns of phrase.

Taylor has been vocal about her appreciation of Minor Threat in past interviews, telling Brooklyn Vegan that “Ian MacKaye is really interesting, and the aggression in this music has had a big influence on me”. The tone in which Taylor’s diatribes are projected is just as avoidant of melody as MacKaye’s were in Minor Threat, relying largely on aggression to harness that impact.

That doesn’t mean that neither were competent as vocalists. In fact, they serve as reminders that vocals can be delivered in a variety of different ways as long as they directly complement the music. While there are differences in what Amyl and the Sniffers do when compared to Minor Threat (Amyl often exceed two-minute song lengths and has polished production), Taylor and MacKaye’s styles both reflect the furious nature of the music their respective bands produce.

In another interview with Get Alternative, Taylor discusses how hearing Minor Threat, in particular, shaped her view on punk and what it means to her, stating that “it wasn’t really an ethos or anything like that until I got older and started looking up singers of more traditional punk bands […] like Minor Threat.”

It’s hard to deny how much influence Minor Threat might have had on songs like ‘Freaks to the Front’ and ‘Don’t Fence Me In’ among others from Amyl and the Sniffers’ catalogue, and with the true spirit of punk still going strong, it wouldn’t be surprising to see both bands keeping their legacy burning and influencing the next generation of hardcore punks.

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