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I found this article online - It's written by Maureen C. Wyse

The New Generation
Today’s vegan hardcore bands truly live the message they promote. In particular, Seven Generations from
Southern California does everything they can for those nonhuman animals still enslaved. They get their name
from the Iroquois belief that “in our every deliberation, we must consider the impact of our decisions on the next
seven generations.” Chris Rouse, lead singer, not only writes the lyrics, he writes essays explaining the
meanings of the songs. He also spends time between performing to explain the songs and shares stories of
animal abuse and liberation. Chris explains, “Seven Generations formed and exists for the purpose of
spreading revolutionary ideals through the underground hardcore and punk rock communities and to use our
band as a vehicle for social and political change. We denounce with a feverish hatred the teachings of a
patriarchal culture that thrives on anthropocentrism, sexism, racism, classism, nationalism and capitalism. We
encourage all to become politically and socially aware and get involved in the struggles for animal liberation,
humyn liberation and earth liberation… We have all lived in the chains of a culture that has starved our bodies
and spirits for far too long. A new dawn is breaking and the sun of freedom will shine again someday.”

Gather, from North California, is another gem within this movement united in the idea of playing music “with a
message.” The members of Gather were “convinced that the scene was thirsty for a political message and that
the waning interest in animal liberation needed to be changed.” More so than anything else, Gather is rooted in
their mantra: Total Liberation. Eva, Gather’s singer, believes that veganism is one step, but another step needs
to be taken because “their lives are in your hands.” She believes those who work within the system in order to
change the abuse animals endure must wake up and realize that this process is not quick enough for the
beagles in the Huntingdon Life Sciences laboratories or for the battery hen in the transportation truck. Dustin,
drummer of Gather, challenges us to constantly educate ourselves about all forms of liberation: “always
challenge yourself to ‘improve’ your way of existing, be it by complying with more sustainable diets or
questioning even long held personal ideologies (like veganism or straight-edge).”

Vegan hardcore is still fighting—perhaps stronger and harder than ever. Beyond veganism, it is the liberation
of all animals—human and non—and the earth. This is not just about the performance, singing, moshing, or
carousing, it is in memorizing the lyrics, singing along, listening to the talks between the songs, gaining
consciousness through the music, living the messages, and acting out together. “We are,” as my 17 year-old
brother Casey, a vegan straight-edge hardcore kid, says, “in a movement that is actually fighting for
something—fighting a threat that still exists.” Contrasting that with a decade earlier, when I was 13, seeing Trial
and listening to Earth Crisis for the first time—making the connection between society’s problems and animal
exploitation—I saw the destruction I was personally causing and what I could do to change. The decade gap
between does not exist, vegan hardcore unites us all—total liberation now!

Maureen C. Wyse is an organizer of New York University’s Students for Education on Animal Liberation. She is
a photographer and vegan hardcore enthusiast. For more information on vegan hardcore visit New Eden
Records at www.newedenrecords.comand Rebuilding Communications Distribution, www.xrebuildingx.com.