Infest, Citizens Arrest

Infest is an influential hardcore punk band, formed in September 1986 by Joe Denunzio, Matt Domino, Dave Ring and Chris Clift.

Infest, while not coining the term power violence, were definitely pioneers of it. The Los Angeles quartet blended the ethos, speed and song structure of straight edge hardcore, along with the aggression and anger of bands like Negative Approach and Negative FX creating a style emulated by many and an energy captured by few. Joe Denunzio's vocals exhibited pure angst, with lyrical content about conformity, war, scene politics and socio-political issues, mostly delivered in an accusational assault.

Straight Edge was an influence in Infest's songwriting, with such songs as 'Mindless' and 'Drunk Motherfucker'. Infest did however differ from their peers in their fervent political stance and imagery, often depicting the tragedies of war and poverty, countering the obligatory "band in action" album covers common to the era. When asked about the hardcore scene Matt Domino said, "I think Hardstance rips it up and Chain of Strength are cool, but Insted and Breakaway are pretty cheesy. It seems most hardcore bands are going for a polished sound and package, we are really not into that." On the contrary, Infest's sound was fuzzy and on many of the early recordings indecipherable, but still captured their raw intensity.

On July 1, 1991, Infest recorded a live set for the Los Angeles radio station KXLU, capturing them in their element. This session was later released by Deep Six Records who also released the No Man's Slave LP. The vocals on No Man's Slave where recorded posthumously and the LP not released until the year 2000. Many Infest bootlegs have been made and are highly sought after by fans.

Infest recently has become a highly popular retro band among not only modern grindcore and thrash fans, but with fans of youth crew hardcore due to their straight edge ethics and moshable songs.


Citizens Arrest were a New York-based band that existed from 1989 to 1991. The group often blended hardcore punk, grindcore and powerviolence styles. Seems that most folks are familiar with them these days as Ted Leo was at one point the singer and then guitarist before joining Animal Crackers and then Chisel. Their main inspiration in the early days of the band were from Boston area hardcore from the 1980s like DYS and SSD as well as early powerviolence pioneers, Infest. In 2011, CXA reunited (with ALL original members) and resumed playing live shows and released a brand new 4-song 7" EP.