Politics...Hatred...Endless war. We doomscroll as our rights are stripped away. Bombings. Kidnappings. Mass shootings. The nightly news is a litany of brutality. Assassination. Subjugation. Deportation. We argue with each other while the rich get richer and cruelty is normalized. These are just a few of the reasons why the title of The Casualties' new album is Detonate. Detonate is the second chapter in a new epoch for The Casualties. As their second album with David Rodriguez at the mic, it solidifies the vocalist's partnership with drummer Marc "Meggers" Eggers and guitarist Jake Kolatis . "It's like a new era for the band," Meggers says. "It solidifies that Dave is here to stay." As the follow-up to 2018's Written in Blood and their first record for Hellcat Records - the Epitaph subsidiary curated by Tim Armstrong of Rancid - Detonate sees this new version of The Casualties locking into place. "We were in the studio for Written in Blood about eight months after I joined," Rodriguez says. "With this new record, we really grew together. For me, it's the proud moment where we clicked the three Legos together."