Destination Mincecore: Catching Up with Antifascist Gorehounds Haggus

One day when I was fifteen and a sophomore in high school, my Honors English teacher asked us to bring in an object that we felt represented us and present it to the class. By orchestrating this awkward teenage show-and-tell, he hoped to get us to open up to one another, and to find some common ground between the various anxious overachievers, dreamy nerds, and self-important goths who cluttered up his class roster.

I can't remember how successful that ended up being, but I do recall my own contribution to the exercise with perfect clarity: a copy of Cannibal Corpse's 2002 album, Gore Obsessed. As I went on to explain to my classmates, it worked on two levels: Cannibal Corpse was my favorite band, and I truly was obsessed with gore (metal, at least—I still hide my eyes at horror movies).

To set the scene a little, after speed-running a regrettable but inevitable nu-metal phase (it was the late 90s/early 2000s, what do you want from me?), I'd landed squarely in the extreme metal camp. By the time I'd gotten my learners permit, I was already consumed by death metal and grindcore—the gorier, the better. Cannibal Corpse, Deicide, and Morbid Angel were my gateway drugs, but I soon sniffed out even uglier, nastier, more brutal strains of the genre, twisted permutations that reveled in over-the-top violence and vulgarity to an extent that both thrilled and repelled my squishy little brain.

Goregrind (and to some extent, pornogrind), provided a bouncy, bloody soundtrack to much of my high school experience, but eventually, my obsession waned. There are only so many ways to describe ripping a woman apart over a simplistic kick-snare, and I started to tire of the shtick. The blatant, gleeful, violent misogyny that bled through so many of the songs I kept in my CD player became impossible to ignore, especially as I got older and got to see and feel just how the world thinks of—and treats—women. It wasn't fun anymore, and I turned my attention to other genres that, yes, had their own complex problems (hello, black metal!) but at least didn't open half of their songs with a samples of someone like me screaming in pain.

Destination Extinction, by Haggus

10 track album

Tankcrimes

Imagine how happy I was, then, when the new Haggus album popped up in my inbox. I admittedly hadn't known much about them previously and only ever associated the term "mincecore" with Belgian OGs Agathocles. Still, I decided to give them a shot, and am so glad I did, because this Oakland, CA trio churn out politically-charged, crusty, antifascist goregrind that bounces with the best of them and leaves out all the awful shit that turned me away from the genre all those years ago.

As Hambone, the band's founder and masked mouthpiece, told me, that's exactly the point. "Musically, our sound rides the line between punk and goregrind and often gets perceived as pornogrind to the untuned listener," he explained. "So I've always felt it important to make it extremely apparent that though we may sound similar… we are NOT the same!"

Hambone also took some time out from the band's busy schedule to answer a few questions about the band's new album, their exciting new partnership with underground cheerleaders Tankcrimes, and the joys of mince.

SALVO: The new album is an absolute delight. Destination Extinction marks your third release this year (!) but is your first with the mighty Tankcrimes. Can you tell me a bit about how that partnership came about? It makes so much sense, I'm surprised it took this long for you two to link up!

HAMBONE: The Haggus/Tankcrimes partnership was first discussed in early 2024. We were at a crossroads of having done almost everything we can do in the DIY underground scene and after partnering with our still current manager (Roman of Nothing Less Records), he asked me, “Alright, what’s the move for 2025?” We could either keep doing what we’d already done and conquered over the last ten years and stay in the DIY scene, or we could think bigger and take this to the next level.

My first response to Roman was, “Let’s find a label,” and his very first response was, “How about Tankcrimes?” The next day I was on the initial phone call with Scotty, to which he informed me he’d been watching the band grow for the last 10  years and was already considering contacting us this year about a partnership. It was a perfect match and we’ve got a TON of big plans on the horizon together.

Tell me about what's happening on the new album. There's plenty of political commentary nestled amidst the tupa tupa, and I want to know what was going through your mind while you were writing the lyrics and putting these songs together (though "Malignant Boomer" seems pretty self-explanatory).

We’ve always been a politically charged band, it goes hand in hand with Mincecore. Dating back to its inception in 1985 (unbeknownst to some), the name "Mincecore" itself was actually coined in protest of the state of grindcore at the time; so protest and politics have always been a part the genre… until lately. With the rise of the genre and lots of new younger bands adopting the style, there has also been a significant drop off in political agenda.

Knowing that we are the biggest current name in Mincecore, when writing this album I really wanted to keep true to the genre's roots and make our political beliefs and the things we protest very apparent (fascism, war, Israel, the meat industry, mindless over-consumption, homophobia, misogyny, the list goes on).

Since the inception of Haggus, I've always sprinkled politics into the imagery and lyrical content, the idea being to spark new thoughts in people and make them question the things we are brainwashed by and forced to consume on a daily basis. To make you question everything and start to think for yourself—just like the bands I listened to growing up did for me (State of Fear, Destroy, Crass, to name a few).

Mincecore and its spiritual siblings in the goregrind generally don't get much credit for their musical chops, but the new Haggus joint is packed with riffs galore—it's catchy and groovy, and it's obvious that you put a lot into the construction of these songs. What can you tell me about the songwriting process this time around?

This time around I went back to our roots. After hearing a lot of feedback on the last two (sonically different) 7” EPs we released, I really wanted to write an album solely for the fans. After (literally) hundreds of songs and a decade of writing for this band i sometimes like to explore new styles and change the riffs up but for this album I wanted to give the fans what they really wanted… and that was the old school, original sound of Haggus.

That being said I took the simple Mincecore riffs I started with a decade ago and made them tougher, harder to play and ultimately infectiously catchy. After all, if a song doesn’t make you wanna vomit out your innards, strangle your local fascist and also get stuck on repeat in your head for the next three days… is it really even a Haggus song?!

Without Agathocles, there is no Haggus. How did you first discover these Belgian icons, and what made you want to follow in their footsteps when you started up this project? I know you did a split together back in 2015—is it time for an encore?

I first encountered Agathocles in high school when finding a CD copy of their To Serve, To Protect LP and it was like nothing I’d ever heard before. I immediately dove into their enormous discography, but the record that truly changed my life was the Back To 1987 EP. To me, that 7” is the epitome of everything Mincecore is meant to be… politically charged, way too catchy, and punk as FUCK!! They’ve remained to be my favorite band since discovering them and finally in 2014 I was like, “why am I not playing in a Mince band?,” which was the inception of Haggus.

The very next year we did our second split 7” with Agathocles, and a few years later played Belgium, doing an AG cover with Jan on vocals. We are definitely overdue for an encore and I am ecstatic to announce that we are currently working on a Haggus/Agathocles collaboration LP! 

I have to note how refreshing it (still) is to encounter an extreme metal band that's so upfront about its opposition to misogyny, sexism, and homophobia. That's one aspect of the punk/hardcore tradition where the metal world is still playing catch up. Why was it so important for you that Haggus be so clear about your politics, especially within the context of mincecore and goregrind? 

(On a personal note, I also just have to say that I really appreciate what you're doing; I've always loved goregrind sonically, but felt gross reading the song titles, hearing the samples used, and seeing the way some fans embraced the violence against women aspect. Mince is for the girls, too!!)

I grew up listening to crust and punk, so these morals have always been very important to me and have naturally driven me away from genres that associate with that. Some of the riffs from those genres are great, but like you said, it becomes unlistenable after diving into their rhetoric. 

With Haggus, I've tried to create a space where we can recycle some of those sounds but with a more inclusive, politically charged backbone and the result has been nothing short of rewarding! Haggus has been a kingpin in the underground music scene, and for the last decade we’ve built a massive cult following of like-minded freaks that make our unhinged live performances clearly stand out from anything else happening in music right now. 

If you had to explain mincecore to a random person on the street, what would you say and which song would you play them to illustrate?

Our brand of Mincecore is an infectiously catchy, anti-fascist hybrid of crust punk and goregrind. If you’ve never heard Mincecore, the very first song you should listen to is our new single, “Do You Love Mincecore?”. Sonically, this will provide you with everything you need to know about the genre in under two minutes!

I know you're hitting the road soon. What's Haggus up to for the rest of 2025?

2025 is going to be a massive year for us. Aside from the launch of our new album Destination Extinction (inarguably the best Haggus material to date), we’ve got multiple tours covering both the East and West coast, the Midwest, Texas and the Southwest! We’ve got multiple music videos shoots scheduled for other songs off the new album, a massive event we’re planning in Los Angeles that we can’t yet talk about, and various splits and vinyl re releases all on the table for this year.

If you’ve never heard of us… you can bet your bottom dollar you’re about to! This is a new era of Mincecore. This is Haggus. 

HAGGUS ON TOUR:

6/23/2025 Sanctuary – Detroit, MI

6/24/2025 Reggies – Chicago, IL

6/25/2025 Black Circle – Indianapolis, IN

6/27/2025 No Dice - New Orleans, LA

6/28/2025 Boggs – Atlanta, GA *matinee show

6/29/2025 Cobra Nashville – Nashville, TN

Snag 'Destination Extinction' from our pals at Tankcrimes, and support antifascist gore by subscribing to Salvo!

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