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Judgment Day: Integrity Guitarist Aaron Melnick Waxes about Upcoming Reunion

The Cleveland hardcore innovator talks about the future of Integrity.

If you listened to hardcore in the nineties, you're familiar with Integrity, a group of occult-inspired madmen from Cleveland who introduced Slayer-esque guitar solos into the old-school hardcore paradigm, pissing off as many people as they inspired in the process. Although the group's frontman Dwid has kept the band alive for the past 25 years, the band's classic line-up of Dwid alongside guitarist Aaron Melnick and his brother, bassist Leon Melnick, helped create some of the group's most celebrated releases such as Those Who Fear Tomorrow, Humanity Is The Devil and the recently remixed 1995 masterpiece Systems Overload.

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On January 18th, the original lineup of Systems Overload, which also features guitarist Chris Smith and drummer Mark Konopka will make their first live appearance in over 17 years at the two-day A389 Anniversary Bash in Baltimore. Better yet, the Melnick brothers—who still currently play in the hardcore punk crossover act, Inmates—will be also be performing with In Cold Blood as part of the weekend festivities. If you're not familiar with your Cleveland hardcore history, In Cold Blood released an excellent album called Hell On Earth back in 1998 and A389 just re-released their Suicide King 12-inch which features the band's emo recordings as well as vinyl-only and bonus tracks. ICB will be making their first live appearance in 15 years alongside Infest on Friday, January 17th.

However, despite the fact that this classic Integrity lineup found the time to record the punishing new song "7th Relevation: Beyond The Realm Of The VVitch" (which will be available at the show), according to Aaron Melnick, this weekend will be a one-time only affair. But don't take our word for it, we caught up with "A2" to discuss how this show and reissue came together, the ways heavy music culture has changed over the past two decades, and why Integrity will always be remembered as the visionary outcasts that they remain to be.

Noisey: How did this new remix of Systems Overload come about?
Aaron Melnick: Well, [current Integrity member] Rob Orr and Clint [Weiler] were instrumental to that. Clint runs that label Organized Crime who did all those Integrity reissues and after working with Clint all those years I knew he treated us fairly and helped renew the interest in the band. He was the one who told me Rob was a good guy and he had dumped down the original reel from Systems Overload. I guess they were interested in putting it out, so Rob did a rough mix and then we spent a couple of days tweaking it. I always liked that record but with the original mix it was kind of hard to know what was going on. Some people love it though, so I don't know, it's a matter of taste.

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I like the new version because the guitars are louder, especially during the solos.
Yeah and I think you can hear the rhythm guitars better. The original mix kind of reminded me of Iggy And The Stooges' Raw Power in the sense in the sense that the record is great but you can't really hear what the rhythm guitar is doing. The bass, vocals and solos are loud but I think the rhythm guitars are important and it kind of reminds me of that. Not musically, but the same idea. [Laughs.]

Did you rush the original recording?
It's a little bit hazy. [Laughs.] I think that Mars, where we did all the early Integrity stuff was being rebuilt, so we did all the initial tracks at this place SUMA. I think we were there for a month or something and during the mix session the engineer would always be like, "Is this right?" We kept changing it and your ears get burned out after a while; we probably should have called it a night and come in the next day but we were like, "Screw it, let's just go with this mix." It was the most frustrating mix session I've ever had.

How did the reunited Integrity show come about for A389?
Since Clint started putting that stuff out me and Dwid started talking through emails. I was getting money from these releases and getting a lot of say on how things would look and how they were presented and it was cool to be involved in the process. For the past few years [A389's] Dom [Romeo] had been asking me if I would do it and I always turned him down. I don't know, I just thought it would be fun to play the songs again and reunite for one show.

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Has it been overwhelming to see the reaction has been like to the reissues over the past few years having not played with Integrity for so long?
It wasn't overwhelming but it was cool that people still liked it because a lot of bands who were contemporaries or bigger than us don't have the same interest. Maybe we didn't have the best production, but it seems like we had a little bit more heart than some of those other bands which is why people stuck around. That's cool, I love that there's still an interest in it. It's awesome.

It seems like Integrity never really got credit for the metallic hardcore you guys innovated. Today's bands are ripping off the bands who ripped you off.
Yeah, that could be true. Sometimes when I hear what pop music is on the radio now, it blows my mind. It's not really my cup of tea but I'm like, "Wow, this is something that would never be popular when I was a kid." It's way more heavy. It might not be good, but it's heavy. [Laughs.] But you see that in every generation, it starts out as fringe and moves toward the mainstream. I think the record companies feed into and blow it out so they can make as much money as possible. What they call punk now, it's like, "Oh that's punk? All right." My most extreme punk is probably GG Allin. That will never be mainstream.

He had some great songs with the Jabbers.
Yeah, especially the early stuff, it wasn't bad. You know, I had the Browns game on—it's over now, they already lost—but I saw a commercial with the Dead Boys' "Sonic Reducer" playing in it. I have no idea what the product was but that goes to show you that anything can become mainstream, you know? Not that it's mainstream but it's in a huge commercial on Fox TV.

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Do you think you'll do more together with Integrity in the future?
I don't know, probably not. I think Dwid wants to continue working with the band he works with now and I like the idea of doing one show, but I think we're probably going to keep it at that. There's no plan to do anything else and honestly I don't have a lot of time. From what I've seen they have a pretty serious tour schedule but five weeks for me is impossible. I have a two-year-old daughter so that is not gonna happen.

There are so many legendary stories about Integrity. What's one of the craziest ones that you can share? I remember hearing one about someone cutting Dwid's mic cord and getting chased down the street back in the day…
I mean, that was one of the crazier ones that happened. Some kids came up to that show and wanted to fight us or something. Basically, they waited for us outside the show after they cut the mic cord but I don't think they counted on the whole show emptying out and getting chased down the street. [Laughs.] I don't know, there was a lot of crazy stuff that happened over the years but I can't even remember anymore. I think everyone in the scene was nuts back then, not just us. Sometimes, I'd look out at the shows and what was interesting in Cleveland because it was such a mix of people: There would be a typical hardcore kid with camouflage shorts then there'd be skinheads and metalheads, too.

Speaking of that, did you always feel like outcasts in that scene? You were so different than everything else that came before you and, really, after you as well.
I don't know if we felt like outcasts but maybe more in the corporate hardcore scene when the bands started to get bigger and more commercial. I definitely felt like we weren't part of that and because of that, I'm really happy with how we're remembered.

Jonah Bayer knows a thing or two about Cleveland hardcore. Follow him on Twitter - @mynameisjonah