Imagine the heaviest riffs in rock history, but instead of a wall of Marshall stacks, you are being hit by a tidal wave of brass. This is music that feels like a physical confrontation. It takes the skeletal structure of legendary protest songs and fleshes them out with the harmonic density of a big band and the raw, unhinged energy of a punk show. The sound is metallic, percussive, and relentlessly loud.
What makes them distinctive is the way they treat woodwinds and brass like lead guitars. Saxophones are pushed through distortion pedals, and trumpets are used to create jagged, rhythmic stabs that mimic the aggression of nu-metal and industrial rock. It is a collective effort where the sheer volume of air moving through metal pipes creates a visceral, vibrating atmosphere that traditional rock bands rarely achieve.
Start with their self-titled debut or their cover of 'Wake Up.' It serves as the perfect entry point for understanding how they translate the righteous fury of Rage Against the Machine into a symphonic, horn-driven call to arms that sounds both classic and entirely modern.
Brass Against is an American cover band that creates brass-inflected cover versions of rock songs. The collective chooses politically charged songs and other socially conscious music in order to raise awareness of various issues and to encourage activism and social change. Brass Against was founded by guitarist Brad Hammonds. Hammonds was galvanized by the rise of Donald Trump. Hammonds later said he felt "we needed Rage Against the Machine more than ever" in the run-up to the 2016 United States presidential election "and wanted to do something besides simply expressing views on social media." Hammonds and saxophonist Andy Gutauskas gathered some friends who recorded their first video, a cover of "Bombtrack" released in September 2017. In 2021, lead singer Sophia Urista urinated on a fan onstage during a Welcome to Rockville performance at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida. Brass Against apologized, tweeting that Urista had gotten "carried away". They added: "That's not something the rest of us expected, and it's not something you'll see again at our shows." The band was banned from performing at the festival and future NASCAR events. Their cover of Rage Against the Machine's song "Wake Up" was featured in the end credits of the 2021 film The Matrix Resurrections.
Shares alternative rock, hard rock, funk (subgenres); live recording, studio polished, compressed loud (production style)
Shares belting, raspy, intense (vocal style); festival, basement show, urban night (atmosphere)
Shares festival, basement show, urban night (atmosphere); alternative rock, hard rock (subgenres)
Shares live recording, studio polished, maximalist (production style); defiant, rebellious, urgent (moods)
Shares festival, basement show, urban night (atmosphere); belting, intense, raspy (vocal style)
Shares alternative rock, hard rock (subgenres); live recording, studio polished, compressed loud (production style)
Shares live recording, studio polished, compressed loud (production style); alternative rock, hard rock (subgenres)
Shares festival, basement show, urban night (atmosphere); belting, raspy, intense (vocal style)
Shares studio polished, live recording, compressed loud (production style); alternative rock, hard rock (subgenres)
Shares alternative rock, running, hard rock, urgent (signature)
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