The Bad Penny (beta)

“If you use weak-ass, purposely offensive artwork or lyrics just to ‘shock’ people, or stay silent during times like this in attempt to walk the fence in fear that your reputation might be tarnished, then fuck you. We don’t want or need you as a peer.”
-Haggus’ Hambone

Haggus is the band leading the charge for “mincecore,” a form of “grindcore,” to be accepted by the punk underground community. But founder Hambone doesn’t mince words when it comes to Nazis, racists, bigots, sexists and other propagators of hate. To paraphrase the admirable musician, they can all fuck off.

Three weeks ago, shortly after the Oakland band released its new album Destination Extinction on Tankcrimes, Hambone spoke in great length with The Bad Penny about Haggus, the band’s history, his views on punk music, and just about every other issue under the sun.

Buckle up, kiddos. You’re able to hear the straight dope from a wicked talented musician who has no tolerance for dopes.

Going into the making of Destination Extinction, what was highest on your list of priorities for what you wanted the album to be or include?

The best Haggus material is always the material I don’t think too hard about and just crank out organically. This album was no different. I truly believe that, with any form of art that’s forced, it won’t turn out to be the way it was meant to be.

We were booked at Earhammer Studios for the third week of January 2025, and by the time we got back home from the Ghoul tour in November 2024, I hadn’t written even a single riff for this album. That, in a nutshell, is how I’ve always operated the band: less thinking, more action.

The most important part about writing this album to me was making sure every song was iconic in its own way. I didn’t want any repeat parts just for sake of “having another blast or mince (a grindcore subgenre) beat. “It was either killer or filler, and all filler had to kick rocks.

I knew this would easily be the most widely distributed album we’d done to date, with it being it on Tankcrimes, and I knew that also meant (we’d attract) quite a bit of new listeners, a good portion who may have never even heard the word “mincecore” before.

That being said, when I presented my mission statement to the rest of the band for this new LP, it went something like this: “I want to write an album where there can be a straight-up street punk solo on one song and a brutal, guttural slam section on the next, and have it not seem corny or out of place.”

And I truly think we pulled it off with this one. Whether you’ve never heard of “mincecore”–or even if you have, and you hate it– there is a part for every style of genre fan in there somewhere, and I hope the fans (both old and new) enjoy it.

What surprised you the most during the writing and recording stages of making the album?

What surprised me most was probably how much of an impact recording with Greg (Wilkinson) from Earhammer had on our sound. I’ve pretty much recorded every single Haggus recording in our rehearsal studio myself, with my crappy home-recording setup, and then passed it off to be mixed and mastered by other homies and DIY engineers.

Recording with Greg was truly next level. I let him fully produce the album too, carefully taking his opinion on both riffs and vocal parts and holding them in high regard. We changed quite a few parts just based off what Greg’s input was. He had almost 20 mics on the drums, and we ended up ditching every single piece of gear we brought to the studio and used his stuff. It felt so funny because at the end of the session, I was like, “Damn, Greg, the only thing of mine I used was my pick.”

That being said, all the songs and vocals were written by me as they are on every other Haggus album.

In what way(s) does Destination Extinction harness one or more often-overlooked traits/talents of Haggus?

On this album, we really busted out all our tricks. I’ve always been a musician who strives to intertwine the many different genres that I enjoy into my songwriting, but I wanted to make an album that quite literally had a part for everyone. A piece of the album that, even if you hated mincecore, you could be like “Daaaamn, now that was sick!”

This album features guest collabs from Digestor from Ghoul, Max from Lipoma, and Dan from Archagathus, to name a few. We included death-metal riffs, slams, pop-punk riffs, street-punk solos, and total crust-punk rippers all across the board–and not in a corny way. It’s a full-on rollercoaster ride through the depths of punk, grindcore, and metal. It flows seamlessly, and I truly hope we can change a lot of people’s opinions about mincecore and in turn spread our message to a much wider audience with this new album.

Given the almost innumerable releases you’ve released over the years, did you want one of them to be a beacon of sorts for Destination Extinction? Or did you want this record to show a completely different side of Haggus? 

Sonically. I just wanted to incorporate pieces from all the genres that I love into one album and still make it sound mincecore. I wanted this to be a culmination of everything that mincecore means to me. Mincecore truly is not just a tupa-tupa beat like many people mistake it to be.

Since its inception in 1985 by Jan from Agathocles, mincecore was defined by protest. It was coined as a rebellion to the current state of grindcore and the abundance of homophobia and sexism. They spoke out against fascism, animal cruelty/ factory farms, and misogyny within the scene. To me, that is what mincecore is and always will be about.

Underlying politics are and will always be a big part of Haggus as well. We have always been vehemently antifascist, antiracist, and anti-porno grind. Bigotry has no place in punk and gore-grind. Way too many bands these days either just stay silent and neutral or say ignorant-ass shit strictly for shock value.

There is no such thing as neutrality. Fence-walkers can fuck all the way off. And it’s fucking 2025… you’re not shocking anyone with obnoxious artwork or lyrical slurs. Grow up. I also just think it’s weak for bands who have a way bigger platform than us (Haggus is still a relatively small band in the scheme of things) and still refuse to use their platform to make change or speak out against things like the genocide in Palestine or the Trump administration.

We just ran a benefit T-shirt against the ICE raids in LA and raised $7,000 in just 36 hours. If bigger bands who claim to be “punk” and have a much bigger platform could just do the same … think about all the change we could make together.

Do you feel that most other grindcore bands share similar stances as you do on homophobia, sexism and misogyny? Or do you feel like an outlier?

We are and always have been an outlier. There are a few king mincecore bands that share our opinions, like Agathocles and Archagathus. But there are also a lot of bands that stay silent or just don’t give a fuck about politics. I can wholeheartedly and without hesitation say fuck pornogore and any other strictly-for-shock-value bands. Fuck misogyny and fuck your sexist, close-minded bullshit. We get called pussies or soyboys by a lot of these metal types of bands. I don’t care. They grew up listening to Pantera and Slipknot; we grew up listening to anarcho punk. We are not the same.

Antifascism has been a huge part of my life (and the rest of the band’s lives) for over 20 years. I don’t make compromises just because a band might have a good riff or sound “brutal.” If you use weak-ass, purposely offensive artwork or lyrics just to “shock” people, or stay silent during times like this in attempt to walk the fence in fear that your reputation might be tarnished, then fuck you. We don’t want or need you as a peer.

It’s really important to voice your opinion in your music. And there aren’t too many bands still doing that these days. The best exception is Dropdead, who have spoken out for animal rights for years. I have huge respect for those guys, and they are one of our biggest influences in terms of using your voice. That being said, I also think it’s extremely important not to overly shove your views down someone’s (throat).

Any new bands exciting you in particular these days?

There are so many good bands right now, it’s impossible to not be finding great new bands almost every day. I listen to a ton of different styles of punk and metal, and always incorporate that into my songwriting. Pissgrave, Militarie Gun, 80HD, and Paranoid (from Sweden) have made killer albums in recent years.

Honestly, when I’m writing for a Haggus album, I barely listen to goregrind and grindcore at all. I tend to listen to tons of punk, crust, crusty pop punk, slam, and death metal. This helps me really spark new and creative ideas. And also create songs that truly sound like no other band out there.

Your list of split releases with other bands is legendary. Which band(s) would you most like to team with for your next split?

Theres a million bands I would love to collaborate with. I especially enjoy collaborating with bands from different genres and booking shows with mixed bills. It’s absolutely the best to turn new people on to mincecore or turn pre-existing mincecore fans on to some new and current bands that are killing it.

Currently, we are focused on putting some of the younger homies on the map. To name a few, this year we have splits lined up with some young kids from the West Coast who are tearing it up right now, such as Tripas Sangrientas and Fentacart. But we also have some really sick splits lined up with some older bands that I personally enjoy. They include our homies from Mexico Ambulance and Toughguy from Russia. We have a lot on the table at the moment, so stay tuned.

In closing, what is your favorite Paul Haggis movie? Crash? Million Dollar Baby? Casino Royale?

To be honest, I’m much more involved with punk and music in general than I am with films, and I had to look up who this was. But I remember seeing Crash as a kid, and it was quite the elaborate plot and a good watch. That being said–just so people are very clear–we did not name our band after this guy.

I chose the band name Haggus because I wanted to start a vegan/vegetarian-themed band based around animal rights. So I chose the most disgusting meat possible to name it after, which is Haggis. A few hours after releasing the demo under the name “Haggis,” I found out there was a Nazi bonehead band from Norway called Haggis and abruptly (without much thought) changed the “I” to a “U.” And it just stuck from there.

Go to Haggus’ website for more on the band.

Photo courtesy of Haggus

This entry was posted on 07/11/2025 at 9:46 am and is filed under Features, Interviews, On Tyranny with tags Haggus. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.