The Bad Penny (beta)

Roger Herrera, bassist/vocalist for Los Angeles’ Voidhämmer, checked in with The Bad Penny on Sunday to talk about Noxious Emissions, the four-song EP that the new death-metal/grindcore band put out in January. When our conversation inevitably turned toward the topic of federal agents invading L.A. Angeles last summer to terrorize and harass residents – regardless of their citizenship or legal status – Herrera seemed equally proud of his neighbors as he is proud of his bandmates.

“If you look at the news for so long, it is definitely maddening,” he said, noting the social strife that is ripping American society apart. “You can become overwhelmed and distraught by everything that’s going on. So you do have to shut that out so you can just go about your day.”

While many Americans are perplexed and still trying to wrap their heads around what is happening in our country, Herrera considers himself lucky because, due to his parents immigrating to the U.S. during the Reagan era, he got “an oral history about what it was like to get here and live here during that time. That translates into success for me because, [as his parents intoned,] ‘You need to do well so our sacrifices are fulfilled.'”

And in one of the most altruistic comments we’ve heard during the course of The Bad Penny‘s On Tyranny series, Herrera said he isn’t worried about getting stopped by police but rather having to make split-second decisions to help others – strangers included – if he witnesses such an encounter or incident happening to someone else.

“I need to be able to be prepare to help this person out, get their name, who they are, where they live and notify their family members,” Herrera continued. “I need to be a good ally and make sure people in my community are safe.”

Spoken like a true death-metal/grindcore bassist. ​

For more on Voidhämmer, go to their Instagram account and the Bandcamp profile for Caligari Records, which issued Noxious Emissions.

Visit The Bad Penny’s On Tyranny hub to read more than 100 other interviews we conducted with musicians from around the world about the threats fascist and authoritarian regimes pose to artists.

This entry was posted on 03/08/2026 at 1:58 pm and is filed under Features, Interviews, On Tyranny, On Tyranny, Videos with tags authoritarianism, fascism, Karst, On Tyranny, Roger Herrera, tyranny, Voidhämmer. 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.