If there’s one band in the last decade that has stood by Boston Hardcore, championed everyone who has come through it, and played a hand in building it into what it is today, it’s RISK from Merrimack Valley. Even after breaking up a decade prior, they’ve played with nearly every band, toured almost every state, completed runs in Europe, and appeared at festivals like This Is Hardcore, The Rumble, and For the Children since returning in 2020.
They’ve shown us all that a band can still make a huge impact, but a real legacy in hardcore is built in the smallest rooms, with crowds that barely pass the three-digit mark.
When they released their album Monologue of Misery back in 2022, they had a ton of momentum behind them. The record release show, in particular, felt triumphant, as though they’d risen above all the obstacles — something many of the lyrics touch upon. You could feel the blood and sweat poured into every track as it blasted through the speakers via Reese’s heavy yet nimble, thrash-influenced riffs and Brendan’s impassioned vocal delivery.
One moment that stands out from that performance was vocalist Brendan raising his fists in the air as their final song, "47 Days Spent In Hell," came crashing to an end, the crowd finishing the song for him. With all the wreckage left behind them, they solidified their place in the scene on that chaotic night.
Four years have gone by, and they’ve been consistently attacking tour after tour, show after show, remaining present in the Boston scene and across the country while their music has only gotten sharper and hit even harder. Their split EP with Fools Game in 2023 and the standalone single "Gravity" particularly displayed this growth and desire to sharpen the edge of their attack. Keeping the riffs in the thrash factory and the lyrics rooted in personal struggles, RISK maintained their fire no matter the stage size.
"Playing to 2,000 people at Big Night Live is great, but hardcore is made in the tiny venues for the local kids, and we’ll play anywhere as long as they come out," explained Brendan when reflecting on RISK’s growth over the last five years.
Now, in 2026, RISK brings us back up to speed with what they’re all about on their new LP, Forever:
The album’s influences remain similar to what Monologue of Misery and the Fools Game split were pulling from. Thrash titans like Power Trip and Iron Age have always been key influences on Reese’s riff writing, while the breakdowns come with direct influence from Merrimack Valley’s Hammer Bros., a crucial ingredient in pushing crowd participation to its apex at a RISK show while carrying on the legacy of their hometown heroes. With the addition of drumming extraordinaire Christian Koomey (Can’t Lose, Death Strider), Forever shows RISK at their tightest yet most feral.
When you first hit play on the opening track, "The Other Side," there is a brief silence before a familiar sample fades in: Frank Sinatra’s swan song, "My Way." The song has always carried a sense of finality, as though Sinatra was saying goodbye after an unbeatable run, much like RISK’s own run over the last five years. That sample alone felt like RISK subliminally saying this was their swan song — the end of the band.
I kept that thought in mind as I sat down with Brendan outside their record release show at Thirsty First in Lowell.
"Any time I’ve written lyrics for RISK, I’ve always put it together as our last album," he explained. "When we did Monologue, I said, ‘We’re gonna do Monologue and that’s it.’ Then the split came out, and Triple B asked us if we wanted to do something, so we agreed.
"I can safely say this isn’t the end of RISK. Hardcore is like dramatic theater — we’re all a bunch of dramatic theater kids. Really, when it came to the title, I was stoned watching 'Batman Forever' and I thought, 'RISK Forever. This is badass!’"
So it’s good to know that RISK will be sticking around. They still have plenty to say and do for this scene, especially when it comes to uplifting younger bands and showing them how it’s done.
The second track, "Unstoppable," which premiered as a single back in November, perfectly defines the passion RISK pours into this scene. Riffs charge forward while clobbering you over the head, Brendan’s harsh vocals signal his love for hardcore, and a tasteful guest appearance from Bryan Harris of Death Before Dishonor adds even more weight. When a band with real conviction writes a song about its love for this scene, it’s always going to ignite something primal within us. "Unstoppable" matches Brendan’s passionate lyrics with thunderous music, creating a perfect love letter to hardcore from members who have witnessed both its highest highs and lowest lows but could never leave it behind.
One of the most notable traits of Risk’s songwriting is Brendan’s storytelling ability. On previous releases, his lyrics often connected into a loose narrative that unfolded across the album, owing much to records like Mastodon’s Leviathan and Shipwrecked’s Abyss. With Forever, Brendan sought to move away from that approach.
"I’ve been trying to write a lot less metaphorically and let songs stand on their own," he said. "I allude to previous songs on this one. ‘Means to An End’ references ‘Nothing Ever Ends,’ ‘Insomnia’ is a continuation of ‘Gravity,’ and ‘The Other Side’ is a continuation of ‘47 Days Spent In Hell.’ I want to let the listener discover the meanings and connections."
When making a RISK album, the best way to describe it is as a family affair. The people involved are always friends of the band — people who have stood beside them for years — and Forever is no different. The album features contributions from close friends in Pull Your Card, Yellow Stitches, Soulless, and Death Before Dishonor, all bands RISK has played countless shows with and maintains close bonds with.
Recording the album was also handled by another friend of the band, Chris Cesarini of Street Power, a band RISK has supported since day one. Recorded at Chris’ Old Salt Studios in Fairhaven, Brendan described the process as quick, detailed, and supportive.
"It took about three days to do," he said. "I did my vocals in about two and a half hours, and Chris was very good with feedback. When I record vocals, it’s very vulnerable, and doing it in front of someone you don’t know can be weird. Chris made it super comfortable, and it was all done in his garage studio — very intimate."
Closing out the album is the appropriately titled "Last Dance," an all-encompassing sendoff if RISK ever needed one. The lyrics call back to concepts explored on both From the Depths and Monologue of Misery. "The end I never wanted to meet. The story has finished. Together we crawled from the depths to reach the highest of cliffs. Thank you for giving me purpose, for making me feel alive," Brendan shouts at the song’s opening.
The track builds from Koomey’s machine-gun double-bass intro and Reese’s singular chords, creating tension before the band explodes forward. London and Jimmy drive the song’s charge, while the closing breakdown feels tailor-made for piling onto the mic — something Brendan has always been more than happy to hand over to anyone in the room.
This puts a cap on both the 'Forever' record and a triumphant run as a flagship band for modern Boston Hardcore, but the memories of the last six years echo throughout these seven songs. The record shows they took the blows and did it their way.
RISK recently wrapped up a run with Mizery through Brooklyn, New Jersey, and Baltimore, but Brendan says there’s plenty more ahead. "We’re not going too crazy this summer, but we do have a tour coming up at the end of the summer, and we’re playing a couple of fests that I can’t announce right now. We’re just taking it as it comes. I’ve pushed RISK hard in the past, but right now I want to take it as it comes to us."
Before wrapping up our conversation, I had to ask Brendan about some of the newer bands he’s excited about. "Breakout From Oppression — that guy Bobby is at every show moshing for every band, and his new band is amazing. Obviously Neolithic, Can’t Lose, Quick to Judge.
"Another one is Herd Mentality. That dude Gabe is at every show as well, moshing for every band, and he’s an old head still doing it. Vicegrip and Never Back Down I want to shout out as well. The people in bands who are at all the shows are the ones who really matter, not these Berklee kids in bands no one gives a fuck about."
Before ending our conversation, Brendan would like to shout out: "R.I.P. David Allan Coe, and shout out The Hive."
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Forever is available on vinyl via Triple B Records.
RISK on social media: Instagram
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