Milwaukee’s World I Hate doesn’t deal in subtlety. Their newly released sophomore LP, Total Nuclear Annihilation, is exactly what the title suggests—bleak, confrontational hardcore that stares directly into the end of the world and doesn’t bother looking away. Clocking in under 18 minutes, its 12 tracks come at you with menacing force and zero nuance. That didn't surprise me since their debut LP, Years of Lead, landed on my Best Hardcore Albums of 2023 list.
Built through a collaborative writing process that pulls from everything from power violence to Japanese crust, Total Nuclear Annihilation sharpens World I Hate's sound without simply retreading familiar ground. At its core, though, it’s the band’s worldview that drives the record—one rooted in the idea that the chaos we’re living through isn’t accidental, but the natural outcome of the systems in place.
In the conversation below, vocalist Hal Crossno and bassist Ben Wittlinger break down the making of the album, the ideas behind its scorched-earth themes, and the hardcore community in their hometown of Milwaukee.
From where I sit, it felt like Years of Lead was welcomed with a hugely positive reaction from the hardcore community. How did it feel from your perspective?
(Hal Crossno, vocals): 'd say it was pretty well received, more or less. It's cool that the music we made seemed to resonate with people. The two camps seemed to be people who really liked Years of Lead and people who weren't familiar with us. Still trying to find some more vocal haters.
Did the first album inform the writing of the material that would end up on Total Nuclear Annihilation? Meaning, did you lean into certain aspects of your sound and style that you felt were the band's strong points, or what listeners responded to more, or did you go into the writing sessions with a blank slate approach?
(Ben Wittlinger, bass): One of our biggest goals in writing the record was making sure that we didn’t just rehash Years of Lead while remaining true to the core spirit of the band. Our writing process is very collaborative, and we try to keep things organic, writing what comes naturally without forcing any particular aspect of the band to the forefront. We’ve always been a band that plays straight-forward hardcore while subtly pulling influences from other places.
For my own contributions to this new album, I definitely had some power violence classics and a lot of nineties/early aughts Japanese Crust in the forefront of my mind while we were working on it. We all like wildly different music from each other, and I think one of the greatest strengths of World I Hate is that we all bring a unique perspective to the band. Astute listeners may detect that there’s a little Van Halen shining through.
(Hal): Lyrically, I kind of like to have a loose idea or theme that unifies all of the songs on the album. Total Nuke isn't any different in that regard; everything on the record can loosely tie back to nuclear war and the systems that drive the military industrial complex. I don't know if that's necessarily leaning into a style as much as it is me being competent at writing one flavor of lyrics.
Hal, here's a direct quote from my chat with you from my 2023 No Echo interview with you: "With the hyper-partisanship happening in the United States today, I feel if things were to break out in violence, it would look much more similar to 1970s Italy than what happened in the US in the 1860s."
I would say we're in worse shape in this country today than when we last spoke. Talk to me a bit about some of the lyrical ideas that informed the new album.
(Hal): It's funny, I wrote most of the lyrics for Total Nuke from around Jun to August of 2025. In the back of my mind, knowing the record wasn't going to come out for at least 6 months, I was like, "If I write a track referencing the El Salvadorian detention center, will that still even be relevant when this comes out?".
Our news changes so fast that I was kind of hoping there would be some action to sort of nullify the first track off the record. But here we are, 7 months later, ICE detentions don't seem to be showing any signs of stopping.
The main thesis statement of the record is that the system is working exactly as intended. That all the horrible things you see happening on the news every day are not a fluke in how the US is run, but the logical conclusion of the systems we have in place in our country. A conclusion that you might come to is that the whole experiment is beyond saving, and that the only way to fix things is to tear it all down and start over, or maybe not start over at all.
A guy named Fredric Jameson wrote that it's often easier to imagine the end of the world before we can imagine the end of capitalism. This is kind of an exploration of that idea. The front half of the record is sort of an outline of all the things that might drive someone to break into a nuclear missile silo and press the button targeting the US. The last half is about which problems would and wouldn't be solved. I'd say it's more of a cathartic expression of anger than what I actually believe in, a vehicle to explore some extreme ideas. Explosions and people's faces melting and stuff also look pretty cool in the movies.
The cover art for the album is striking, and it captures the spirit of the songs perfectly. How do you collaborate with artist Keith Caves? Do you send him the lyrics, and he takes it from there, or is it more involved than that?
(Ben): Keith didn’t have the music for the album or the lyrics-he had one single sentence from us: “We want a scene of people being incinerated/blown up in a nuclear blast.”
The first sketch he sent back to us was used to create the final artwork without needing any further direction. In my opinion, he’s one of the best artists working in the hardcore sphere right now-his style is very abrasive and just radiates energy, and he couples that with a great sense of form and composition. We had complete faith that he would create something insane for us, and I couldn’t be happier with the result!
How did the band and Convulse forge the working relationship for Total Nuclear Annihilation?
(Hal): Back in 2023, we did a Colorado weekend with The Consequence. It was awesome, and Adam from Convulse let us use his van and drove us around. We talked a lot, and we really liked what he was putting out on his label. He said he would be into putting it out, and so far, everything has been working out really well.
READ MORE: 12 Newer Hardcore Bands to Check Out in 2026
There's a ton of Milwaukee Hardcore history within the World I Hate ranks. How would you describe the changes in the hardcore scene there over the years? What are some of the strong points, and what aspects do you feel need to improve there?
(Hal): Like most places, Milwaukee got a really big post-COVID boom, and we saw a big surge in show attendance, and things have been steadily declining since then. It's still way better than it was in say, 2017/18, when we had a regular crowd of maybe 50 people that would come out to shows here. It's nice that there was a bit of a self-selection process, where the people who stayed around are really about it.
We've got a ton of local bands, and they're all way better than any standard local hardcore band should be: Enervate, See No Evil, Nightmare Unit, Sense of Self, Adrenochrome, Necron-9, Sublet, and Milorganaut. There's probably another 8 or 9 that I can't remember right now. Like, even though fewer people are coming to shows, there are way more bands, more people booking, and a healthy dose of independent all-ages venues.
The only thing I think we're really missing is a really good zine. There's been a big Midwest Hardcore zine resurgence, and I'd love to see Milwaukee get in on the action. Also, more house venues. Let me into your home, I promise I won't do anything dubious with your plumbing or electrical work in your basement.
What's the plan for the band in terms of the rest of the year now that the album is out?
(Hal): We've got a Midwest run planned for April, and we're booking a couple of other things currently for the rest of the year. Check our Instagram, we might be playing near you soon.
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Total Nuclear Annihilation is out now on digital via Convulse Records (vinyl pre-order).
World I Hate on social media: Instagram
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