Welcome back to Milwaukee Metal Monthly, the column where I cover the city’s metal scene, and also where I come to the eye-twitching realization that I’ve been doing this for a year already. Boy, it sure doesn’t feel like that much time has gone by. Turns out Pink Floyd had it right in ’73 when they said every year is getting shorter. (It’s mildly amusing, by the way, that I’m older now writing this paragraph than Roger Waters was then when he wrote that lyric.)
Anyway, this month I’ve got two interviews for ya, so we’re back to normal. Well, mostly back to normal. One of the interviews is a bit unorthodox for MMM, but it’s still worth checkin’ out. This month’s installment also functions as a makeshift catch-up, since both Milwaukee bands put out new music earlier this year. I’ve been meaning to talk to both, so here we are.
With that preamble behind us, let’s do that unorthodox one first, shall we? The blackened crust punk band To The Dogs released a super-fun EP called Butchery back in May, and I’ve wanted to speak to them since then. When I reached out for an interview, guitarist Chris McMorrow said he was interested but that he was more comfortable answering written questions than having a traditional interview. As such, below is our interview in Q&A format that’s been copied and pasted from the email back ’n forth.
Milwaukee Record: Tell me about the origin/history of the band.
Chris McMorrow: To The Dogs formed in 2020, just as the COVID pandemic brought the world to a halt. After years of Ian [Olsen, drummer] and I talking about starting a band, we finally decided to make it happen. Within a few months, we wrote and recorded three songs in our practice space, self releasing our first demo in December 2020 with the help of Stian at Edged Circle Productions in Norway putting the demo out on vinyl and Eric at Life After Death helping with two pressings of the cassette.
A few months later, we teamed up with our friend Kevin Stenseth to record the single “Funeral,” which was released in May 2021. With venues and bars still largely shut down, our first live show didn’t take place until July 2021 at X-Ray Arcade near Milwaukee.
As we continued writing and playing more shows, we eventually assembled enough material for our debut LP [Light The Fires], self-released in June 2022 with the help of Life After Death on vinyl and CD. The album was recorded by Sanford Parker (Minsk, Buried At Sea, Black Cross Hotel) and mastered by Jack Control (World Burns To Death, Severed Head Of State) at Enormous Door in Texas.
After playing a number of shows and fests in support of the record, our bassist and second vocalist decided to leave the band in 2024. Rather than slow down, Ian and I kept writing. Nearly a year later, Marv [Nick Gouin] joined on bass, and shortly afterward Mel [Melissa Martinez] came aboard on vocals, solidifying the current lineup.
With the new lineup in place, we recorded the EP Butchery with our friend Leighton Thompson and had it mastered by Brad Boatright (From Ashes Rise) at AudioSiege in Portland. Today, To The Dogs is actively writing material for the next record while continuing to book shows and expand our reach throughout the Midwest and beyond.
MR: What was it like to have a significant lineup change? Did that impact the band?
CM: The move from a three-piece to a four-piece pushed the EP back a little, but added a fresh perspective and a wider range of ideas that helped shape the band’s direction. It gave us time to focus on the EP songs and really let them evolve over time before finally recording them. The renewed energy has also pushed us to keep evolving, with the goal of making every new song stronger than the last.
MR: What’s the deal with the red and black color scheme across your album art, your merch, and your live show?
CM: I’ve worked as a graphic designer for most of my life and have always helped friends and bands create artwork for logos, albums, apparel, posters, and about anything else you can think of. From the beginning of To The Dogs, my goal was to build a cohesive visual style that connected everything we released, to the point where you could cover up the logo and still know it was one of our records.
MR: There seems to be a throwback vibe to your sound and aesthetic. Is that intentional?
CM: Ian and I have always been heavily influenced by the aggressive riffs of Show No Mercy-era Slayer and the raw, fast hardcore punk of bands like Wolfbrigade. Those influences along with many, many others continue to shape our approach to writing, giving our songs that aggressive, driving edge that defines To The Dogs. A relentless steamroller of Crust Metal of Death.
MR: I saw you were interviewed by Thrasher back in 2024. How’d that come about? Any other notable publications you’ve spoken to?
CM: To date we’ve only given a couple of interviews, but thanks to our friend Sam Hintz, who runs Larb Vomit and works closely with Creature Skateboards, we landed a show at a local Sky High skate night at Cactus Club here in Milwaukee that led to the opportunity. Having grown up reading Thrasher since I was 11 or 12 years old, seeing our band featured in those legendary pages was a surreal experience and a huge honor, so thanks to Sam for setting that up for us.
MR: Are there any future plans for the band? New music? Upcoming shows?
CM: We are currently writing songs for a new album and booking shows around the midwest. Our next one being in Madison at The Annex on October 16. Contact us at [email protected] or look us up on social media for any upcoming shows and future info on releases. You can check out our latest EP Butchery on most streaming platforms.
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The other interview is what’d be the normal format of this column. Longtime MMM readers might remember the hardcore band See No Evil from my December 2025 column where I named their still-excellent Damnatio Memoriae EP as one of my favorites. Indeed, it was my favorite Milwaukee hardcore release that year. Unsurprisingly, their newest offering, July’s Unleveled EP, continues their streak.
Anyway, earlier this month I had a conference call with vocalist Ben, bassist Justin, and drummer Andy. Ben and Andy did most of the talking, only because Justin was at work during the call and had himself muted for much of it. Their guitarist Aaron sat this one out, as it wasn’t his thing. (That said, he did get a few shout-outs, like when Ben declares that “Aaron’s always shittin’ out riffs” and that he’s “D.I.Y. or die.”)
As with To The Dogs, I s’pose we’ll start at the beginning of SNE’s story. The way that the band came to be is a pretty straightforward explanation, with Andy taking the lead. “So, me and Aaron started gettin’ together and jammin’ probably like late 2021-ish,” he recalls. “And we never really started writing stuff until we started talking to Justin. We actually met Justin through the Milwaukee hardcore discord. I think one of us made a post, and we were like, ‘Looking to start writing something.’ And Justin reached out to, I think it was, me. And then we just kind of got together and started jamming with him. It’s just gone from there.”
And what the band’s become is a necessary outlet. “Harder music in general is something where it’s a release, ya know,” says Justin. “I’m not a mean person by any means, but we’re all human. We have a lot of strong, intense emotions a lot of times, and this faster, harsher music can be a good release for that.”
Ben expands on that: “If you’re in it for the right reasons, and you are genuine with how you are in hardcore, it’s always gonna be a form of catharsis. At least that’s how I approach it, especially with my writing, and being able to find a way to justify wanting to scream in people’s faces and not have them be mad at me. I feel like if I didn’t get the opportunity to do that, I would definitely be worse off. I don’t see a therapist and I fuckin’ should. Me being in the studio and me being on stage is me shoehorning my therapy in front of everyone else whether they like it or not.”
It’s an interesting way to look at expressing yourself. Which brings us to tattoos. Because I have 16 tats and I’m a metalhead, one topic I’ve wanted to discuss with a band since I started this column is the intersection (and possible connection) of heavy music and body art. Since these guys share those interests, I finally got around to it. “I mean, you sure see it a lot, right?,” Justin replies with a laugh. “I’ve been listening to heavy music long before I got any of my tattoos. To me, my tattoos don’t really represent making the music I listen to. But I think it’s, like, an imagery. It’s bold, it’s in your face, it’s tough. That’s kinda how I see it.”
Andy jumps in: “I can definitely agree with that. I mean, my arms are completely covered. It’s definitely a more-abrasive-look kinda thing for me. It’s growing in general, seeing people with tattoos, and I always thought that was the coolest thing ever. Like, ‘I kinda wanna look like that.’ It’s definitely been a big reason why I’ve been into it. But I dunno if it actually has anything to do with the heavy music aspect, like Justin was saying. I listened to [heavy music] way before I had any ’em.”
And then things got interesting when Andy declared that tattoos can act as act “as a kind of litmus test” and that “If you don’t any have shitty tattoos, I don’t really fuck with you.” Then the three of them started to discuss amongst themselves about whether “shitty tattoo” meant bad or bad taste. And then things got really interesting when I disclosed that I had a tramp stamp. (As my sister informed me recently, apparently the current term is “cake topper.”) Andy replies with this gem: “You would love our ‘Click Click Boom’ cover, man.”
Hearing a reference to a 25-year-old Saliva song made me feel a little old, since I was in high school when it came out. And I felt just as old when I asked about Aaron wearing a Creed shirt during a May 2026 performance at MKeUltra. “Creed fuckin’ rocks,” declares Andy. “I dunno what to tell ya. Unfortunately they rock so hard, dude. They got crazy riffs.” To which Ben adds, “That halftime show—oh my god.”
Since we (briefly) discussed the past, we should talk about the band’s future. First, we covered plans for new music. “I dunno,” replies Ben. “I think we’re kinda coasting on this new release right now. It’s still pretty fresh, to us at least.”
Andy takes it from there: “It’s all speculative, but we definitely intend for new music,” he says. “Now, what type of release—we’re unsure because we did get asked by our friends at Blast Radius [Records] a while ago about doing an LP. But the thing is, our song lengths average, like, a minute and a half to two minutes, and so filling a fuckin’ LP with that is just gonna be a lotta work. But the intention for new music is definitely there.”
We covered upcoming shows lined up, as well. They’re part of a pretty, ahem, killer hardcore show at X-Ray Arcade on October 9, and an Unleveled release show at MKeUltra on November 1. (They’re also playing in Peoria the day before.)
Milwaukee hardcore is alive and well, in other words, and See No Evil are one of its leaders. As such, I wouldn’t be doing my job if I didn’t ask about the term “Milwaukee Style” that’s used by the band on Bandcamp. It’s also the name of two compilations of local hardcore bands, the second volume of which SNE appears on.
Ben takes the lead: “For me, ‘Milwaukee Style’ is just kinda our way of declaring, ‘This is how we do it. This is our thing,’” he explains. “Trying to make it more central to us. And we like to represent Milwaukee. And I think the term has just kind of come about to represent ‘Milwaukee Style.’ You can call it ‘Milwaukee hardcore,’ but if it’s tried and true, and you’re really about it, and you’re really for the Milwaukee hardcore scene, then it’s ‘Milwaukee Style’ for sure.”
Justin builds on that: “I really just think it means we’re representing where we’re from. It’s kind of enveloped in midwest hardcore, but we’re Milwaukee tried and true. We take a lotta influence from our friends’ bands, and bands our friends love to listen to, and put that into the music we like to play and listen to. It’s representing where we’re from. It’s representing our community and our friends. It’s maybe not so much a sound, but more just our community, our friends, our family out here.”
It’s a support system, in other words. And so at the end of the interview when I ask the band if there’s anything else they wanna cover, Ben tosses out some local pride. “The only thing I would add is a shout-out to Milwaukee and shout-out to Madison, and all the homies—Enervate, World I Hate, At The Bottom Of The Great Lakes, Blast Radius [Records],” he says. “I feel like this would be impossible without all those people. I could go through a million names, but I think Milwaukee rocks—hardcore, metal, all that shit—and if you’re a hater, you’re sitting on your ass too much and you’re terminally online.”
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