Led by the incomparable Ace Stallings, who cut his teeth in the hardcore realm with Break Away, Mutually Assured Destruction (M.A.D.) has carved out their own path in the metal landscape. Their latest offering, the 7″ record “Hexer,” is a testament to their evolution—a fusion of groove-laden metal tracks that showcase their unique blend of influences.
In an exclusive interview with RVA Mag, Ace Stallings delves into the band’s journey from Break Away to Mutually Assured Destruction, shedding light on the creative process behind their music. From the early days of Break Away to the release of M.A.D.’s debut album Ascension, Stallings shares insights into the band’s evolution.
With “Hexer,” Mutually Assured Destruction has synthesized the diverse influences of their past while forging ahead. As they prepare to take the stage in May with Drain, Terror, and Scowl, Stallings reflects on the rich tapestry of Richmond’s music scene and offers advice to aspiring musicians looking to make their mark.
CJ Payne: I always like to start from the beginning whenever I’m talking to somebody, and I know yours goes back to your time in the band Break Away. Can you tell me how that band formed and how you transitioned from that to Mutually Assured Destruction?
Ace Stallings: Absolutely. Break Away started in 2010 when I was in college. I had been in a band called Community Corrections Program that referenced early ’80s Boston and DC scenes. In my head, I wanted us to sound like DYS, SSD, Minor Threat. Around that time, one of the members of CCP started a band called Deadbeat, which became more popular than CCP. Seeing CCP wane, I wanted to start a new band. My favorite hardcore band is Floor Punch, and I wanted to capture that style—positive hardcore sonically but mean spiritually. So, I started that in 2010, playing locally and undergoing many member changes in the first year, maybe even the first few years. I was learning how to be in a band for real. That was my first band that did stuff. It took a while to get the ball rolling. I always reach my goals, but sometimes it takes many mistakes and detours to get there. That’s always been a pitfall of mine. Although Break Away started in 2010, it didn’t really start gaining momentum until 2015.
In that time, we did some cool things. We released at least a couple of 7-inches, played Sound and Fury, and were part of United Blood locally. We were playing festival stuff. But we did our first actual tour in 2015, and it helped that I am a promoter. I was able to put us on shows I thought would be good for us. In 2015, we released an LP and played off of that. I think we started writing for a second one, and then at the end of 2017, we released a second record, which, in my opinion, didn’t pack the same punch as the first one. From there, I started seeing things on the downturn. In 2018, we played some good shows, but there was one weekend where the shows were pretty beat, and I thought it might be time to call it quits. We might have even called it earlier that year, but we had a tour in Europe set up. I texted everybody and said, “I think this is it, y’all.” So we announced our breakup in October of that year, and we had our last show at the beginning of 2019.
M.A.D. started in the fall, right before we broke up. I did a Misfits cover set with some friends, and people were surprised, saying, “I didn’t know you could sing.” They suggested I should do a band like that. I thought about something along the lines of Only Living Witness, Life of Agony, or Sand Black Church—harder metal influence hardcore but with singing. I ran into a guy from the band Holy Land at the last Break Away show. Holy Land was really sick but didn’t get their due when they were a band. He was a really good songwriter, and I asked him if he wanted to start a band. He thought about it and said yes. We started up in 2019, and things moved pretty quickly. We might have started practicing in May of that year, and then we had a seven-inch out by July. Our first show wasn’t even in Richmond. It was at a This is Hardcore pre-show. Then in the beginning of 2020, things shut down. But that was how the transition happened. I had been doing straightforward hardcore for so long and wanted to do something almost the exact opposite—borderline metal. And then we evolved into just being metal, depending on who you’re talking to. So, that’s the long answer, but that’s how Break Away transitioned into M.A.D.
CJ: And then you had your first major album, Ascension, come out.
Ace: Ascension was in 2022. So how that came to be—it was a demo in 2019, and then we did a 10-inch at the beginning of 2020 with a local label like Edgewood. And that was doing pretty well, but it came out on Valentine’s Day, 2020. We did a weekend with Division of Mind and Incendiary. Then the next month, we had a show in North Carolina with Terror, Kublai Khan, Magnitude, and Restraining Order. And then, two weeks later, the world shut down. So we had this momentum, and then it was momentum no more. I’m not one to sit around, so I was like, “Let’s write a record.” And certain members, like a lot of people, were having existential issues during that time, wondering, “What if we can never play music again?” So, the writing process was, at least from my standpoint, a bit arduous. Lots of the time, it was just me and one of the guitarists in the practice studio, nobody else. I would be in there like, “Try something that sounds like this,” and he’d riff that out. I’d record it on my phone, and we would piece together songs that way. Eventually, as things loosened up, everybody got back together. But the Ascension process was a lot longer than I would have liked. We tracked that record for a ridiculously long amount of time, about eight months. I think it was one of those things where it was… How do I put this? Sometimes when you think about something too much, it obscures what you’re trying to do.
That record was influenced by the stuff I mentioned earlier. It’s like Only Living Witness, but also Sabbath is on there, and some Corrosion of Conformity is always in our music. I wanted to do all this, take all these influences that I grew up listening to, and put them through a lens practiced by hardcore people, you know, because we exist sort of in both worlds. We can play a very metal show and fit fine, we can play a hardcore show and fit fine. That’s the place that we like to be in.
CJ: The interesting thing to me about Ascension is that you guys really took that opportunity to try out different things, different styles of songwriting. You have a ballad on there, yet more of that Sabbathian stuff you were talking about among other things.
Ace: [The Ballad] “Haint Blue” was an Alice In Chains reference. And then there’s other stuff on there that was like Uncle Acid, Doom-type stuff. So it’s like, we’re trying to throw Doom into kind of a hardcore crossover. I’m proud of that record. I’m happy with it. I’ve released four full lengths in my life, and I think I’m the most proud of that one.
CJ: You guys just released your new 7” “Hexar”. To me, it seems like you’ve been able to synthesize all of those things you’ve tried on Ascension and made it into your own sound.
Ace: I think what we did with Hexer was we took Ascension and took the old stuff and kind of brought them together. So it’s like we got our flavor, but it’s a little more palatable. When Ascension came out, it was a very metal record that came out on a very hardcore label. So, I think some people who go to Triple B for their music were like, this is cool, but I also don’t understand the reference points necessarily, because this isn’t really my scene. Whereas with Hexer, I was like, what are some reference points we can put in that our audience will get while also maintaining our style? So we moved away from the Doom-type influences and moved more into groove stuff. It’s like Crowbar is on those new songs and Down, along with other New Orleans type stuff, because kids that like metal will get that immediately. But if you’re into hardcore, those tend to be metal bands that hardcore kids like, so it’s like, okay, let’s play to that and see how that goes. We’re playing some big shows at the end of May, and I’m interested to see how they play in front of a big crowd, you know? But yeah, that’s kind of a taste of where we’re going for another full length in the future.
CJ: Going back to a conversation we had before the interview. You and I had talked about having reference points to better understand the sound of a band. And I had little to no context for New Orleans style Southern metal. So you guys really pushed me to listen to Crowbar, Pallbearer, Baroness and it helped me to see the bigger picture of influence they’ve had on your sound.
Ace: That New Orleans type sound that kind of like sludgy or like almost like, leaning into stoner or more rock and roll; that’s the stuff I like and that has a lot to do with being from Richmond. Growing up there was this band here called Alabama Thunder Pussy. They had that vibe that I like, Lamb of God kind of has that too. They’re not a Doom band by any means. They’re just like a metal band, but they have that kind of Rock-like Southern feel. But yeah, that is the stuff I grew up listening to in tandem with punk and hardcore. If you enjoy that New Orleans sound, a band that I am personally very influenced by is Acid Bath. They were straight up like, Creole on the bayou dudes. And the music’s, like, real fucked up in a sick way. The dude sings like me for half the songs and then yells for the other half. I don’t see it really referenced in metal or hardcore right now. We’re a bit on an island, sonically, but I like being where we’re at, you know, doing a different flavor.
CJ: Like you said, with having your sound outside of the norm, in Richmond the big two seem to be metal, thrash metal in particular with bands like Municipal Waste, Enforced, Blazing Tomb and all those guys. And then our very strong DIY punk scene.
Ace: What’s hot in Richmond right now is, yeah, like metal in varying forms, but stuff that leans thrash-y or thrash-adjacent because of bands like Blazing Tomb, Enforced, and Vigil on the newer side. Then, on the punk side, you’ve got Destruct, Public Acid, Invertebrates, Sacricide, and a bunch of other things going on. Richmond also has a very storied metal history, you know, with bands like Lamb of God, Inter Arma, and Municipal Waste, who still fill big rooms. Now, the interesting thing is that, albeit right now, there aren’t a lot of down-the-middle hardcore bands. If those bands come through for a show, the show is typically pretty good. So, I love this. I love the scene here. And the flavor of bands here is very cool to me. Like, I went to see Destruct and Sacricide last night, and it was fucking sick. And then I booked that metal show on Friday with M.A.D., Ulamog, Vigil, and Restrictor Plate, and it was fucking sick. It’s good we have such a wide swath, so to speak.
CJ: One last question before we end this, you’ve been in Richmond for some time now and you’ve invested a lot of time in the music scene. What advice would you give to someone looking to enter or start a band in this community?
Ace: Man, that’s tough. How you get involved with anything is to participate and come in with no ego. When I was a kid and someone would come up and be like, “Hey man, do you know this record?” and I didn’t know the record, I’d say, “Yeah, yeah, I know that record for sure, man.” That was stupid; I should have been like, “Nah, teach me, tell me about that record.” You gotta shake hands, so to speak. You’ve got to introduce yourself to people and be like, “Hey, I like your band a lot,” or if you see someone wearing a shirt you like, I always try to go out of my way to talk to them about it. Despite it being such violent music, my advice is just to be friendly and make friends. Be present and involved. Go to shows and have a good time. Then, someday, someone you know who plays an instrument will be like, “Man, I’d love to play something like X,” then you’re like, “Oh, I’d be down to do something like that,” and go from there.
Mutually Assured Destruction consists of
Ace Stallings – vocals
J.D. Cichocki – drums
Jordan Faett – guitar
Ryan Groat – guitar
Eric Hoyt – bass
“Hexer” 7” is available on streaming platforms and the band will be joining Drain on their tour on the following dates
5/24 – Boston, MA – Royale w/Drain, Terror, Scowl, End It, Kingnine and Twitching Tongues
5/25 – Philadelphia, PA – Union Transfer w/Drain, Terror, Scowl, End It, Kingnine and Twitching Tongues
5/26 – Jersey City, NJ – White Eagle Hall w/Drain, Terror, Scowl, and End It
5/27 – Baltimore, MD – Baltimore Soundstage w/Drain, Terror, Angel Du$t, End It, and Twitching Tongues
