RJC has always been about two brothers.

Ian Shelton started the project in 2016 shortly after the incarceration of his younger sibling Max, and each release has not only sought to explore the choices, cycles, experiences, and institutions surrounding that event, but also to keep the two tethered during Max’s time in prison. In 2022 Max was released and now ‘Freedom, Sweet Freedom’, brings him directly into the fold, writing and performing on the album. And Max isn’t the only impactful lineup addition the album was recorded by acclaimed engineer Taylor Young who has now also joined RJC as a member. Listeners can listen to all 13 minutes of the most emotionally cathartic and sonically hard-hitting music that band has ever released. This new LP is the kind of record that exemplifies everything that makes hardcore such a deeply intense and impactful genre: a lightning fast blast of extreme music that’s loaded with raw emotion and thorny ideas. “The album is saying that despite the trappings of freedom, you are not actually free” Ian explains. “We’re all subject to a larger, broader system that’s meant to keep us in specific cycles–I think that’s a lot of what RJC has always been talking about: cycles of abuse, addiction, making the same mistakes over and over. There’s no freedom from society, from the system, or even from yourself.” ‘Freedom, Sweet Freedom’ follows 2021′s ‘Crime And Punishment’, very well may be the first proper powerviolence album to ever crack a Billboard chart. Shortly after its release, group went dormant while Ian focused on his quickly growing other band, Militarie Gun. Fast forward several years and the now reunited Shelton brothers have finally be able to come together to great what Ian calls “THE Regional Justice Center album.”

‘Freedom, Sweet Freedom’ tracklist:
1. Freedom
2. Diplomatic Solution
3. Moral Death Sentence
4. Weight
5. Rewired
6. Comfort Of Addiction
7. Take A Step Away
8. Pariah
9. Prying Eyes
10. Curse
11. Unnerving
12. Sweet Freedom

photo credit: Taylor Jones