Regional Justice Center — the prison-system-critiquing powerviolence group helmed by Militarie Gun’s Ian Shelton — have always been a family band. It was the incarceration and prison experience of the vocalist-drummer’s brother, Max, that helped shaped the serious themes of the project. Now that the latter is on the outside, the two have joined forces for RJC’s next album, Freedom, Sweet Freedom.
The group’s third album is described as a 12-song, 13-minute salvo contemplating the illusion of freedom and getting trapped in “cycles of abuse, addiction, [and] making the same mistakes over and over.” They’re previewing the release with a pair of blast-intensive assaults: “Freedom,” which you’ll find up above, and “Take a Step Away,” which is streaming down below.
Unlike the band’s earlier albums, where Ian Shelton served as RJC’s lead singer, both he and brother Max trade off on vocals and lyric-writing duties on Freedom, Sweet Freedom.
“He’s always been part of it, but now he’s actually here and able to directly participate,” Ian commented of his brother’s involvement. “We knew that if we were going to make a record together it had to be a real statement, it had to be THE Regional Justice Center album.”
For his part, Max— who was released from a Washington State prison in 2022 after serving time on an assault conviction — likewise felt heavily involved with his brother’s band since day one. His voice even appears on RJC’s 2018 debut, World of Inconvenience, per a recording made through the prison’s inmate calling service
“We’d have phone calls and things I said would end up on a record, and we’d always talk about me being more involved when I got out,” Max said. “It felt like being a long distance member of the band.”
The RJC family is likewise growing in other ways. While God’s Hate/Twitching Tongues member Taylor Young served as producer on 2021’s Crime and Punishment, he became fully engrained as a band member through the making of Freedom, Sweet Freedom.
Freedom, Sweet Freedom is due out September 20th via Closed Casket Activities. The art and tracklisting can be found below.
Freedom, Sweet Freedom tracklisting:
Freedom
Diplomatic Solution
Moral Death Sentence
Weight
Rewired
Comfort of Addiction
Take a Step Away
Pariah
Prying Eyes
Curse