Ray Lugar

In a normal year, the heaviest grooves out of the Baltimore metro area would be coming from an extreme metal band like Pig Destroyer, but as anyone who hasn’t been living under a rock in the last eight months is already more than aware, 2020 is anything but normal. Enter Ray Lugar and The Collective Force, whose new single “Paper Cha$e” just might boast one of the weightiest bottom-ends I’ve heard in long time. Loaded not only with blistering bass and destructing drums but a searing guitar riff that could suffocate someone if turned up a little too loudly, “Paper Cha$e” is a vicious, wild beast of a track and undeniably one of my new favorite indie cuts out of its scene this year. 

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/collectiveforce/ 

While Ray Lugar and The Collective Force might not have penned a death metal track here, but there’s no getting around just how powerful and unforgiving the tone of the music is in this single and its accompanying music video. 

Everything from the bass to the actual lead vocal is scooped, making every rhyme Lugar spits sound like a sniper’s hollow-point bullet, but clarity is never an issue in the verses. Whether we’re watching the video or listening to the song on its own, the rebellious energy is inescapable and prominently inspires every inch of catharsis this band has to give. 

There are a lot of interesting songs and music videos coming out of the pandemic era in pop at the moment, but you will not find a critic among us to disagree with me when I say that Ray Lugar and The Collective Force drop one seriously unique offering in “Paper Cha$e” that truly stands on its own. As metal in stylization as it is hip-hop in persona, this is a single that could set off a lot of great accolades for its creators - and by my measurement, they deserve it.

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Trace Whittaker

Newcastle-upon-Tyne

10/2020