The following was originally published at Ongoing History Of Protest Music.

For Soul Glo, being a black hardcore band already made the simple act of making music a political statement. Add to that their radical rhetoric, and you have a group capable of producing fierce protest songs.

The group recently released the stunning new album “Diaspora Problems.” It marks their debut on the well-known punk label Epitaph.

One of the album’s many highlights is the incisive “Fucked Up If True.” It is the perfect synopsis of 2016-2020, where there seemed to be an increase in political awareness and activism but much of that was focused on anti-Trump sentiment and a left vs. right mentality.

“Fuck I look like wearing emotions like an ankle-weight or ball-and-chain and wading in the four-year blue tide just to have a side?” Soul Glo laments. “So we just gon always vote in false elections and accept each result and it’s effects as though people were powerless.”

“Do you feel supportive care? How do you wake up everyday? What enforced your belief that you can vote their power away?” they add.

Even though the collective relief of voting President Donald Trump out of office is understandable, how much has really changed in the two-plus years since?

Soul Glo recognizes lasting change won’t come by only voting for the supposed lesser than two evils on the ballot. It will take much more concrete action.

Listen to Soul Glo’s “Fucked Up If True”: