United Nations

✪ United Nations — United Nations ✪

Scoring a deal with a label is, for the most part, what every band hopes for. A bit of security, financial reward for a hard fought creative endeavor, or simply just a bit of fame and some notoriety — whatever the reason — a record contract can (sometimes) mean the difference between having to work a day job or not. But there are those tricky times when a “record deal” can turn into restrictive “contractual obligations,” preventing members from fully expressing themselves outside of their “signed” work or outfit. And when this happens to a side project featuring members from a number of bands, it can make telling their story both confusing and, admittedly, suspicious. If we know they’re mucking about with extra-contractual activities, why isn’t the label that they’re crossing calling them out? There are a myriad of answers to this vexing question, and all of them are probably spot on. This is exactly the situation that grindcore outfit United Nations found themselves in as they released their debut album, United Nations, in 2008. Led by Thursday vocalist Geoff Rickly, United Nations was fleshed out with a number of other players, who, due to the aforementioned obligations, had to remain anonymous and pose for photos wearing identical Ronald Reagan masks.