Sudden Impact - Brutal Torture interview at DMZ Toronto 1985-07-20

Sudden Impact were one of the first Toronto-area hardcore bands to push decisively into the heavier territory where punk, skate culture and thrash metal met. Formed in 1984 by musicians from Toronto, Newmarket and Aurora, the group emerged from the network of record shops, skateboard parks, rehearsal rooms and all-ages shows that sustained southern Ontario’s early hardcore scene. The principal lineup featured Mitch Garvin, and later Johnny Borodenko, on vocals, Reid English and Mike Brunt on guitar, Steve Milo on bass and Scott Fraser on drums.

The musicians knew one another through both punk and skateboarding. Milo and Fraser lived in Newmarket, Borodenko spent time in Aurora, and English and Brunt were based in Toronto. English had previously played with Micro Edge, Brunt with Quarantine and Fraser with Intense Youth. Borodenko had been part of a high-school group called Brain Hammer, which played Black Flag and Venom covers alongside a few original songs. Several of the musicians reconnected through Toronto concerts and the skateboarding community, at a time when imported Vans shoes or an Independent Trucks shirt could immediately identify someone as part of the same small culture.

Although Sudden Impact were technically based north of Toronto, Newmarket had no established hardcore circuit of its own. The group therefore became closely associated with the Toronto scene while also helping create activity outside the city. They organized shows in a hall near Yonge Street in Aurora or Newmarket, bringing in groups including Direct Action, Micro Edge, Youth Youth Youth and Blibber and the Rat Crushers. Toronto musicians and audiences often travelled north by GO bus and skateboard, while members of Sudden Impact made the reverse journey into the city for concerts, rehearsals and the social life centred around places such as the Record Peddler.

The group’s first widely circulated recording was the 1984 cassette Freaked Out. Recorded at Accusonic, the demo captured Sudden Impact as a fast, compact hardcore band before the musicians moved more deeply into metal-influenced arrangements. The title came from one of Scott Fraser’s songs, a humorous piece inspired by an unpredictable co-worker. The cassette contained ten short songs, including “Freaked Out,” “Sudden Impact” and the band’s altered version of the Amboy Dukes’ “Gonzo.” Maximum Rocknroll reviewed the self-released tape in November 1984, praising its relentless and committed hardcore attack. Decades later, the recording was recognized as an important document of early Toronto hardcore and reissued on vinyl by Supreme Echo.

The band handled the demo through a practical do-it-yourself system. Money earned from cassette sales was put back into manufacturing additional copies, and approximately 400 to 500 tapes were sold. Staff at the Record Peddler took notice and encouraged the musicians to make a record, helping move Sudden Impact from a local cassette band toward a full-length release.

A newly unearthed six-song cassette dated April 14, 1985 adds a previously undocumented chapter to that development. The surviving tape is housed in an Accusonic duplicating box marked with the Sudden Impact name and the handwritten date. No song titles are listed on the cassette or its cover. The recording does not appear in the band’s established discography and may document material created between Freaked Out and the sessions that led toward the first album.

During the same general period, the group recorded five songs with guitarist James O. Some of that material later appeared on the 1985 Toronto hardcore compilation It Came From the Pit. These sessions helped bridge the direct attack of Freaked Out and the increasingly developed music heard on the band’s first album. Mike Brunt joined during this stage, strengthening the dual-guitar lineup and contributing to the heavier direction that became central to Sudden Impact’s sound.

The group rehearsed relentlessly, often three to five times each week. That discipline gradually expanded the music beyond the brief bursts of the early demo. Punk remained the foundation, but the musicians were also listening to bands whose playing blurred the border between hardcore and metal. They cited the metallic elements already present in groups such as Bad Brains and Suicidal Tendencies, and Brunt later observed that any cover attempted by the group inevitably came out sounding like Sudden Impact.

The first full-length album, No Rest From the Wicked, was recorded during this period of rapid musical change and released through Diabolic Force and Fringe Product. The title deliberately altered the familiar phrase “no rest for the wicked,” changing it to suggest that there was no escape from destructive people or forces. The album retained the speed and physical momentum of the demo while adding longer structures, lead guitar and a much stronger thrash-metal influence. Songs such as “Keep on Truckin’,” “Terrorist Attack,” “To Our Glorious Dead” and “Bent” reflected both the group’s humour and its increasingly serious subject matter.

Sudden Impact did not present itself as an overtly political band. Its lyrics often grew from personal situations, events in the musicians’ immediate environment or subjects found in the news. “Terrorist Attack” dealt with being caught in the wrong place at the wrong time, while “To Our Glorious Dead” addressed the waste of life represented by war. “Bent,” written by Mitch Garvin, responded to someone attempting to conform to straight-edge expectations before realizing that the identity did not suit him. “Keep on Truckin’” expressed the group’s broader outlook: continue moving forward, resist outside pressure and do what feels right for yourself.

Garvin eventually left as his commitment to competitive mountain-bike racing increasingly conflicted with the band’s demanding rehearsal schedule. Johnny Borodenko, already a friend of the group and a regular at its shows, was invited to rehearse as the new vocalist. He had worked at the Record Peddler from the age of fifteen, knew many of the musicians in Toronto’s hardcore community and had previously helped Sudden Impact move equipment. His arrival completed the lineup of Borodenko, English, Brunt, Milo and Fraser that continued through the band’s later recordings.

Sudden Impact became one of the Canadian groups most clearly associated with the emerging crossover sound. They shared bills with bands including Suicidal Tendencies, S.C.U.M., Fair Warning, D.B.C., Voivod and SNFU, and toured as far east as St. John’s, Newfoundland. Because the musicians continued to hold regular jobs, most trips were brief, although one tour lasted approximately three weeks. Their shows joined the intensity of hardcore with the musicianship and guitar weight of thrash, placing them among the earliest Canadian bands to make that transition.

Their second album, Split Personality, was recorded at Grant Avenue Studio in September 1987 and released in 1988 by Diabolic Force under licence to Fringe Product. Produced by Brian Taylor and engineered by Bob Doidge, the record featured Borodenko on vocals, Brunt and English on guitar, Milo on bass and Fraser on drums. The songs were longer and more intricately arranged than the band’s early material, reflecting the musicians’ development and the growing influence of thrash metal.

The group continued into the beginning of the 1990s, sometimes working with altered lineups that included Chris Jerrett on vocals, Jason Cuddy on guitar and Dallas Good of the Sadies on bass. The principal five-member lineup last played together in 1989, and one of the band’s final appearances was a 1991 show with SNFU.

The members renewed contact during the late 1990s and began meeting at Scott Fraser’s cottage to rehearse, eat, drink and revisit the songs. These informal weekends eventually led to reunion performances in the 2000s. Brazilian label Marquee Records issued expanded CD collections covering the Freaked Out, No Rest From the Wicked and Split Personality periods, including demo, studio and live material. The group later returned to major festival stages, appearing at the 77 Montréal festival in 2019.

-Robert Williston