Recently, Light The Fuse Records out of The Netherlands re-released the “Drowning Room” EP by the Brooklyn, NY band Lament whose roots date back to 1990. Lament’s early lineups had members that came from bands like Maximum Penalty, First Order and Social Disorder. Lament would release the 4 song “Drowning Room” EP in 1991 on Inner Journey Records and “Leviate” in 1994 on Too Damn Hype Records before ending in ’95. A couple of local reunion gigs would pop up years later but the name Lament had been regulated to “remember those guys?” status before Light The Fuse dropped this re-release in February. We spoke with guitarist Joe Affe and singer Jon Scondotto in this April, 2026 interview. The “re-imagined” Lament artwork shown in the lead photo (above) was done by artist Alex Rodriguez and is based off of actual Lament photos from the time period. “Drowning Room” can be streamed on most major streaming outlets including Bandcamp.
IE: For this interview we are focusing on the recently re-released “Drowning Room” EP that initially came out in 1991. How did this release with Light The Fuse Records come together 35 years after it initially came out?
Joe: Light The Fuse was building a catalog of 90’s hardcore that was out of print or unavailable. The initial contact with Jeroen from Light The Fuse was over re-issuing a Maximum Penalty record from the 90’s. Circumstances lead that record to be released on another label, to no fault of anyone. This left myself and Jeroen with the idea of releasing an untold piece of 90’s history… Lament’s “Drowning Room”. Jon and I had been talking about getting the Lament 7” songs out digitally for years, then that idea progressed into an actual record re-release. I brought the idea to Jereon, sent him remixed music with the history of the band and he loved the idea! It fit right into what he was doing with the label. He got behind us with it and made it happen!
Jon: “Drowning Room” came out in ’91 and was the first thing we ever put out. It was originally released by Inner Journey Records on 7” and it had me on vocals, Joe on guitar, Eric Morgan on bass and Jason A on drums.
IE: With most vinyl re-releases there is some kind of “juice” to get people grabbing for their wallets to place an order. What can you tell us about the Light The Fuse “Drowning Room” release that might get people interested?
Joe: Unlike the original 7”, we spent a lot of attention on the original artwork as well as adding the entire recording session which includes 4 other tracks that were not on the original release. All remixed and mastered. Just a proper release with black, teal blue, clear with blue splatter vinyl versions. Also, this becoming available digitally is a plus as well.
Jon: There does seem to be quite a bit of re-releases coming out lately and I think that’s great because I do think there is a lot of interest from that time period in hardcore. Plus, the difficulty of getting original copies of some of that stuff can be pretty tricky. We truly wanted everything about it to be a snapshot in time, which is why we included so many flyers and photos from the early 90’s. Just an insanely creative period for music I think overall.
IE: OK, so we got these 4 songs that were not on the original version and they are really solid tracks which makes me ask the question… How come these just weren’t put out back in ’91 as a longer release?
Joe: At the time we were working with Inner Journey Records who were just releasing 7” records at the time. Almost all 7”s were only 4 songs. We went with what we thought at the time were our 4 best.
IE: What do you remember about the recording sessions at Blissland Studios? It’s listed that the recordings happened between November of ’90 through May of ’91.
Jon: So, Blissland Studios was literally our producer’s apartment that he lived in with his mother where he put together his own DIY style recording studio. Everything was tracked and recorded pretty much in this kid’s high-rise apartment. And it all felt very normal… which is kind of odd. I do remember not thinking it was that big of a deal, as if everyone just happened to have bands come in and out of their mom’s house to record! For me the most fun would almost always be doing the backup vocals with bringing friends and people in other bands in to do the songs with you. It was just a very cool thing that all of us tried to do, and we made the most of it by breaking each other’s balls. I think for the little amount of money that was spent on it and the band’s ability to get good tracks down it comes across in the original recording. I think for its time, it had a really good overall mix. I never really felt that the vocals came across perfect or anything but I was genuinely happy with the way everything came out musically. Obviously, you look back now at the original artwork and the undeveloped photographs that were used, and the glaring spelling errors and shit like that and it’s an unfair lens as a much older person to look at these types of things now, but all of those flaws lent it charm, and the charm of being young and making your first ever real recording. What a privilege. I remember feeling like this was a very important thing in my life and that it might lead to many more important things in my life, so that optimism coming from where I come from… it was a big thing to have.
Joe: Along with the apartment in Manhattan we did drums and bass live in a basement on Vohrees Avenue in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn along with guitars and some vocals at Ace London rehearsal studios on Quinten Road in Brooklyn. Real gorilla style production!
BELOW: PHOTO/FLYER COLLAGE TAKEN FROM THE LIGHT THE FUSE “DROWNING ROOM” RELEASE
IE: Joe, you obviously were the main song writer with Maximum Penalty and while listening to these Lament songs it’s very easy to hear your style coming through in a big way. What was going on with Maximum Penalty at the time when Lament first started and why weren’t these songs eventually Maximum Penalty songs?
Joe: For the record, the Maximum Penalty line up at the end of ‘89/’90 became Lament. Maximum Penalty went on hiatus as Jimmy Williams (MP’s singer) had become a guest of the state and at that time the style of the songs were becoming more metal than traditional hardcore. We never thought to continue as Maximum Penalty from that point. Sure, some of the parts were Maximum Penalty type parts… you can never really escape yourself completely in that way, nor was I trying to reinvent myself but a more collaborative effort was going on between myself, Mark Sisto (Breakdown) and Nicky Vignapiano (Social Disorder). We just kept writing and then Jon joined the band and brought a whole new level of energy to the songs. It was a different band all together. The name change came from a song we had. It was just a natural progression of what we were to what it became. Lament would continue on with Eric Morgan (First Order) on bass and Jason A. (Social Disorder) on drums.
IE: “Drowning Room” came out at a time when hardcore and NYHC in particular was going through a bit of a maturity stage as band members got more proficient at playing their instruments. Can you talk about the time period when the “Drowning Room” songs were written and how it felt being right in the middle of everything as hardcore made this progression?
Joe: In hindsight, I guess you can see it like that but at the time you’re not paying any attention to what is pushing and motivating you. What you hear and want to achieve in your head is always changing. The rest comes out through your hands. We’ll always have a hardcore approach but it’s still always moving! Maybe that’s ahead of the curve?
LAMENT REUNION CIRCA 2013 AT FREDDY’S IN BROOKLYN, NY. PHOTO BY: JC PHOTO MEDIA
IE: Was digging up all the old photos and flyers that are within the packaging of the re-release something that was easily available or was it more of a digging through basements and attics to try and track all this stuff down?
Jon: Getting the flyers and photos was definitely a collaborative effort. I think Joe definitely had way more flyers than I did. I managed to scrounge up some great shots that I hadn’t looked at or thought about in a very long time. It was pretty intimidating seeing all these things and making these choices because they’re all associated with powerful memories, and most of them were pretty amazing. What a truly great time artistically to be young and in NYC, which was still very much alive.
IE: How many shows did Lament play and what were some of the more memorable shows?
Jon: I honestly have no idea how many shows we played. You also have to put in perspective that if you were even a semi-successful hardcore type of band there was still no real touring going on. Even the bigger bands played pretty much on the weekends occasionally, which is what we did. All in, I would say in its overall existence we played less than 100 shows but I don’t know how accurate that is. Most memorable for me would be the local shows we would all do with our friends whenever we would play the Crazy Country Club, and there were so many of them. Playing shows with bands like Paterns, Confusion , Merauder, Dmize, and getting to meet bands from the tri-state area and become friends with them and then try to go play in places like Jersey and Pennsylvania… but those Brooklyn shows in the motherland at that time period, which were all very well attended, with usually no bullshit whatsoever… they always felt like such a big deal and something to look forward to from the minute we would make those homemade flyers. We felt like we were gonna make it a memorable night with our friends, and sometimes make terrible decisions, but I remember laughing most of the time. It was a significant part of my life.
IE: Can you talk about the 1994 “Leviate” album with Too Damn Hype Records?
Jon: The “Leviate” LP/CD still had myself singing and Joe on guitar. We had Jeff Mackey on bass and Max Capshaw on drums. As we moved into the 90’s we started moving into a different type of sound which was fitting for the time period with grunge becoming very popular. Not that we were trying to be a grunge band, but our influences were kind of all over the place. Listening to that album now, you hear a very big Black Sabbath undertone because stoner rock was becoming a thing. That was a pretty big time for me because I was now writing the lyrics and the melodies unlike the previous 7”. I was now consistently writing songs which is what I was hoping to aspire to with the band. It was very clear to anyone that heard both the 7” and then the follow up album (“Leviate”) that these were very different styles. I do recall what we were doing musically with “Levitate” that that type of sound and style was very big and you were hearing more and more newer bands, and they were calling them things like post hardcore. So we do get lumped in with that more so from the “Levitate” album.
IE: With every band short of Minor Threat having gotten back together for at least a few shows can you see putting Lament back together even if it were for a short run of shows?
Jon: I think if you ever see this band on stage, it’s gonna be because it was something that we were never able to do before. If we got an opportunity to do something overseas for example… Unfortunately, we never made it out to Europe, unlike many of our friends’ bands. That would be a tremendous opportunity that I imagine we would not turn down. But at this point, I’m just very happy with how the album came out and would love people to check it out.
“DROWNING ROOM” IS AVAILABLE ON 12″ VINYL FROM REVELATION RECORDS IN THE USA. EUROPEAN AND WORLDWIDE ORDERS CAN BE FOUND BELOW THROUGH LIGHT THE FUSE RECORDS