While I’m sure you’re all patiently awaiting another Top 10 Metal Albums of *insert year here* list (trust me, we are too), it’d be wrong of us not to pay tribute to yet another fallen hero. This past weekend, frontman, founder, and sole constant member of crossover kingpins Leeway, Eddie Sutton, passed away after a courageous battle with cancer. He was 59 years old. Much like FireHouse’s C.J. Snare, Sutton gave it his all until the very end, continuing to perform all over the country with a new incarnation of Leeway. The similarities, of course, end there. While FireHouse embodied the commercialized pop metal of the day (and did a great job at it), Leeway lurked around the NYHC underground, fusing hardcore and thrash in a manner that has proven to be crucially influential to this day. Today, we pay tribute to these trailblazers with our Top 10 Leeway Songs. Rest in power Eddie!
10. “All About Dope”
By the time Leeway released their second album, Desperate Measures (1991), heavy music was in a much different place than it was just a few years earlier. Between the overnight success of Nirvana and the inaugural Lollapalooza, alternative music had officially risen from beneath the surface and become the dominant force of the day. This shift is largely reflected on Desperate Measures, which is less a straightforward crossover album like 1989’s Born to Expire and more reliant on melodic and post-hardcore tropes. Look no further than “All About Dope”, which even at its thrashiest, still boasts a melodic quality to the vocals and guitars. Indeed, the times were changing and Leeway were along for the ride.
9. “Make Me an Offer”
Despite the musical evolution Leeway underwent between Born to Expire and Desperate Measures, one thing that remained constant was their unrelenting streetwise New York attitude, which is brought to the forefront on “Make Me an Offer”. As the bouncy thrashing opener to Desperate Measures, it’s no wonder Leeway constantly opened their live sets with this song. It perhaps hit even harder today than it did in the early ’90s, as damn near every modern hardcore band from Turnstile to Power Trip took a page or two from the Leeway playbook. One can forgive somebody for confusing this (and all of Desperate Measures for that matter) for new music, as it’s as fresh today as it was 33 years ago.
8. “Tools for War”
The ’80s were rife with politically charged punk and metal, and for good reason. Between Reagan in the States and Thatcher in the UK, the youth of the day had much to be concerned about. Societal tensions were at an all time high, not to mention, increasing greed, lethal drugs, and the threat of nuclear annihilation. Sound familiar? Leeway captured this “Age of Quarrel” as Cro-Mags called it on the visceral “Tools for War”. On it, Sutton sings about “fascist religions, noxious parades, turning racism into charades”. He even goes as far to call out renowned hatemonger Louis Farrakhan, who at the time was mooching his way around the daytime TV circuit. It’s a cruel twist of irony that at 90 years old, Farrakhan continues to spread his message of division while Sutton is now no longer with us. However, as the last line of the song goes, “In a matter of time, we’ll all be dead.”
7. “Born to Expire”
Despite being released in January of 1989, Leeway’s debut, Born to Expire, was actually recorded over a year earlier in November of 1987. Furthermore, the songs themselves go back to 1985. The ’80s, of course, were all about timing. What if Exodus’ Bonded by Blood was released in ’84 instead of ’85? What if Morbid Angel’s Abominations of Desolation was released in ’86 and was their debut instead of Altars of Madness? In the same breath, we can ask what if Born to Expire were released any earlier. Admittedly, Leeway is widely revered in the hardcore community and rightfully so. However, would they have been recognized more in the metal realm like their peers in Suicidal Tendencies and D.R.I. had the album come out any earlier? With raging thrashers like “Born to Expire” to their name, anything is possible.
6. “Unexpected”
Overkill-esque riffage? Check. Shouted vocals? Check. Lyrics chronicling an “unexpected demise”? Check. “Unexpected” is everything you’d want in a thrash song and then some, boasting enough piss and vinegar to make any headbanger’s blood boil. It also so seamlessly combines rapid fire speed with hardcore mosh breakdowns that there should be a law against it somewhere. Leeway had the best of both world, the embodiment of crossover if there ever was one. Whereas Suicidal Tendencies, D.R.I., and Cro-Mags started out hardcore and veered further into metal with each subsequent release, Leeway were split straight down the middle, a product of their frenzied environment.
5. “Kingpin”
There are some bands you listen to and think to yourself, “Man, that band could’ve ONLY come out of *insert city or country here*.” For example, Van Halen could’ve only come out of California, The Stooges could’ve only come out of Detroit, and Leeway could’ve only come out of New York City. Between its rampant mob activity and drug culture, NYC was a town riddled with kingpins. It only made sense that Leeway would write an ode to one with such a swaggering beat and borderline-rap delivery. Of course, like every cut off Desperate Measures, there is plenty of thrashing abound, but this was far from the same band who did Born to Expire.
4. “The Future (Ain’t What It Used to Be)”
Alright, this might be a bit of a “black sheep” pick, and I promise you I didn’t include it here to be a hip contrarian. For as much as Desperate Measures can be classified as “banger city”, each song hitting harder than the next, there’s something about the nearly 7 and a half minute closer, “The Future (Ain’t What It Used to Be)”, that just brings it on home in a way that’s unexplainable. Perhaps more impressive than the song itself is that a band of Leeway’s nature is able to hold our attention musically for so long. I’m not saying Cro-Mags or Killing Time couldn’t, but at the end of the day, “The Future” is a testament to this band’s incredible writing abilities.
3. “Rise and Fall”
Move over you beatdown amateurs, hipster try-hards, and cowards of all walks of life. There is no riff you will ever be able to conjure up that’s as bone crushing, knuckle dragging, and downright ignorant as the one that opens Leeway’s “Rise and Fall”. This album opener doesn’t just grab the listener’s attention; it dares the listener to focus it elsewhere, putting themselves at risk of losing their life at the end of these NYHC brutes. Being the self admitted metal elitist I am, I’ll be the first to put down hardcore dancing, but I’d also be lying if I said this song DIDN’T wanna make me spin kick a nerd square in the jaw. And speaking of giving nerds what’s theirs…
2. “Mark of the Squealer”
You know, I almost debated including this and “Rise and Fall” as one song, and I probably should’ve. Just like you can’t have “Buried Alive” without “Raise the Dead” or “Altar of Sacrifice” without “Jesus Saves”, you can’t have one without the other. But alas, for whatever reason or another, here are both separately, with the latter just edging out the former if only for the chorus alone: “Snitches get stiches. The thread on your cheek must itch. Snitches get stiches. You got yours you son of a bitch.” If I had a dollar for every time I’ve screamed out that chorus, well, I’d be off on an island somewhere and doing this webzine from there as opposed to a desk in a warehouse.
- “Enforcer”
Say what you will about him now, but the Clint Eastwood that Eddie Sutton grew up with is worlds apart from the Clint Eastwood you and I grew up with. Throughout the ’60s and the ’70s, Eastwood was the definitive movie badass. Whether it was Dirty Harry or the Dollars Trilogy, you could always rely on Clint to deliver thrills and chills on the big screen, the most legendary of these performances being 1966’s The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly. As if the film wasn’t monumental enough, leave it to Leeway to provide an equally monumental crossover thrash tribute. Laying out fools in the pit to this one was one of the highlights of my life, and I can’t thank Sutton and company enough for making that happen. As I said at the beginning of this list, rest in power Eddie and long live Leeway!