Summary: Bucky has always been intrigued by Y/N, one of the enhanced agents living at the compound, but he can never seem to actually talk to her.
Pairing: Bucky Barnes x Reader
Word Count: 4883
Warnings: Fluff, language, sparring, minor angst, smut, little bit of dom!reader
A/N: This is for @captain-kelli's "Don't Call It A Comeback Tour" writing challenge. Welcome back Kelli! My selected dialogue prompt is in bold in the fic, and I just made it under the 5000 word count limit, haha! I haven't written smut in quite a while, so I am a tad rusty, but I really hope you all enjoy! This was beta’d by the lovely @idjitmonkey.
Marvel Masterlist
Bucky could hear echoing dull thuds of flesh hitting flesh, the familiar sound drawing him in like a siren’s call as he passed the doorway to the large training gym in the Avengers compound. Was it odd he could tell from the softness of the sound that whatever pair currently sparring were pulling their punches? Sure. Was it something he’d mentioned to anyone else before? Absolutely not.
Precision was ingrained in him during his captivity, and he got so good he could calculate exactly how much force from either arm would cause serious injury, break a bone, or even kill depending on the parameters of his mission. It wasn’t something he liked to reflect on, and with one last shiver as a long forgotten memory faded away, Bucky continued forward through the open doors into the training room.
Since it was a little past eleven at night, most of the lights in the room were off, save for two emergency lights on either end of the room and the large bulb dangling over the classic boxing ring in the middle of the room. Steve had literally gotten on his knees to beg Tony for a boxing ring when they’d moved into the compound, and the genius had actually sputtered and turned a shade of red so deep he looked like he had a bad sunburn before he caved and agreed to build one. It was reinforced and supersoldier-proof thanks to some kind of special metal weaving Tony made sure he bragged about, but it looked like the same ring Bucky would be in every Friday night after his shift at the docks back in the forties.
This time, however, the two people dancing around the ring were none other than Y/N and Natasha. While he vaguely remembered Natasha from his time assigned to the KGB training the Widows in the Red Room, Y/N was an interesting woman he’d met only six months ago when he fully moved into the compound. He knew she was an inhuman, but her abilities still were a mystery. When he tried to access her file a month ago when his curiosity got the best of him, it was so heavily classified that not even he or Steve could access it.
Tucking his left arm behind his body so any light reflecting off the black metal wouldn’t alert them to his presence, he slid along the wall and hid in the shadows to watch the two women sparring. Natasha was a formidable opponent, anyone who’d dared to spar with her knew that, but Y/N was holding her own, anticipating attacks and almost matching the redhead blow for blow. It was like a choreographed dance of fists and feet, each blow coming from Y/N took advantage of any open spot of Natasha’s with expert timing.
“So, you excited?” Natasha said through heavy breaths, a slight teasing tone in her voice as she blocked Y/N’s kick with her forearm.
Y/N scoffed, dropped down into a squat, and swept her leg out to try and catch Natasha, but she easily dodged it. “You act like this is my first time out in the field. I have been on missions before.”
The redhead shrugged. “Doesn’t mean you can’t get excited. I see the sunrise every morning, doesn't mean I get any less excited because of the frequency.”
Natasha slapped Y/N’s incoming punch away and used her momentarily unguarded knee as a step, launching herself up sideways to wrap her legs around Y/N’s neck. Bucky’s been on the receiving end of that move and he winced in sympathy when Y/N flailed and fell forward into a tumble before she slammed into the floor of the boxing ring on her back. Natasha’s legs were still wrapped around Y/N’s neck keeping her pinned to the ground, and she pulled back on Y/N’s arm until she grunted in pain.
“Dammit,” Y/N grumbled before she reached her other arm out and slapped the ground twice.
Natasha released Y/N with a soft giggle that was somewhat disconcerting coming from someone who just took down an opponent that hard in mere seconds. “It gets ‘em every time, don’t worry.”
“Yeah, well, I’m not one of the new vanilla agents that gets stunned and freezes up the first time you wrap your thighs around their face,” Y/N said with a laugh, slowly getting to her feet. She crossed her left arm over her chest to stretch it and Bucky’s eyes widened with how flexible she was; her arm was almost wrapped all the way around her torso. “Damn, you would have dislocated my shoulder if I wasn’t enhanced.”
Natasha hummed an affirmative noise and bent down to grab her water bottle and a towel to dry the sweat from her face. “I know you can take it. And I push you because I care.”
“Awww, spider has a heart after all,” Y/N teased, pressing a palm to her chest. She laughed and easily plucked the towel Natasha threw at her face out of the air before it could hit its target. When Natasha began to unwrap her hands, Y/N jerked her chin toward the bench press she knew the redhead favored. “You need me to spot yah?”
Natasha shook her head. “Nah, I’m just gonna finish up with some cardio on the treadmill. Good luck tomorrow, don’t be afraid to ask for backup even though we all know you can handle yourself.”
Y/N stuck her tongue out at Natasha before she gathered her bag and water bottle and gracefully slid between the ropes of the boxing ring, walked across the gym, and through the doors. Bucky was still staring at the empty doorway Y/N had walked through when Natasha’s voice made him startle.
“You can come out now, prizrak.”
Bucky sheepishly stepped out from the shadows and walked toward where Natasha was leaning over the ropes, glaring at him. “I wasn’t… watching to be creepy. I’m just curious about her.”
“Curious about what exactly?” Natasha asked, crossing her arms across her chest.
“Come on, Romanoff, you obviously know her better than anyone. Tell me about her,” Bucky pleaded with a whine in his voice. “What’s her powers? How’d she get them? All of her personnel files are classified and what few missions she has been on are redacted.”
Natasha only tilted her head and blinked at him twice before she started giggling. When Bucky growled at her, she only laughed harder, throwing her head back and clutching her stomach.
“I can make you talk, Romanoff,” Bucky threatened, his jaw clenched and eyes narrowed.
Natasha used the elasticity of the ropes around the boxing ring to launch herself forward through the air, landing with practiced ease a few inches from Bucky. “You wouldn’t dare, kotenok,” Natasha purred, patting Bucky on his cheek.
“Natalia,” Bucky growled through his teeth. He wasn’t angry at her; he wasn’t really angry in general, it was just a lot of his swirling emotions manifested through the mask of anger he’d gotten used to wearing all the time. It was something he was working on with his therapist.
“James,” she quipped back, her defensive expression softening when she saw the frustration in his eyes. “Come on, don’t give me that look. If you want to get to know her better, talk to her. Or spar with her. You always get chatty when you spar.”
“I’ve tried,” Bucky whined, throwing his arms up in the air, “but every time I’m down here she’s either busy somewhere else, already sparring, or leaves before I have a chance to ask.” It happened often enough that he was starting to think she had something against him or didn’t like him.
Natasha, in all of her wisdom, merely lifted a shoulder in a shrug and grabbed the towel she’d thrown at Y/N where it was sitting in the corner of the ring. “Persistence is key.”
With a flip of red hair, she sauntered out of the gym, leaving Bucky rooted to his spot. Even though he was more frustrated than he was an hour ago, he had to admire Natasha’s ability to answer questions without actually giving any answers. Bucky shook his head and sighed before he headed over to the reinforced punching bags in the corner to work off some steam.
***
“Your shadow is back.”
Anne, the agent holding Y/N’s feet while she did sit ups, nodded her head toward the back wall of the gym where the one and only Bucky Barnes was standing. Again.
When Y/N and Natasha had sparred that one night almost four weeks ago, she’d known he was there the second he walked into the room. She was going to call him out for being creepy after ten minutes of him just hiding in the shadows and watching, but Natasha’s subtle shake of her head had made Y/N bite her tongue and stay quiet. Ever since that night, Bucky’s cobalt eyes have watched her almost every time she’s been in the gym, but for some reason he had yet to approach her, and each time Y/N had started to walk over to him, he disappeared from the room like someone lit a fire under his ass.
It was incredibly frustrating.
“Yeah, well, he can watch all he wants,” Y/N growled, rapidly finishing up her last set of twenty-five sit ups. “If my reassignment request goes through, I’ll be in Europe leading my own team of agents by this time next month and he’ll have to find someone else to menacingly stare at.”
Bucky had heard the entire exchange from his spot across the gym, but aside from a small tick of his jaw, he kept his face blank. Y/N’s reassignment request was news to him, and while he would be disappointed if she left, leading your own team was a huge opportunity and would really launch her career. He’d been asked to lead a team of agents a few times by Hill, but he always refused; the last thing he wanted was to be part of another Strike Team.
In all honesty, Bucky truly was in awe of her. He admired her fighting style and stamina, but every time he started to walk over to her to request a spar, she would begin speaking with someone else or start slowly packing up her stuff to leave. Even when he tried to intentionally run into her in the hallway by accident, she somehow managed to completely evade him and would already be in the gym by the time he gave up on trying to bump into her.
Y/N was an enigma wrapped in a puzzle box, and he had no idea where to even begin.
The quiet whisper of shifting fabric coming from behind him made him smirk, and he quickly brought his flesh arm up to block the hand trying to slap the back of his head. “Nice try, punk. I’m not that easy to sneak up on anymore.”
Steve let out a defeated sigh that turned into a soft laugh. “Yeah, yeah. Whatever. What are you doing down here anyways? I thought you’d be sleeping.”
Bucky had just returned from a three-day mission in Argentina and hadn’t slept since he left, but who’s counting. “Yeah, me too.”
Steve raised a brow at his best friend and scanned the gym, following Bucky’s eyeline to see what he was looking at. When he saw Y/N getting up from one of the mats to shake another agent’s hand, he snorted and shoved his hands in his pockets. “Ah.”
Bucky jerked his head sideways and glared at Steve. “What?”
The blonde supersoldier only smiled. “You know, the only things that should pine around here are the trees outside.”
Bucky took a swing, but instead of connecting with Steve’s fat head, his fist only glided through air. Steve was already halfway across the room in a sprint and shrugged when Bucky glared at him. “Asshole.”
Steve winked at Bucky, which was never a good sign, and his stomach plummeted to his knees when Steve walked right up to Y/N and began talking to her. She immediately straightened her posture and clasped her hands behind her to stand at attention when he approached, but whatever Steve murmured made her relax again. Steve was speaking just quiet enough for Bucky’s enhanced hearing not to be able to pick up what he was saying.
“Double asshole,” he growled before spinning on his heel and storming from the gym.
Bucky still wasn’t tired, but he found himself headed back toward the residential wing anyways, forcing himself to relax his face when a few agents he’d passed in the hallway stared at him with wide eyes before practically jumping out of his way in fear. After a quick pit stop in the kitchen for a power bar, he tore it open and shoved the whole thing into his mouth as he turned down the hallway leading to his room.
“Just the guy I was looking for.”
Bucky froze mid-step, his eyebrows shooting up to his hairline as Y/N pushed off the wall directly across from the door to his room. “Huh?”
Bucky chewed and swallowed the remaining bits of the power bar that were left in his suddenly dry mouth. “My problem?”
“Is there an echo in here?” Y/N snapped, taking a few steps closer to him. “I don’t know what I’ve done to warrant you constantly—and creepily, by the way—watching me, but if you feel intimidated, that’s your problem, not mine.”
“Doll, I’m not intimidated,” Bucky began, holding his hands up in front of him like he was trying to calm a wild animal. “Every time I’ve wanted to talk to you or to ask to spar, you’ve dodged me or started talking to someone else. If anyone’s intimidated, I’d say it would be you.”
Y/N’s mouth dropped open in shock before she scoffed, crossing her arms across her chest, clearly amused. “You don’t scare me, Barnes. I never asked you to spar because you were always just watching me! Every time I started to walk over to you, you disappeared. I even packed up my stuff really slowly just to give you plenty of time to come over and talk to me. You never did.”
Bucky’s head jerked back as if he’d just been slapped. “What?!”
“What?!” Y/N parroted back at him, just as confused. Several beats of dead silence passed between them before she opened her mouth again. “I thought—”
“You both are idiots. Glad you finally figured it out.” Natasha grinned at them from the end of the hallway before walking to her door and disappearing inside.
A few long seconds passed while the two of them got their thoughts straight. Bucky began analyzing the last few weeks of observing Y/N, realizing just how slow she was returning things to her bag, leaving him ample time to approach her. Y/N on the other hand thought about the times she’d caught Bucky’s eyes on her when she was sparring, and the clear admiration on his face when she’d taken someone down.
Bucky shook his head at his own idiocy, the tension in his body quickly dissipating. “Wow.”
“Yep.” Y/N exhaled out of her nose, wondering how she could have missed what was so obvious.
“Wanna spar?” Bucky asked at the same time as Y/N did, making them both start laughing.
The smile that curled Y/N’s lips made Bucky shiver in anticipation. “Yeah, let’s do it.”
***
“I still don’t know what your powers are,” Bucky announced that evening as he tore the end of the hand wrap tape with his teeth and pressed the edge firmly down against his right palm. “Your secrets are locked up tight, doll.”
“It was part of my deal with Maria,” Y/N said as she slipped out of her jacket, leaving her in a tank top and a pair of black leggings that went just past her knee. “You could have asked me, you know, instead of snooping.”
“Yeah, well, hindsight’s twenty-twenty.” Bucky sighed and rolled his neck, stepping forward toward the middle of the boxing ring. “I thought you were avoiding me on purpose.”
Y/N caught herself admiring Bucky’s physique, letting her eyes linger on his thick arms and muscular legs as he stretched. “To be honest, I thought you knew what my power was and that’s why you were avoiding me.”
Bucky’s heart skipped and he could feel the frigid chill of adrenaline flooding his veins. “Why do you say that?”
Y/N held out her hand and slowly lifted it up. Bucky grunted in confusion when his metal arm began to move on its own, slowly lifting straight up to follow the arc of Y/N’s hand. He tried to fight the movement, but neither his arm nor his shoulder would respond to anything he was thinking. Y/N had complete control over his arm, leaving him unable to even escape if he wanted to. He could detach his arm, sure, but his shoulder was also made of vibranium as well.
“They called me Slag… the people who had me. Mostly because of this,” Y/N wiggled her fingers, making Bucky’s metal arm jiggle up and down, “but also because I had quite the mouth on me. Cursed them out every chance I could until they finally decided to keep me so drugged up that I couldn’t fight back while they did their procedures and ran their tests.”
Bucky’s eyes hardened. Yet another person who was victimized by human experimentation and had been rescued by SHIELD and rehabilitated, just like him. He was thinking about starting a club.
Y/N mistook Bucky’s pensive face for unease and released her control on his arm. “Sorry, I should have asked before I,” she waved her hand around and wiggled her fingers.
Bucky rotated his shoulder all the way around to reset his arm, wiggling his fingers when the quick calibration cycle finished. “It’s fine. So you can only control vibranium?”
“Not just control,” Y/N murmured quietly, holding out her hand in front of her, palm up. Deep sapphire beads a few millimeters in size began to roll down her skin from a small bump on her wrist to pool in the middle of her hand. “My blood is sixty percent vibranium, I can pull the molecules of it out of my blood to use as whatever I want.”
A quick flick of her wrist had the pool of liquid vibranium turning into a dagger that was about five inches in length. It floated perfectly still in front of her, until she began to twist and twirl her finger. The dagger responded to her and followed the same movement of her hand as it sliced through the air. The dagger had a deep blue glow to it that seemed to glitter in the darkness of the room, making it almost seem ethereal. Bucky could admit it was a handy trick to have, even if the residual Winter Soldier part of his brain found it unsettling.
“So, yeah,” Y/N said quietly, ducking her chin as she held open her hand again, “that’s my power.” The dagger seemed to almost melt back into a blob of liquid vibranium before it gathered in her palm and disappeared back into the same bump in her wrist it emerged from. She could tell Bucky was uncomfortable, and it was the main reason why her power was kept so secret. People could be cruel and judgmental.
“So you’re like that Logan fella? The one who has ada-whatever in his body?” Bucky asked.
Y/N shook her head, her cheeks heating up in shame. “Logan’s skeleton is made out of adamantium. I only have the vibranium in my blood, my bones are still standard issue. I’m a lot more durable than the average human, though, since there are millions of blood vessels running right under the surface of your skin.”
Y/N was too busy staring at her feet, hoping a hole would open up to swallow her whole, to notice Bucky had moved closer and was now standing in front of her. When he reached up and lifted her chin with his finger so she’d look at him, she jerked in surprise.
“Sorry, forgot how quiet I can be,” Bucky murmured. “But you shouldn’t be ashamed of what you can do. Just like how mine is a part of me,” he lifted his metal arm and wiggled his fingers, “yours is, too. It’s just on the inside instead of on the outside. Thank you for telling me, for trusting me. Your secret is safe with me, doll.”
“You’re not freaked out?” Y/N asked, eyes wide. In the past, everyone she’d shown her power to had immediately ran in fear or wanted her locked up. Well, all except Natasha, but the woman didn’t seem to be unnerved by much of anything.
“Nah. I’m not freaked out or scared… it’s more curiosity than anything.” Bucky smirked, rocking back on his heels. “Just makes me admire you even more.” And he was telling the truth. Something had always drawn him to her, and it was about time he stopped fighting it.
“You still wanna spar?” Y/N asked, cautiously optimistic.
“Hell yeah!” Bucky smirked as he bounced from foot to foot, shaking out his arms. “But no using your powers, okay?”
Y/N matched Bucky’s smirk. ”If you think I need my powers to kick your ass, you’re gonna be in for a rude awakening.”
The two of them charged forward at the same time, exchanging blow after blow in a flurry of limbs. Y/N could tell Bucky was pulling the punches from his metal arm, but she didn’t blame him—he didn’t really understand just how durable she really was. Bucky was bulkier than a lot of the agents Y/N had fought previously, but his bulk made his movements easier to track and anticipate, giving her the upper hand.
Sometimes.
Bucky landed a lucky punch to Y/N’s shoulder, making her stumble backward, which allowed him to take advantage of her unsteady footing. He dove forward, wrapped his arms around her waist, and tackled her to the ground, using his body weight to pin her underneath him. Even though he could feel her heartbeat against his arm where it was wrapped around her waist, his super hearing allowed him to hear the sharp intake of breath she took right before her heart skipped.
They were tangled together, and Y/N bit her lip when she felt Bucky’s hot breath puff against her neck. He had one of her legs trapped between his, his arm wrapped tight around her body, and he jerked his head back to flip his hair out of his face so he could look down at her. Feeling his eyes on her, she turned her head to meet his gaze, her cheeks flushing an even darker pink than the exertion had already caused.
Bucky licked his lips. “Am I the only one feeling whatever is going on here?”
Y/N smiled and—thanks to a move learned from Natasha—twisted her body, pulled her leg out from between Bucky’s and wrapped it around his hip. One hard push against the floor of the boxing ring and Y/N flipped Bucky over onto his back, her leg bent tightly to keep him immobile and her forearm pressed down hard across his throat as she hovered over him.
“Nope.”
Bucky lunged forward, ignoring the pressure against his throat, and slammed his lips against hers. The sudden movement made her freeze as she rocked backward, but she quickly and enthusiastically reciprocated when she felt Bucky’s arm wrap around her back to steady her and keep her in his lap, one leg on either side of his thighs. The kiss was sloppy and frantic, and when Bucky pulled back to bring his hands up to the middle of her tank top and raised his eyebrow, she nodded.
The tanktop and her sports bra were torn right down the middle leaving her exposed, and she gasped when the chill of his metal hand cupped her breast, instantly pebbling her nipple. Bucky kissed and sucked his way across Y/N’s breasts, pinching and nibbling to ensure neither mound was neglected. Y/N tugged at Bucky’s tank top, which he quickly pulled over his head, before she threaded her fingers in his hair and tugged.
“Shit,” Bucky gasped, then moaned when she rotated her hips to grind down right over his rapidly filling cock. The thin material of his shorts did little to hide his arousal, and Y/N sighed dreamily when she felt the hard warmth of him twitch against her core. “Are you on—”
“Yup. Get inside me now, Barnes,” Y/N commanded. Most female agents were on some form of birth control, but the fact Bucky still had the awareness to double check made her stomach do flips.
“Yes, ma’am,” Bucky murmured, reaching down between their bodies to rip the middle of Y/N’s leggings open and slide her panties to the side so he could run a finger through her slick folds. “Damn, so fuckin’ wet already.”
“What can I say, kicking your ass is very pleasurable,” Y/N quipped.
Judging by the low growl that rumbled from Bucky’s chest, she knew she was in for a wild ride. Bucky reached down, pushed his shorts and boxer briefs down just far enough to free his cock, and gave himself a few slow strokes. Y/N licked her lips, wanting to get her mouth on that beautifully thick cock at some point in the near future. She scooted forward, lifted herself up, and slowly lowered herself down on his cock.
The stretch was intense, but she took it slow, lifting and lowering every few inches as her walls stretched to accommodate his considerable size. By the time she was fully seated, they both were breathing heavily, and Bucky had fallen backward so he was completely flat on his back, his hands clenched at his sides as he fought the urge to slam himself up inside her wet heat. It was like there was a fist wrapped in silk around his cock, and he groaned loudly when she began to rotate her hips just like she did earlier to tease him.
“Fuckin’ hell, doll, so good,” Bucky groaned, his praise rewarded by some quick and downright maddening hip movements from Y/N. “Shit, I’m… it’s been a while.”
Y/N nodded, it had also been a while for her as well, but she was going to enjoy this no matter what. As her pace increased and she began to ride his cock in earnest, her fingers began to rub circles on her clit. When Bucky reached his metal hand forward with the intention of taking over, she used her abilities to pin his vibranium arm to the floor of the boxing ring, a teasing smirk on her face.
“Hey, I thought we agreed on no powers,” Bucky huffed, then gasped when Y/N began to slam her hips down, taking the entire length of his cock each time.
“We’re,” she slammed down, “not technically,” another slam and grind of her hips, “sparring anymore.”
The liquid heat pooling in Y/N’s stomach jumped in intensity, sending tingling sparks of pleasure through her veins. Another few circles of her clit sent her fully over the edge, and she arched her back as she came, her body twitching and jerking at the sheer power behind it.
Bucky nearly howled in pleasure at the feeling of her pussy tightening down on him, and he sat up, thankful her power was no longer pinning his metal arm, so he could wrap his flesh arm around her to keep her steady while she rode out her climax. It didn’t take much longer for him to follow behind her, burying his face between her breasts and moaning loudly as he came, his cock pulsing in time with her walls around him.
They slumped against each other, panting as they came down from the haze of orgasmic bliss. Bucky lifted his head and smiled lazily, pressing a kiss to Y/N’s lips when she met his eyes. The two of them stayed wrapped up in one another for several minutes, until Y/N finally lifted herself up and rolled to the side to lay down on her back next to Bucky, ignoring the mess cooling between her thighs.
“I really wish I asked you to spar months ago,” Bucky commented, laughing when Y/N slapped his chest with the back of her hand.
“Asshole,” Y/N said through a laugh before reaching down to take his metal hand in hers, interweaving her fingers between each of the vibranium digits. “But yeah, me too.”
Natasha and Steve stepped back from the small window in the door of the gym, looked at each other, smiled, and fist bumped before turning in opposite directions and walking away.
You can now PRE-ORDER Unintimidated: Wisconsin Bands Against Scott Walker! Here's the spiel:
We're mere days from sending all the CD, DVD, and zine materials to their respective pressing/printing plants, so it's time to open the Bandcamp up to pre-orders! If you've been wondering when you could throw your money at us, now's the time. Click here and head to our Bandcamp page, where you can choose from the following pre-orders:
- For $10 you can pre-order a download of the UNINTIMIDATED CD, a 16-song collection of anti-Scott Walker anthems, in the audio format of your choosing! Included in the download will be a .pdf version of the UNINTIMIDATED zine, featuring lyrics, activities, propaganda, and a...well, I won't lie. There's a centerfold.
- For $20 you can pre-order the UNINTIMIDATED 16-song CD, the UNINTIMIDATED DVD, featuring videos of the 13 songs recorded at the August 2015 Howl Street sessions and interviews with most of the bands, and the UNINTIMIDATED zine, featuring lyrics, activities, propaganda, and did I mention a centerfold?
Also, if you pre-order, you will immediately get a download of the three non-video tracks on the comp: Damsel Trash's "Scott Walker, You're a Piece of Shit," "Left Mitten" by Venus In Furs, and "Bad Wolf" by Testa Rosa! You can stream 'em right now, in fact.
https://unintimidatedscottwalker.bandcamp.com/
We've been asked to be involved in a anti-Scott Walker CD/DVD benefit compilation called Unintimidated, not coincidentally also the name of Scotty's steaming pile of excrement in book form. We'll be contributing a brand-new song entitled "The Three-Point Program To Destroy Wisconsin." We're taping our performance August 30 and the project will be released later this year.
The organizers (members of IfIHadAHiFi, Zebras, and Heavy Hand) are posting profiles of the participating bands one by one. Ours was quite flattering:
...it would have felt weird doing this project without Tyranny is Tyranny, a band named after a chapter in A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn, and whose terrific new album, The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, sports a title inspired by a book by political activist, author and filmmaker Naomi Klein. Guitarist/vocalist Russell Emerson Hall is in the midst of a long career of using music as political speech; his previous ensemble, The United Sons of Toil, performed on the Wisconsin capitol steps in Madison during the 2011 Act 10 protests.
Tyranny pulls much of their musical influence from the similar noise-rock veins mined by Volunteer, though Volunteer's immediate punch-the-face approach is replaced here with a more deliberate slow burn of riffs, builds, and dynamic shifts (the better to let bassist M. Guy Ficcioto's trumpet exhale over the occasional lulls in the tempest). Indeed, Tyranny is Tyranny's shows of late have almost felt structured like movements in a noise-rock symphony, one seven-minute epic leading into the next like interlocking pieces to a larger, more grandiose work. And these men have ideas and ideals that match the sweeping scale of their music...
A band of action, for sure, and one we are privileged to have appearing in our project.
