The Violent Hour have released a music video for “Screenager“, three weeks after the song itself appeared.
The track came out on August 14 with a visualiser, and the band said at the time that a full video would follow. It is the first song from their debut album, which is around half finished.
Carla Harvey described what she and Charlie Benante were aiming for.
“We wanted to write something that felt as relentless as the endless scroll,” she said. “Musically, ‘Screenager‘ channels the aggression and energy of early Metallica but opens up into huge, soaring melodic choruses. Lyrically, it’s about how we’ve traded genuine human connection for digital validation, and how anonymity has fueled a growing lack of empathy by making cruelty feel consequence-free. We’re more connected than ever, yet somehow we’ve never felt further apart.”
The guitar solo came from outside the band.
“We asked our friend Attila Vörös to lay down the guitar solo for ‘Screenager‘, and he absolutely delivered with a combination of ’80s shred and modern melodic metal that only he could pull off,” Harvey added.
The song had already been in the band’s live set for some time before the studio version was issued.
The Violent Hour began as a two-person project. Harvey, who spent fifteen years in Butcher Babies and also sings in Lords Of Acid, wrote the lyrics and sang. Benante, drummer for Anthrax and Pantera, wrote the music and played every instrument.
That is how the self-titled debut EP was made, released through Megaforce Records in July 2025. John 5 of Mötley Crüe played a solo on “Sick Ones“, and Zakk Wylde appeared on “Hell Or Hollywood“.
A live band was assembled afterwards: Kiana De León on lead guitar, Allie Kay on rhythm guitar, Jewel Steele on bass and Sasha De León on drums. Kiana and Sasha De León had previously played together in the Pantera tribute band Far Beyond Hostile and the covers project Vixen Vendetta.
Harvey and Benante married in Las Vegas last October, in a ceremony officiated by Gene Simmons.
The Violent Hour are playing festivals through the autumn: Rocklahoma in Pryor, Oklahoma on September 6, Louder Than Life in Louisville on September 17 and Aftershock in Sacramento on October 1.
The Louisville date will be a long one for Benante. Anthrax and Pantera both appear on that same opening night bill, alongside Iron Maiden, Megadeth, Alice Cooper and Danzig, which puts him behind three different drum kits in a single afternoon.
Harvey grew up in Detroit and attended the College For Creative Studies before moving to Los Angeles at twenty. She has worked as an actor, appearing in “Rules Of Engagement“, and co-fronted Butcher Babies from their formation.
She also holds a bachelor’s degree in mortuary science, graduating as valedictorian, and a master’s in thanatology, and worked as a licensed funeral director and embalmer while touring. She founded a grief counselling service and now works as a grief specialist for Parting Stone, a company that converts cremated remains into solid stones for families to keep.
Alongside the records she has published several comic books and a novel, “Death And Other Dances“, in 2014.
