Al Barile obit

SSD Guitarist Al Barile Dead At 63

 

He was not on the list.

Al Barile, guitarist and creative force behind the early Boston hardcore band SSD, has passed away. As Pitchfork reports, Barile’s wife Nancy Barile writes that he died on Sunday. In 2022, Barile revealed that he’d been diagnosed with rectal cancer. Barile was 63.

Alan Scott Barile formed SSD in 1981 while working as a General Electric machinist and studying at Northeastern. The name stood for Society System Decontrol, and their name appeared as SS Decontrol on the cover of their first two records before they officially changed it to SSD. The band took early inspiration from Minor Threat, both in the slashing, rigorous short-song immediacy of the music and in the fiery straight-edge viewpoint that they took. Their wild live shows quickly became notorious, largely because of the support of the Boston Crew, the group of friends and supporters who would show out at every gig. Barile and singer Springa would famously throw themselves around stages, bringing a physicality that would help set a hardcore standard.

Barile started X-Claim Records, the Boston hardcore label that released SSD’s 1982 debut album The Kids Will Have Their Say, and Minor Threat’s Ian MacKaye co-released it through his Dischord label. That record and SSD’s 1983 EP Get It Away are considered classics within hardcore. X-Claim also put out important early Boston hardcore classics from the FU’s, DYS, and Jerry’s Kids. SSD moved in a more metal direction on two later records, 1984’s How We Rock and 1985’s Break It Up, before breaking up later in 1985.

Barile later started the band Gage, and he continued to work as a mechanical engineer at General Electric for decades. In recent years, Barile worked on putting out a series of reissues, and there’s a great 2023 interview with him and Nancy in David Anthony’s Former Clarity newsletter. Below, check out some videos of SSD in action.