The late Ernie Cortez, Powerhouse bassist and imposing Norcal figure, had only two true loves in his life: hardcore and his friends. In 1997, he began a project that celebrated both these things. He gathered together a few friends and penned some anthems that combined the stomp metal of old Biohazard, the bloodyknuckled hardcore of Madball, the stubborn sneer of Sheer Terror, and the lessons learned from a life lived on the mean streets Oakland. The Doomsday Device was built. True to Ernie's original vision, The Device was strictly a friendly affair. They had no career goals, played shows only when it suited them. The first demos were blank cassettes simply marked OBHC, the name of the now-legendary crew Ernie helped form, and sat in a pile on the coffee table at his apartment where they were really only available to the parade of hoods and homeboys coming by for Sunday afternoon barbecues and touring bands crashing on his floor.
Ernie was a busy man, always dedicating himself to the growing Norcal hardcore scene with his bass duties in the important and oft-overlooked Powerhouse, opening the world's first all ages all hardcore venue, The Bombshelter, and running Sacred Tattoo in downtown Oakland. Regardless, in his downtime, he would gather the members of Doomsday Device to work on new song and play rare and rollicking shows. In 2000, they had enough material and Ernie had just enough free time to record a full length. True to the original spirit of the band, Ernie got on the phone and invited a plethora of figures from the hardcore scene to contribute lyrics and vocals to the band first album. Chris from Powerhouse, Joey from Second Coming, Sammy from All Bets Off, and rapper Chad Bankshot, among others contributed to an album titled "Family Pride" and celebrated exactly that. Each song was a testament to the bonds of friendship, to the glory of the hardcore scene, and to the struggles and triumphs of true life. The album, whose distribution was somewhat hindered by the small label that released, quickly became a necessity for every kid in a hoody and cammo shorts in Norcal. Doomsday Device shows, rare and rarely announced much ahead of time, became the stuff of legend, as hordes of Norcal hardcore's tough guy elite took the stage to sing "their part" and then go barreling back into the crowd to mosh among the bloodied, sweaty masses of kids.
However, Doomsday Device was never viewed as a serious band, a "career endeavor", but rather an excuse to get together with friends and have some fun. So it would often be pushed aside to make room for Ernie's many other duties, namely the international tours of Powerhouse and the daily responsibilities of running the tattoo shop.
Two years after the release of ""Family Pride", Ernie began itching to rev up the old Device engine once again. Because some of the members were burdened by the responsibilities of their own lives, Ernie enlisted a new lineup of friends to fill the ranks. He recruited Walter of Madball fame to keep the beat, the reserved but endlessly talented John Teetsel on guitar, and Ezra from Lowlife on second guitar. Ernie was a talented bassist, and inspiration for hardcore bassist around the world, and that being the case, he demanded greatness from whomever would be pounding the thick strings in his own beloved project. He needed greatness, so he went and got greatness: Chumly, the mountain of a man who cut his teeth in legendary thrash band D.R.I. With the all positions filled and all pistons fired up, Doomsday Device came back to life with a vengeance and began writing a second album. Ernie's code for the new record was simple. He told everyone who asked, "It's going to be harder than the last one." That was the intention: make a monster that was more monstrous than the monster he had already created.
As he had done with "Family Pride", Ernie got on the phone and began rounding up friends to lend their talents to the new album, this time bringing in friends from outside of the Bay Area such as Danny Diablo, a.k.a Lord Ezec of Skarhead and Crown Of Thornz fame, and the beautifully bombastic voice of Zoli from Ignite. The tracks were committed to tape and Doomsday Device began playing out far more often than they ever had before. This new vigor was largely attributed to what Ernie viewed as "the death of the soul of hardcore". He was watching too many heartless bands aim for rockstar fame and fortune by using and abusing his beloved hardcore scene and its impressionable kids for their own greedy needs and hollow desires. He set out to remind the new generation what it was all about: hardcore and friendship and not letting anything corrupt either.
Sadly, in December of 2004, Ernie Cortez passed away after a long and valiant battle with cancer. Both Powerhouse and Doomsday Device, for all intents and purposes, died with him. He was both bands, and without him, they seemed pointless.
However, in the wake of the tragedy and after much reflection on his amazing legacy, the members of Doomsday Device decided that the whole point of the band was still terribly vital and that it would behoove the scene not to let it go to waste. It would, in a way, do Ernie and all that he dedicated his life to a great disservice by ending. Meanwhile, Chris Powerhouse was bandless, refusing to entertain the notion of a Powerhouse without it's founder and bassist. It is said often in music, but it rang a thousand times more true here: There was no Powerhouse without Ernie.
Seeing that Doomsday Device was not about "the band" but more about the army of friends it represented, Chris accepted the invitation to take on vocal duties in Doomsday Device after much soul searching. A tribute show to celebrate Ernie's life and mourn his death had been booked with newcomers Dispute, scene miscreants All Bets Off, old school thrashers I Madman, and the one night only reunion of the criminally underrated Second Coming. Also on the bill, still reeling from the loss of their leader, was Doomsday Device with Chris Powerhouse on the mic. That night, they performed a impassioned set of Doomsday and Powerhouse tunes that left both the flesh and the heart bruised. Chris was still unsure about replacing his best friend, but after seeing how much the band meant to so many, he decided that the most fitting tribute to Ernie would be to ride the Device until the wheels fell off. The purpose was still the same and just as vital and they knew that it was their duty to represent those things that Ernie held so dear: hardcore and friendship.
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