Stray From The Path have added their name to the growing list of artists refusing to stay silent. With their searing new track “Can I Have Your Autograph?” the Long Island hardcore band has aimed its fury straight at one of the rock world’s most controversial figures: Disturbed’s David Draiman. The lyric that stops you cold—“You put your name on that bomb / I put a target on your f**ing back”*—feels like more than just a diss. It’s a line in the sand.
The callout comes in response to Draiman’s widely criticized visit to an Israeli military base in 2024, where he was photographed signing an artillery shell used in Israel’s ongoing assault on Gaza. The image sparked outrage, especially from those within the global music community already speaking out against the humanitarian catastrophe unfolding in Palestine. At a time when artists are risking their careers to demand a ceasefire and call out complicity, Draiman’s action felt like a provocation—and Stray From The Path aren’t letting it slide.
This is what Voices for Palestine was created for: to amplify the artists using their platforms not just for protest, but for principled clarity. The stakes couldn’t be higher. Since late 2023, Israel’s military campaign in Gaza has killed tens of thousands of Palestinians—most of them civilians, many of them children. Entire neighborhoods have been flattened. Hospitals bombed. Families erased. And through it all, the majority of the Western music industry has stayed quiet, offering nothing but vagueness or silence.
But Stray From The Path didn’t just speak up—they used their last album ever, Clockworked, to immortalize the callout. This isn’t performative activism. This is rage as record. A band choosing their final moments on wax to say: we see what’s happening, and we will not let you normalize genocide under the guise of patriotism.
Draiman, for his part, defended his actions, claiming they were directed at Hamas and asserting that he stands for “peace and coexistence.” But how can one claim peace while literally putting their signature on a weapon being used in one of the most lopsided military assaults in modern history? That’s not neutrality. That’s endorsement.
Stray From The Path aren’t perfect, and protest music is never without friction. But they’ve done what most artists with far larger platforms have not: taken a stand without hedging. Hardcore has always been about calling out power, about naming violence and hypocrisy directly. In this track, they didn’t soften the blow. And they shouldn’t have to.
We at Exposed Vocals stand with artists who stand with Palestine. We believe in music as resistance. And we believe that the moment demands more than just statements—it demands disruption. “Can I Have Your Autograph?” may be confrontational, but so is silence when bombs are falling.
This is not just a song. It’s a document of accountability. And in a music landscape full of performative allyship and calculated branding, Stray From The Path’s rage sounds like something we desperately need: honesty.
Editorial Note: This article is part of Voices of Palestine, a dedicated editorial series amplifying artists speaking out for Palestinian liberation. From global icons to underground voices, Exposed Vocals spotlights musicians using their platforms to demand justice, call for ceasefire, and challenge silence in the face of genocide. This is music on the right side of history.
