Long Island, New York continues to be a machine for pumping killer Hardcore bands out, but there has been debate on who runs the scene nowadays. Some may say this debate is over as Pain of Truth has dropped the self-titled LP, Pain of Truth (Daze Style), and it is a scorcher. Unrelenting beatdown bridging ferocious riffs with Michael Smith spitting out rage-filled lines, now with no guest spots, is the evidence brought to the table in this debate.
Four and a half decades ago, Agnostic Front headbutted their way onto the New York punk and hardcore scene, rose quickly to the top, and despite a four year split in the nineties, stayed there. With songs built on the foundations of social injustice, corruption and inequality, AF might have changed musically over the years but their messaging and their warnings have not. Continue reading
Spiral In A Straight Line (Rise Records) is Touché Amoré’s sixth album. They are not only more confident in who they are as a band, but continuing the journey fussy they are not capable of explosive emotional outbursts as heard in the song. This is handled in a more Punk way, with less overt emoting. The more polished production compliments the progression of their creative path, with the guitars being where growth is most evident. On a song like “Hal Ashby” they embrace the late nineties all over again thanks to the jangle of the guitars. This feels the most like what we once called Emo with a punk drive that thankfully owes more to Hot Water Music than Blink-182. Continue reading