With anger becoming the emotional currency of the world today, it only makes sense to see a resurgence of hardcore. Only Constant (Convulse) the full-length debut from this New Jersey band, Gel, finds the quintet twisting the style of the early Hardcore vomited forth by The Plasmatics and GISM into their own sound that is re-imagined for a younger generation. The band’s sharp-edged twin guitar aggression is mixed with the drive-of-rock attitude.
As I show up to Strummers, where Brujeria’s Matando Güeros 30th Anniversary Tour is playing tonight in Fresno, California, a fan ran up to the door and asked the guard if the show will still be happing in an hour. Walking into Strummers saddens me to not see a big crowd, but people spread out and some up close to the stage as Art of Shock is performing.
How often can it be said when speaking of supergroups that its individual members are at the peak of their powers? The only reason it perhaps cannot be said of the members of boygenius is simply that it feels like the trio is on the ascent if anything.
After two EPs worth of hard-slamming hardcore punk since their formation in Manchester in 2019, Going Off are delivering a larger beatdown with their debut LP, What Makes You Tick? (Church Road Records) with a fresh style that mixes older and new hardcore genres with plenty of destruction all around.
Starting in the nineties and still continuing to this day in 2023, it’s safe to say the Riot Grrrl movement isn’t dying out any time soon. New bands such as all-female hardcore punk trio Death Pill continue to emerge from the shadows, and this one has a debut album that’s tough to forget once crawled through unsuspecting ears.
Out of Milwaukee is the hardcore group Big Laugh with the debut LP, Consume Me (Revelation Records). The band had previously released the EP Maniac Revision that came out back in 2020. On Consume Me, the songs come out fast and furious with little room for any flash or filler. Most songs included barely make it over the two-minute mark. Continue reading
Everywhere, Everything (Arising Empire) is the fifth album from Polar, the Hardcore natives of Guildford, Surrey (UK), and is the follow-up to 2019’s Nova. It is a collection of songs written together during the pandemic, and with their current lineup for the first time, which had brought a premature end to their tour with After The Burial, Spiritbox, and Make Them Suffer.
Hailing from Norwich, England, post-hardcore trio Other Half have put out their second album Soft Action (Big Scary Monsters), consolidating their presence in the modern punk scene. It is a record that keeps the adrenaline pumping throughout its fourteen-track run-through and brings solid production to an otherwise disorderly DIY kind of tone. Despite its title, the album is anything but soft.
If you have ever wanted a hardcore punk band with wackiness that only Mike Patton can provide, then you owe yourself to check out Dead Cross and their new album, II (Ipecac Recordings). The result of this mix is absolute audible chaos that the world needs in this crazy day and age we all live in. Don’t worry metal friends, Dave Lombardo (ex-Slayer, Testament) is in this stellar lineup as well so you no need to pull the “this isn’t metal” card for this album!
It is one thing to put together a memorable album, but to do so in the form of a split with multiple bands recording tracks for the album takes quite a vision. On many occasions, labelmates will end up putting out splits, or perhaps just friends in the scene. For END and Cult Leader, this match-up feels as natural as salt and pepper. In thirteen minutes (two songs per band), Gather & Mourn (Deathwish Inc/Closed Casket Activities) puts forth so much energy and aggression, no wonder only four tracks could fit.Continue reading