Listen, I fully understand the hate for Hatebreed. Past their influential debut, they have been responsible for popularizing ‘hardcore’ and making it more commercial, and putting it in malls and on MTV. But there is no denying their chest-beating anthemic take on ‘bro-core’ has been the rallying cry for a generation and more than likely […]

I was first exposed to Harm’s Way many years ago when I saw them open for Hate Eternal (if I recall right).  I remember being blown away by their energy and their killer beatdown hardcore style, and the nasty vocal style of their oft-shirtless lead man (who looks like he could be a professional powerlifter).  […]

If crossover was the result of punk and metal’s liquor fueled party hook-up, surely sludge was the junk addicted offspring born during the dark times they spent shooting tar with rusty works in an abandoned building. Sludge’s early years were spent as the musical gutter child of the vitriol and speed of punk and the […]

Pardon me while I pick my face off of the floor, Cop Problem just sheared my grill off with this rager of an EP. Intense d-beat and crust influenced hardcore that slays and slays for every second of its nine minutes. This is an urgent, ripping blast of catharsis straight from the streets of Killadelphia […]

Well thank the goat and Odin that I wasn’t asked to review the 80’s TV soap of the same name. Dynasty are a West Coast outfit playing the musical style often referred to as ‘hardcore’. Admittedly, I’m about as familiar with metal-infused hardcore as I am with 80’s TV soaps, although I know enough about […]

Brevity in musical descriptions goes a long ways in my book. Less IS more. Much like Hemingway’s “Iceberg Theory”, it gives credit to the beholder’s imagination to not just fill in the blanks, but to also not have their interpretation of the art limited to someone else’s view. It gives more freedom to the appreciator. […]

France’s Comity constructs lengthy songs from short, violent outbursts of tightly wound riffs. It’s spastic, ragingly violent hardcore with a heavy dose of noise rock and a touch of post rock shimmer. It’s nothing that hasn’t been done many times before, but the restraint they show in the second half of The Journey is Now […]

Do you hate your life? Are you on the verge of a big break-up? Or do you just plain wish everyone was dead? If you said yes to any of these then your ears should not be treated to this record for fear of suicide or mass murder. Well actually fuck it listen to it […]

So here’s another reason to own a record player (and a cassette player);  Sacred Plague Records. And one of their recent releases  is the second effort from Chico, California’s Black Hole of Calcutta, a noisy, primal punk/grind/hardcore collaboration featuring members of The Makai, Transient and Mammoth Torta. Named after a 1756 incident where 146 prisoners […]

Listen, (for once) I’m just going to get right to it. If you Like Trap Them or some of  today’s noisy discordant bands like Animosity, Gaza, Harlots and such, just go ahead and grab this release, a collection of the bands first two releases, Eden Sank to Grief and War Begins With You. Milwaukee’s Enabler […]

Listen, this is Christian metal on Strikefirst Records, so spare me the lecture and redundant lashes OK? hailing from Colorado, Altars debut effort of Facedown’s farm league label, is actually a pretty promising 6 song affair. It’s one of those multi faceted modern Christian hardcore records that combines  a punchy production burly deathcore beat downs […]

Jamey Jasta never seems to slow down.  From his success with Hatebreed, to hosting Headbanger’s Ball, to owning his own record label, to his partnership with Kirk Windstein in Kingdom of Sorrow and now to his self-titled, self-funded album, the guy is always up to something.  This solo gig is what Jasta has described as […]

Xibalba are five-piece from southern-california who play a slightly throwback inspired take on metallic hardcore. Fortunately that throwback flair is drawing inspiration from some incredibly heavy acts such as Disembodied and Bloodlet. A sound and delivery where the common thread is in their use of down-tuned, simple chugging riffs, with a dark and menacing motif. […]

Up until I heard this 10 song, 7″ release from Atlanta’s Dead in the Dirt, God Is War from All Pigs Must Die was my favorite crust release of 2011, and before that, Nails and their Unsilent Death release was my favorite crust release of the last decade or so. But once the needle hits […]

I really like what former doom merchants, Southern Lord, is doing with their crust/hardcore of late;  excellent releases from the likes of  Nails, Acephalix, Masakari, Black Breath, Planks, Summon the Crows, Sabarante, and this, the fucking blistering debut of All Pigs Must Die. Featuring Kevin Baker (The Hope Conspiracy) on vocals and Ben Koller (Converge) […]

Have you ever heard an album that doesn’t suck nor does it rock the shit out of everything in its path… an album that’s just, uh oh, decent? Switchtense self-titled second full-length is that album. For its duration, it’s all entertainment and cupcakes, but after it ceases spinning, that’s it. It doesn’t leave a mark. […]

This is going to take some beating. Few albums this year in any genre have enraptured me as much as Foundation’s first proper full-length, When the Smoke Clears. I don’t know what’s in the water at Bridge 9 (because they certainly aint smoking anything), but since they started investing in the heavier side of hardcore, […]