Ignite: Our Darkest Days
There is a delicate art in melodic hardcore: that of marrying power and light, rage and soaring. Ignite has mastered that balance…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Section
Reviews
Strife: In This Defiance
The mid nineties saw hardcore harden, load itself with metal, gain in heaviness and compactness. Strife fully accompanied that movement, and In…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Hatebreed: Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire
Some debut albums strike with such force that they instantly redefine the rules of the game. Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire,…
8.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Earth Crisis: Destroy the Machines
When Earth Crisis released their first full length album in 1995, straight edge hardcore finally had its most uncompromising manifesto. Coming out…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Merauder: Master Killer
Some records do not seek to charm but to impose their law. Master Killer, released in 1996 by the New Yorkers of…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
All Out War: For Those Who Were Crucified
Released in 1998, For Those Who Were Crucified establishes All Out War as one of the most uncompromising bands in the metallic…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Death Before Dishonor: Friends Family Forever
Some bands embody a whole city, and Death Before Dishonor carries Boston in every one of their chords. Released in 2005, Friends…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
First Blood: Killafornia
Released in 2006, Killafornia is the record that brought First Blood to attention well beyond the tight circles of Californian hardcore. The…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Wisdom in Chains: Class War
Some bands sing the street because they grew up in it, and Wisdom in Chains is one of them. Coming from Pennsylvania,…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Bury Your Dead: Cover Your Tracks
In the mid two thousands the American metalcore scene is boiling, and Bury Your Dead holds a place apart within it. The…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
The Ghost Inside: Get What You Give
There is in metalcore a lineage of bands that refuse darkness in favor of light, and The Ghost Inside is one of…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Stray from the Path: Only Death Is Real
Few modern hardcore bands own their political dimension as openly as Stray from the Path. Coming from Long Island, in New York…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Trapped Under Ice: Big Kiss Goodnight
By the time Trapped Under Ice released Big Kiss Goodnight in 2011, the Baltimore band had already proven it belonged among the…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Backtrack: Lost in Life
With Lost in Life in 2014, Backtrack delivers a record that cuts to the core of New York hardcore and its Long…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Expire: Pretty Low
A band from Milwaukee, Expire built its reputation on a no-nonsense hardcore, without compromise or artifice. Pretty Low, released in 2014, confirms…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Twitching Tongues: Disharmony
Twitching Tongues never played hardcore like the others. The Los Angeles band built a reputation apart by blending the heaviness of metallic…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Nasty: Realigion
A defining figure of European beatdown, Nasty established itself over the years as one of the most uncompromising bands on the continent.…
7/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Kickback: Forever War
Kickback holds a place apart in the history of French and European hardcore. A sulfurous, often controversial band, it built its myth…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Deez Nuts: Stay True
Born from the energy of JJ Peters, former drummer of an Australian metalcore band, Deez Nuts immediately took the opposite tack from…
7/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Bulldoze: The Final Beatdown
A band from New Jersey, Bulldoze stands among the pioneers of beatdown, that subgenre of hardcore cut for pure crushing. The Final…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Xibalba: Tierra y Libertad
Hailing from California, Xibalba built its identity on a powerful blend of metallic hardcore, death metal and doom. Tierra y Libertad, released…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Harm’s Way: Posthuman
A band from Chicago, Harm’s Way made its name through a metallic hardcore fed by industrial influences, a combination that gives it…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Year of the Knife: Internal Incarceration
Released in 2020, Internal Incarceration is one of the most brutal metallic hardcore records of its generation. The Delaware band seeks neither…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Incendiary: Thousand Mile Stare
Six years after Cost of Living, Incendiary returned in 2023 with Thousand Mile Stare and confirmed their place among the standard-bearers of…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Have Heart: The Things We Carry
Released in 2006, The Things We Carry is Have Heart’s first album, and it was enough to place the Massachusetts band at…
8.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Defeater: Travels
Released in 2008, Travels is Defeater’s first album, from the Massachusetts band that would become one of the major names in melodic…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Verse: Aggression
Released in 2008, Aggression is a pivotal record for Verse, the Rhode Island band that embodies a melodic hardcore fed by political…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Modern Life Is War: Witness
Released in 2005, Witness is the record that brought Modern Life Is War into the legend of 2000s hardcore. Coming from Iowa,…
8.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
American Nightmare: Background Music
Released in 2001, Background Music is American Nightmare’s first album, from the Boston band that became a cult name for a whole…
8.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Ceremony: Rohnert Park
Released in 2010, Rohnert Park is a pivotal record in Ceremony’s trajectory, the Californian band taking its title from the name of…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Touche Amore: Stage Four
Released in 2016, Stage Four is a record deeply marked by grief. The Los Angeles band confronts the loss of a loved…
8.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
La Dispute: Wildlife
Released in 2011, Wildlife is an ambitious record that pushes post-hardcore toward the territory of literature. The Michigan band deploys a fragmented…
8.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Title Fight: Floral Green
When Title Fight released Floral Green in 2012, the Kingston, Pennsylvania band closed one door in order to open another. Where their…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Basement: Colourmeinkindness
Colourmeinkindness arrived in 2012 in a peculiar context: the British band Basement, from Ipswich, announced a hiatus at the very moment they…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Balance and Composure: The Things We Think Were Missing
In 2013, Balance and Composure confirmed with this second album that they hold a place apart in the American post-hardcore scene. The…
7.5/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review
Fiddlehead: Between the Richness
Fiddlehead holds a singular position in contemporary melodic hardcore. This American band brings together musicians drawn from respected acts of the scene,…
8/10 September 11, 2026
Read the review