12 must-hear hardcore albums and EPs from 2020 (so far)
Drain (photo by Sam Jameson)
We’re more than halfway through 2020 and this year is moving at a strange pace, but sometimes you need to take a minute, look back on the good parts of the year, and/or lose yourself in some great music. We recently posted some of our favorite punk, metal, emo/sceamo/post-hardcore, and folk albums of 2020 (so far), and here’s a list of 12 hardcore albums and/or EPs released so far this year that we love. If you’re looking for something new in this realm — or just looking for something to dive back into — these albums may be a good place to start. Read on for our picks (in no particular order) and let us know what other new hardcore you’ve been digging in the comments…
Gulch – Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress
The Santa Cruz/San Jose hardcore scene is thriving right now, thanks to killer bands like Drain, Hands of God, Sunami, and Gulch, all of whom share members and/or frequently gig together, and the latest must-hear release to come out of that scene is Gulch's Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress. Casually blurring the lines between punk, thrash, and metalcore, Impenetrable Cerebral Fortress is rager after rager, with eight songs, six of which are under two minutes. Not until the closing song -- a cover of Siouxsie and the Banshees' "Sin In My Heart" that Gulch turn into a brooding, three-and-a-half minute fusion of indie, sludge, and screamo -- do Gulch even consider slowing down. Other than that song, this record is purely whiplash-inducing, and vocalist Elliot Morrow sounds like he swallowed knives before recording. There's been a lot of punk/metal crossover in this realm lately, but don't let this record get lost in the shuffle. It's too purely vicious to be ignored.
Rotting Out – Ronin
San Pedro's Rotting Out were staples of the late 2000s / early 2010s hardcore scene, but they broke up in 2015 and, the following year, vocalist Walter Delgado served an 18-month prison sentence after pleading guilty to charges of possession of marijuana (around 700lbs of it in his vehicle). But, thankfully, Walter is a free man again, Rotting Out are an active band again, and they've got a new record that fucking rips. Not only is Walter not the type to glorify street life, he's the type to say "fuck you" to people who do, especially when they haven't actually lived it. So of course you can feel the effects of Walter doing time on this record, but in a way that's often reflective, and even more often angry. Walter's got one of those barks where he sounds pissed off no matter what the lyrics are, and it goes very well with the band's fast, in-your-face, little-to-no frills punk songs. With almost every song around or under the two-minute mark, this record whips by and sounds like a pure adrenaline rush the whole time. It doesn't sound a hell of a lot different than the album they made seven years ago, but it's hotter and crisper and the band sounds rejuvenated. And besides, when you've got a no-bullshit formula that works as well as Rotting Out's, you don't need to reinvent yourself every time.
Drain – California Cursed
Santa Cruz hardcore band Drain's first full-length album California Cursed (out on the legendary Revelation Records) packs Metallica/Slayer licks and Pantera/Exhorder grooves into its 10-song, 22-minute running time, but it doesn't do the band any justice to pigeonhole them into "crossover thrash." This isn't your average Suicidal Tendencies and Cro-Mags worship -- which there's been a lot of in recent years. California Cursed feels fresh, like it's Drain's personal brand of hardcore injected with thrash and groove metal riffs, rather than an attempt to fit in with a predetermined style of crossover. Maybe it's the title and the cover art, but California Cursed has that classic Cali punk vibe and it adds a little warmth and brightness to the evil in the riffs. It's also a modern sounding record that takes influence from '80s guitar work but not '80s production techniques. Even if some of the sounds are familiar, every new generation needs the hardcore bands they can call their own. California Cursed sounds like a record that thousands of young hardcore kids can latch onto, and that'll induce some welcome nostalgia for longtime hardcore/thrash fans in the process.
Power Alone – Rather Be Alone
Eva Hall has been a vegan straightedge staple for a while, first fronting the metalcore band Gather in the mid 2000s and then Rats In The Wall (whose lineup also included Brad Logan of Leftover Crack and F-Minus), and now she's fronting the new band Power Alone -- which also features her brother/Gather bandmate Dustin and Dustin's former Lockstep bandmate Joven -- whose debut LP Rather Be Alone came out on the legendary Indecision Records (Unbroken, Suicide File, etc) this week. Rather Be Alone has clear-as-day but still gritty and unpolished production courtesy the great Paul Miner (Kill Your Idols, Curl Up and Die, Thrice, etc), and it's a straight-up, little-to-no-frills hardcore record and about as ferocious as they come. Rather Be Alone's got big, chunky, heavy-as-all-hell riffs and killer grooves, and Eva tops it all off with a venomous bark and cutthroat lyricism that straddles the line between personal and political and sticks a middle finger in the face of anyone who gets in her way. It's not "melodic" hardcore (except for the 40-second standout "All We've Got"), but it has so much clarity that I wouldn't be surprised if this one's a winner for hardcore kids and the hardcore-curious alike.
Xibalba – Años En Infierno
Now that the whole hardcore/death metal crossover thing is really on trend, here comes Xibalba with their first album in five years to remind you that they've been doing it since before it was hip and now they whip even more ass than ever. Años En Infierno (which translates to "years in hell"... yep) is the band's first album produced by Power Trip/Code Orange collaborator Arthur Rizk, and the bigger, cleaner production only makes them sound more furious. The rhythm section is a total gut punch, and Nate Rebolledo's growls have grown far more evil in the past five years. Things really suck right now, and sometimes when things suck you just want the most white-knuckling, jaw-clenching shit in the world to help release all the bad feelings you're harboring up inside, and that's exactly what Años En Infierno is.
END – Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face
I wanna try to refrain from using the term "supergroup" to describe END -- whose lineup includes vocalist Brendan Murphy (Counterparts), guitarist Will Putney (of Fit For An Autopsy and producer for Knocked Loose, Vein, Every Time I Die, and tons of other cool bands), guitarist Gregory Thomas (ex-Misery Signals, ex-Shai Hulud), bassist Jay Pepito (Reign Supreme, ex-Blacklisted), and drummer Billy Rymer (ex-The Dillinger Escape Plan) -- because even though each member in this group is obviously pretty super, I feel like it somehow takes something away. The word makes END sound like some ego-fueled, too-big-to-fail rock star side project rather than a vital hardcore band whose members just happen to also play in other vital hardcore bands, and END are very much the latter. END put out their debut EP From the Unforgiving Arms of God back in 2017, and they've spent the time since then solidifying themselves as a force of their own who stand tall next to the members' more famous projects. Splinters From An Ever-Changing Face, their first full-length, only further cements this. It's angry, in-your-face, metallic hardcore that would sound great whenever you listen to it, but which especially feels cathartic with all the anger in the air right now.
Year of the Knife – Internal Incarceration
Pure Noise Records has been on a roll lately, and one of their most promising new signings is Delaware metallic hardcore crew Year of the Knife. They were supposed to open the Code Orange tour this year, and if you like when that band was more of a straight-up hardcore/metalcore band, you're almost definitely gonna like this too. It's got razor-sharp production by Converge's Kurt Ballou, and it's just rager after rager. It's a blast to listen to and it sounds like it'd be even more of a blast to be in the pit for these songs at the tour that never happened, but it's also a very dark record. The lyrics tackle addiction and loss, and the gloomy tone of the music follows suit.
Sharptooth – Transitional Forms
Baltimore's Sharptooth made a name for themselves as one of the brightest new voices in political hardcore with their 2017 debut LP Clever Girl (which, among other things, includes a rager called "Fuck You Donald Trump"), and they're now back with their followup Transitional Forms, which is bigger and better in every way. The band now sounds tighter and heavier and more varied, the production is crisper (this one was produced and mixed by Brian McTernan, Paul Leavitt, and Sharptooth guitarist Lance Donati), and the anger that fuels these songs is even more palpable than it was on Sharptooth's debut. As powerhouse screamer/singer Lauren Kashan puts it, the album tells the "story of my personal struggle with the societal, interpersonal, and internal constructs that have left me feeling small, afraid, broken, and utterly hopeless," and you hear how all of that informs the incisive lyricism on this LP.
Compared to Clever Girl, Sharptooth push their sound to new extremes in a handful of new directions. The nu-ish chugs of "Say Nothing (In The Absence of Content)" find Sharptooth at their heaviest, "Life On The Razor's Edge" finds them at their most atmospheric, and at least a couple songs find them upping the melodicism in interesting ways. "The Gray" belongs in the same lineage of melodic hardcore as bands like Modern Life Is War and Comeback Kid, while "153" sounds like a fresh update on the metalcore-tinged hard rock of mid 2000s Every Time Die, and "Evolution" gets a dash of melodic punk from Anti-Flag frontman Justin Sane's guest spot. The variety of the album keeps you on your toes, while the pure rage and adrenaline that fuels these songs keeps your blood rushing.
Entry – Detriment
Entry (whose guitarist Clayton Stevens is also in Touche Amore) cite such influences as Discharge, Minor Threat, Converge, Tragedy, The Cramps, and The Exploited, and you can definitely hear that kind of stuff coming through in their dark, heavy, whiplash-inducing hardcore. Just about every song is a D-beating ripper, until album closer "Demons," which is about twice as long as every other song on this LP and finds Entry diving into murky sludge. It's the perfect vessel for the rage and despair that vocalist Sara G delivers with pure venom. "Each track represents a detriment to ourselves and our society," the band tells us. "Learning to deal with the past while also coping with the horrendous political climate constantly surrounding us."
Typecaste – Between Life EP
There are a lot of exciting things happening within hardcore and metalcore right now, and it feels like every few weeks there's a new band who threatens to rise up out of the underground and leave a wider-scale impact without softening their blow or overtly catering to non-hardcore kids. And I'm no A&R scout, but right now my money's on Typecaste being one of the next bands to make the leap. They're following their very good, self-released 2018 EP Creature of Habit with their even better third EP (and Flatspot Records debut), Between Life, and they sound like more of a force to be reckoned with on these four songs than ever. The riffs are beefier, the drumming is crazier, the production is crisper, and the band's dual vocal attack (the growly guy and the shrieky guy) is more intense and more memorable. It's a bludgeoning, no-bullshit-taking EP until the very last track, "Under the Wreath," where Typecaste show off that they can also work in melodic alternative rock without veering into cheesy territory. It's just one song, but if Typecaste have more where this came from, their future's just gonna keep looking brighter.
Glorious – Unashamed EP
Employed To Serve and Renounced are two of the best bands in the UK's current melodic metalcore scene, and members of both have come together to form Glorious, which they say was formed "to make music totally unlike their pre-existing bands [and] for the sole purpose of having fun and creating high energy music." This is indeed unlike their other bands, high-energy, and fun. It's more rooted in sneering, classic British punk, but they do it in a way that's crisp and modern and still fits right in with today's forward-thinking hardcore bands. And it seriously fucking rips. The EP includes four killer originals and a genuinely cool cover of Type O Negative's "I Don't Wanna Be Me," which is already a fast-paced ripper, but Glorious turn it into something that's way rawer and more traditionally punk.
The Acacia Strain – Slow Decay
Slow Decay a little more "typical" of The Acacia Strain than the doomy, atmospheric It Comes In Waves that they released ini very late 2019, but also if this band have proved anything over the years, it's that they're never really typical of anything and they continue to reinvent themselves. They've spent years fusing together hardcore, death metal, sludge metal, and more in increasingly interesting ways, and Slow Decay is no exception. This one features guest vocals from members of three cool newer hardcore bands (Mortality Rate's Jess Nyx, Jesus Piece's Aaron Heard, Left Behind's Zach Hatfield, plus sung vocals by Courtney LaPlante of Spiritbox/Iwrestledabearonce), and Slow Decay sounds as fresh within the current hardcore scene as those bands do. It's a more forceful album than It Comes In Waves, but sometimes the atmospheric side of that album sneaks into this one too. It's a genuinely inventive take on metallic hardcore without abandoning the traits that longtime Acacia Strain fans know and love, and for a band nearly 20 years into their career, that's a pretty impressive feat.
SEE ALSO:
* must-hear punk albums of 2020 (so far)
* must-hear emo/sceamo/post-hardcore albums of 2020 (so far)
* must-hear metal albums of 2020 (so far)
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