A brief but comprehensive guide to Lockin Out Records

Anyone who’s been to a hardcore show in the last 20 years has seen a shirt with a Lockin Out logo on it. The logo is a lock, in case you weren’t sure what I was referring to. I’m certain that will jog some memories.

Anyways, Lockin Out is one of the best and most important hardcore labels ever in my opinion. They’ve never been home to the biggest bands, and they’ve been kind of pigeonholed to a specific sound. I could understand, with that in mind, why someone might overlook their output in 2023. But dismissing them is a devastating mistake, as they put out some of the best hardcore from the 2000’s and even the 2010s.

LO was started in either 2001 or 2002 by Greg Wilmott, the singer of Mental. I assume the label started as any good label should, a way for Greg to put out his own records and put on for his homies. I assume this because there’s a lot of member sharing between bands from the label’s first two years. It’s impossible to mention this era without talking about Justin DeTore (aka Dance Floor Justin), who probably played drums on half the classic LO releases, or at least filled in for those bands at some point.

The early LO artists shared players, and they also shared a distinct regional flavour. That might be an understatement — some of the b-tier material from this era is indistinguishable. The vibe of the classic LO sound is “youth crew kids trying to play late 80’s NYHC”.

I think the youth crew influence is important to mention. Riff-wise, the label’s trademark material has a bounce inspired by Breakdown, Outburst and Underdog. The difference is, those old NYHC bands write long songs compared to the tracks on the first few Mental EPs, the Stop and Think Demos, or the Righteous Jams material.

It’s important to remember the kids in LO bands were a few short years removed from getting into hardcore, in Boston, during the heyday of Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes and Fastbreak. They’re giving us New York style riffing, but the song structures are naturally more direct and stripped down, in the traditional Youth Crew style. This formula was the label’s bread and butter for the first two years (2002-2004), and while LO has lasted for over two decades, the early material is the most foundational and features the vast majority of what I would consider their hallmark releases.

Most people associate Lockin Out with that bouncy uptempo sound, but after the release of Cold World’s Ice Grillz in 2004, they start to branch out. Their second, and most diverse, era spans from 2005-2007. The label had already peaked in terms of output volume, but they managed to drop three or four records a year during this time. Many of those still stand up.

Planet Mental, which is basically a post-hardcore record, drops in 2005. I think a lot of people would be surprised to know LO did the vinyl edition of Terror’s Always the Hard Way in 2006. They also showed quite a penchant for crossover — they did the Iron Age Butcher’s Bill single in 2006, and have since released my favourite Power Trip material (the self-titled EP from 2011) as well as albums from Red Death and Skourge. Lion of Judah’s 2005 Soul Power EP took them into melodic hardcore territory, a lane they’ve recently found major success in with the early Fiddlehead stuff and the Mil-Spec catalog.

The only real banger with the trademark LO sound from this time period is the Rampage Limit of Destruction LP. That band never gets mentioned anymore, which is a damn shame. Their material belongs in the discussion with Mental and Righteous Jams as some of the best hardcore of that decade. RZL DZL does not. They stink.

The label’s output begins to taper off at the end of 2007. I think it became more of a part-time thing around then, but there are still a lot of heavy hitting releases to dig through from ‘08 onwards. Their biggest success in recent years (and maybe ever) has to be Fiddlehead’s 2018 LP Springtime and Blind, but they’ve been able to put out seminal material from plenty of big names. The Lock is now, more than ever, a seal of quality assurance. I don’t think Greg puts out anything he doesn’t 100 per cent believe in. That means fewer releases, but it also means you know a band is gonna rock when they’ve got a big ol’ lock on the back of their shirts.