Before democore

The evolution of "regular hardcore" post-Mosher's Delight

Democore. Regular hardcore. Hardcore. Whatever you call it, the straightforward, no nonsense style has taken our scene by storm. It feels like every other day there’s a new demo plastered across social media with captions like “hardcore”, “dance floor” or “hell yeah”. Usually, you know what to expect. Breakdown worship, Youth of Today worship, or something between those two family trees.

Much of it is strained through a second filter of early-mid 2000s revivalism, owing huge debts to labels like Youngblood, Lockin’ Out and Six Feet Under, or harder punk stuff you might have heard on No Way or Grave Mistake around the same time. At this point I even think lots of the newest stuff in this lane is being channeled through bands who are practically contemporaries, as eventually happens with hardcore trends.

Sometimes, I feel myself getting weary. I don’t even click on demos with two-tone cassette art anymore. That style is so rote, I can (and will) only imagine what the band’s music sounds like. I’m exhausted trying to keep up with what people are calling “demo of the year” this week, let alone parsing if the music is good or if the members have lots of internet friends. Some days I want to close my eyes, drift off, and wake up in Balmora-land.

Then I jolt awake, remembering how it felt to be a Lockin’ Out obsessed nerd in 2018 at a time when almost nothing looked, sounded, or operated quite like what I wanted from a hardcore band. I missed the OG Mosher’s Delight wave and caught most of those bands either posthumously or after they’d discovered Four Walls Falling and chorus pedals. A few younger bands openly shared my love for shit like Mental and Righteous Jams but filtered it through the sounds of the day (Krate amps and pattern chugs). Some punks were also tiptoeing up to the “regular” threshold, but couched their music in such an annoying/offputting aesthetic that I didn’t see the connection or listen long enough to make it.

This dry spell lasted for a long time, especially coming out of the pandemic when ear-gauge metalcore kids seeped into the scene (sorry guys, your secret’s not safe with me) and every popular new band either sounded like Sunami, TUI or Gel. During the fallow years (2017-2023) finding a band playing two-step riffs straight through their amp felt like mining a bitcoin, and I treasured each new discovery even if it wasn’t that good.

So, I’m trying to practice a bit of gratitude and remind myself that 2021 Vince would have committed a blood sacrifice for the chance to hear new Lock-esque demos every week. Still, I feel like the “regular hardcore” scene has become so ephemeral and self-referential that parsing it is almost impossible. So this week, my way of practicing gratitude is paying homage to the OGs who were doing this shit when it was not common, clouted, or even cool.

Here’s a list of demos by bands that were either early to the demo revival wave or heavily influenced it. It’s ordered chronologically and by region because I feel that’s the best way to tell the story of how democore came back from the dead to reign supreme. This is part one, mostly featuring stuff from east of Ohio. Look for part two to drop soon.

Also, I understand half the appeal of this stuff is being a “well actually” autist and one-upping all your friends by pulling some obscure bullshit out your ass and wiping it on your Instagram story. Seeing as there’s absolutely no way I was hip to every important demo in a six year period, feel free to flex your superior knowledge on me and drop things I missed in the comments. Try not to be a massive dick about it though. I doubt the homie band you saw a bunch in high school is as good as you remember, and there’s probably stuff on here you’ve never heard either. Let’s have fun with it.

I’ll kick it off in a familiar place. My own backyard, or personal playground if you will:

Eastern Canada

Best Wishes - ???

I’m not entirely sure when Best Wishes formed. Their first record dropped in 2023 but this band (featuring members of Mil-Spec and Wild Side) played shows before the pandemic, and from what I understand features unused riffs written for OG Mosher’s Delight band Demolition. They aren’t even really what I would describe as “regular hardcore” unless you consider Bringin’ it Down and the second Bold record to fall under that umbrella. I feel like I have to mention these guys though because they kept the spirit alive during the dark ages and handed the torch to the next generation. Without them there is no Total Supply, More Reality, Homie Shit Mag or probably even this blog. So shout out.

Friction - 2019

Homie Shit Mag is a record label from Toronto that, as the name implies, is run by a group of homies who put out each other’s shit. The first two releases, demos from The Fact and Friction, practically brought our local scene to its knees in 2019. Looking back, The Fact demo is probably a better representation of current trends in that I could see a label like Scheme putting it out in 2025 (IOU released their second EP in 2021). That said, when I saw the Friction art, turned it on and heard the first riff, I knew exactly what they were aping and it made my heart skip a beat. Not to sound melodramatic because I still love this record, but in 2019 the hardcore scene was so metalcore-pilled that this demo full of spinkick riffs was basically the second coming of Righteous Jams in my eyes. Norman from Total Supply plays in Friction, and this general scene of kids are behind all the hot Toronto democore of today.

Influx - 2022

This band was more associated with the Toronto punk scene coming out of the pandemic, mostly because it featured a few prominent punkers, but listen to “Clear Path” and if you can’t hear the regular hardcore influence within the first five seconds you need new ears. This band held it down on a regional level for a few years and would have been a lot bigger if the appetite for this stuff was there. Unfortunately it wasn’t, at least in the 401 corridor, so I think they ended up being the odd band out on a lot of bills and never got the love they deserved. Features a current member of Pluto’s Kiss.

Deadbolt - 2022

Full disclosure, I have very little connection to pre-pandemic Montreal. It’s a regular hardcore haven in 2025, but coming out of lockdowns it felt like everything was either a tough guy mosh band or some leather jacket shit. Deadbolt are sonically not super adjacent to much of what’s popping today, but I think they helped new kids up there understand the entire spectrum of music between Bruiserweight and Beton Arme. I remember seeing them at a Brampton church show towards the end of 2022 and being shocked to see their singer rocking a Poison Ruin shirt. I’m surely missing something from Montreal, but still, I think Deadbolt deserves credit for showing kids you don’t have to act “hard” to play hardcore.

BFD - 2023

The dudes in BFD are OGs at this point. They’re friends with the Best Wishes guys and I believe some of them play in a band called Zero who have been releasing democore-adjacent music since 2014. They got a jump on everyone post-Covid, and to my knowledge are the first newer band to bring the modern vibe, two-tone cassette art and all, to the shores of Lake Ontario (unless there’s something happening in Rochester I don’t know about [entirely possible]). This demo has as much Set it Off as Stop and Think, but coming out of the pandemic, a 905 band playing anything besides Nu-Metalcore, TUI riffs backwards or songs consisting of nothing but slam parts might as well have been Mental reincarnate. Their follow-up EP, Brothers For Decades, dropped on Total Supply last November.

New England

Boston has been a haven of real deal straight edge hardcore since like 1981. It’s home to the legendary labels X-Claim, Lockin’ Out, Triple B and Bridge Nine, so by extension, this region has a hand in like 75 per cent of what today’s wave of modern hardcore pulls from. The chain never truly broke, but Steven from Pummel confirmed when I talked to him that even the GOAT region had something of a fallow period right before Joebama’s scamdemic shut everything down. This area is back with a vengeance now, though, and post-Covid they were on this wave early.

Pummel - 2016

The roots of New England’s new wave started bubbling in 2017 with bands like Restraining Order, Peace Test and Warfare. Pummel are the most relevant to this article, both because of what they pulled from musically and how they toiled in obscurity, got fucked by the pandemic, put out some weird songs and then broke up before they could get just deserves. The fact that by all accounts this wasn’t cool guys doing a project band but relative youngsters trying an earnest rendition of the moron music they grew up on makes it that much better. Features Steve Mobilia of Top Dollar and Nick Birtles of everything. I’m sure other members are doing stuff as well.

Last Straw - 2020

Last Straw is Anxious’ version of Disengage, where they started a low-profile, youth crew inspired band as their main project was taking off. I remember finding it at the time and being pumped because it was so on the nose, from the music to the cover art to the Youngblood Records co-sign. Connecticut has a long history of youth crew revivalism (I mean shit, technically Youth of Today are from CT) and I think this demo is an homage to some of their forgotten local heroes. They even cover a New Milford band called Follow Through who I didn’t even know existed until right now. This came out less than a month after COVID lockdowns started and by the time restrictions lifted, Anxious were a pro band. If they had a chance to play shows when this dropped they might have been more notable, though I think members have their fingerprints all over New England’s current scene.

Wreckage - 2021

This Connecticut band actually debuted in 2020 with a harder edge, but their 2021 demo is the first real glimpse of what they would become. Listening to interviews with young coremen from across America, it appears Wreckage were like the Black Flag of post-pandemic democore, spawning new bands in every city they played or corner of the internet they touched. They also claimed youth crew at a time when that shit was basically haram for non-Europeans, and the fact that members were younger can’t be understated. Without Wreckage, youth crew may have forever been relegated to the domain of balding dads and other No Echo Facebook group posters. Thank god.

C4/Burning Lord - 2021

Meanwhile, back in Boston, some of the older heads started reviving the classic sounds with a more ornery, pissed off, and tongue in cheek approach. I’m pretty sure these bands share members, or at least come from the same general group of friends. C4 is basically Rampage worship, especially lyrically. Meanwhile, Burning Lord went right to the source for their misanthropic revivalist fantasy, channeling the true OGs like Raw Deal, Altercation and Breakdown. The C4 record dropped on Triple B, making it among the releases on this list with the highest initial profile. Burning Lord had more of a slow-burn (excuse the shitty pun) but arguably dropped the best piece of music by any band on this list with their 2024 record Arcane Demolition.

Anklebiter - 2022

It’s crazy to think how fast hardcore moves. Three short years ago, in Summer 2022, Anklebiter’s spunky brand of Stop and Think tribute was accurately referred to as a “refreshing” sound on their Bandcamp. Many bands were creeping up to/flirting with classic LO at this time, but Anklebiter were the first to wear it on their sleeve and receive praise for it on a national level. Also props to them for trying their hand at the colourful, cartoonish aesthetic of bands like Mental instead of the rote, drab cassette art that was already beaten into the ground at this point by bands aping Gel and Spy. Anklebiter featured Nick and Evan from Pummel and Broken Vow, who now play a huge part in the Physical Therapy scene down there.

Attrition Rate - 2023

Speaking of Evan and Nick, Rhode Island’s Attrition Rate are one of the first bands I remember hearing and thinking we’d gone from simply paying democore lip service to actually making it. Their demo is confrontational, negative, obscure and intentionally bare-bones. It felt like a direct reaction to hardcore’s post-Turnstile spotlight where even bands like Anklebiter were getting blown by Stereogum. I think I remember writing at the time that I probably wouldn’t remember Attrition Rate in a few weeks, but boy do I. Could I hum you a riff? No. But this stands out to me as a key moment when the younger folks first expressed that being amateur, ephemeral and a little mysterious had a charm to it.

East Coast

I’m including a large swath of territory in this section because honestly the further south you go, the more I lose connection to what’s happening on the ground. Surely something is missing here, considering I’m talking about an area that includes New York City, New Jersey, Philly, Baltimore and Richmond. I’d love to hear whatever obscure local demos from this area you think are important, but try to be chill about it.

Combust - 2017

A post-pandemic hardcore kid might scratch their head as to why Combust is on this list, but you gotta keep in mind, between 2017 and like 2022 if a band said they were playing “old school NYHC” there was a 9/10 chance they meant Best Wishes, or they were clueless oldheads playing shitty Killing Time ripoff riffs recorded into amp sims at 150bpm. Let Combust tell it, they were one of the first bands of true New Yorkers to play classic NYHC in a long time. While they never really embraced the “democore” ethos or aesthetic, their reverence for the source material and relentless post-pandemic touring whet a lot of people’s appetite for what’s happening now.

Illusion - 2017

I did not like this band when they came out because I considered it to be art school snob shit. Revisiting them, I think the worst accusation you could levy would be “Warthog fans trying to play Age of Quarrel” which honestly sounds pretty appealing in 2025. There’s still a decidedly Dead City/NYC loft vibe to this demo (shout out Will Killingsworth) but I could easily see this dropping on Designated Moshers Unit or even Scheme today. Time for a revisit.

End It - 2017

Much like Combust, I think kids of today might be confused as to why a band citing Next Step Up and Gut Instinct belongs on this list, especially since they debuted on Flatspot Records. Keep in mind, though, this was billed as “the return of real deal Baltimore hardcore” in an era where the default hard bands to bite were Code Orange and Acacia Strain Disembodied. Also if you think Gut Instinct and NSU weren’t trying to rip off NYHC circa ‘89 I don’t know what you’re smoking. Just listen to this. Are you telling me that if Fortress put it out six months ago kids wouldn’t be tripping over each other’s Air Maxes to buy End It merch at the Rebirth Showcase? Fuck outta here.

Fencecutter - 2017

I waffled about including this band because anything with double kick on it falls outside the purview of what I’d consider “regular hardcore”. That said, I distinctly remember being excited about their fresh, new sound when I heard them in 2019. Members went on to be in Never Again and Cutdown, so this is interesting for archival purposes if nothing else.

Struck Nerve - 2018

This is an interesting case study in 2018 hardcore, which is the year I stopped being a poser, logged off the internet, and started going to shows. Even by today’s standards this is fairly “regular”/Lockin’ Out indebted, but it has some post-post-post-No Warning bounce that served as the de-facto base for most non-metallic hardcore of the time. I even think it’s filtered through a bit of Reaper-core in the song structures and breakdowns. To be honest, I forgot this existed until right now. It’s definitely time for a revisit because the demo rips and I remember thoroughly enjoying the LP as well. Features members of Gridiron and Jesus Piece according to the Youngblood LP Bandcamp notes. I don’t know if they’re simply referring to Lennon from Face the Pain, but this shit rules and sounds nothing like those bands. That’s versatility.

Stigmatism - 2019

A big reason for regular hardcore’s renaissance is the erosion of social barriers between hardcore and “hardcore punk”. Stigmatism basically play stompy first wave USHC in the vein of Negative Approach and Agnostic Front, but they came out on Beach Impediment Records so it was against the law for anyone without either crop bangs, Doc Martens or a thrifted green army jacket to like them in 2019. Drop this on Triple B at the same time and it gets a similarly warm response from an entirely different crowd. To be fair, capital H hardcore kids are always trying to discover this kind of shit and the punx usually want nothing to do with us. That seems to be less of a going concern these days thankfully, at least in the spaces I occupy. I just saw Stigmatism at More Reality in April.

Grand Scheme - 2020

Richmond’s Grand Scheme are actually a pre-pandemic band by about one week (their demo dropped on March 9, 2020). Just look at it, brother. This might be patient zero for 2020s democore. I remember seeing them with Influx and The Fact in 2022 and being floored. I think places like Richmond and NYC have always blurred the lines between hardcore and punk, which is how you get bands with fast, shitty recordings but also wicked two-step riffs and side-to-side parts. Grand Scheme are one of the 2020s best punk bands. Fittingly, they started the decade off by establishing themselves as revivalist OGs.

Never Again - 2021

Rising from the ashes of Fencecutter, Never Again took that band’s more NYHC-coded sounds and brought them back to their roots, channeling Breakdown, Raw Deal, etc through a lens of modern songwriting brevity. By this time, Never Again’s sound wasn’t exactly cutting edge, but they are a good early example of a band doing Lock-style songwriting with a slightly tougher presentation. Their newest EP, 2025’s 100% New Jersey Hardcore, leans even further into the classic New York material, and for my money is one of this year’s best releases.

Heads Will Roll/Scheme Until It’s Your Reality - 2023

I expected Scheme Records to have a few choice demos for this list, but their Bandcamp doesn’t have anything I would properly consider “democore” that I haven’t already talked about. I know they put out a single from Long Island band Heads Will Roll in 2023, but that shit is impossible to find on the internet outside of Spotify. Scheme started with a few more metallic/melodic releases from Almighty Watching and Search For Purpose, then introduced themselves as major players in the regular hardcore revival with this compilation that featuring heavy hitters like Grand Scheme, Burning Lord and Echo Chamber. Since then, Scheme has been a fixture in this world and acts in my mind as a seal of quality that makes me feel like anything they put out will be worth hearing.

The Southeast

Florida is the one place hardcore demos never slowed down between 2017 and the Covid lockdowns. Smaller labels like Plead Your Case and IOU released music of all sorts from across the world, but they made time for a few choice “regular” demos every year. Atlanta also had a low-key streak of this stuff around the same time, specializing in more melodic iterations of it. That city also birthed Designated Moshers Unit — which for my money is the premier post-pandemic demo label — sometime in 2023. Here’s some bands that stand out.

Result of Choice - 2017

If you want to hear some good pre-pandemic demos, go to the IOU Bandcamp page and click on random shit. Just scrolling through the page will give you a pretty good idea of what that label was about. One of their earliest and most memorable releases is the demo from Florida’s Result of Choice. I remember seeing this band at Not Dead Yet Fest 2018 and all the dudes from Mil-Spec were there early to watch their set. I also remember Axe to Grind glazing this pretty hard around the same time. I see why. It was almost impossible to find someone playing youth crew like this in 2018 because all the Moshers Delight bands had either broken up or changed their sound. I think this band ended unceremoniously (don’t quote me on that) and I remember people being bummed. Members also play(ed) in a bunch of other shit from SFL.

Be All End All - 2018

I remember this being billed as Think I Care worship, which at the time meant blast beats, not Obituary riffs arranged into 1:30 long hardcore songs. No value judgement there, both those things can be TIC worship. Be All End All had a pretty solid run, releasing stuff on IOU and Triple B. They also got a lot heavier on their LP IIRC. Peruse through Discogs and take a look at the other bands these folks played in. It’s absolutely cranked. Features the guitar player of Collateral, which I think you can hear in the riffs.

Method of Doubt - 2018

When I heard this Atlanta band’s 7” in 2019, I didn’t connect it to the regular hardcore world. In my mind it was closer to Mil-Spec and Abuse of Power, two bands I consciously left off this list. Looking back, that’s a fair assertion, but the later MOD material is dripping in Planet Mental influence. I guess that’s an LP and not a demo, so can you call it democore? Whatever. This demo (which I hadn’t heard before) surprised me because it feels much more adjacent to the Victory/New Age Records worship that was dominating Florida at the time than anything we’d group under “regular hardcore”. Regardless, this band is cool and they’re still playing shows. I’d say I saw them earlier this year but I was actually at the bar watching the Bills take their yearly L to the Kansas City Chiefs. They sounded good from the other room, though.

Designated Moshers Unit - 2023

Look. I’m sure SOMETHING important dropped in The South between 2018 and 2023. Looking at the IOU records page, I even see some cool demos that probably belong on this list. I never listened to them though, so what do you want from me? Anyways, the next major democore development I can remember from this part of the world was the inception of DMU. At first, this Atlanta-based label struck me as a bit too punk to carry the “regular hardcore” moniker, but I think this part of the world may have been on some “the enemy of my enemy is my friend” type shit, with the common enemy being 28 year-olds wearing 5” inseams and Weapon X merchandise. Also, their first six releases include a Grand Scheme live tape, the superior All 4 All demo and a youth crew band from California called Clear Cut. So, looking back, they were about it from day one.

Collateral - 2023

I think Collateral are the Gel/Spy of democore in that they were the first band from this modern wave to blow up on the internet, and then subsequently the first to get festival looks and reach a wider audience. The difference is, if you ask a punk kid they’ll tell you Spy is bottom of the barrel when it comes to chains and stilettos music, whereas I’d assert Collateral might be a top 5 band to play their style of hardcore in the last decade. There’s a reason this band took off. They’re goated, and like Wreckage/some of the Gulch Brigade stuff I’ll touch on in a later piece, anyone playing democore in 2025 owes Collateral a debt of gratitude.

The Rust Belt

I get so fucking finicky when it comes to drawing the borders of “The Midwest,” which makes no sense because I don’t even live there. If you ask someone from Albany, they’ll tell you the Midwest starts in Amsterdam, NY. Personally, I cannot conceive of calling anything east of the Pennsylvania/Ohio state line Midwest. But hey, if you couldn’t tell by the categorized, chronological list of obscure hardcore demos you’re reading, I might have some kind of autism.

Anyways, there are a couple important developments from the liminal lands between Albany and Cleveland that I think have to be mentioned in this article. Here they are:

Kill Enemy Records - 2020

From what I understand, Pittsburgh punk kids do not like being lumped in with the unwashed masses of the hardcore scene, so the people who run this label might protest their inclusion on here as hard as anyone else. Like I said earlier, though, I don’t think we get the democore revival without the lines of AHC Fest hardcore and Not Dead Yet Fest hardcore dissolving into each other. This label may have started as a passion project for Marked Men/No Time enjoyers. That being said, I first heard the phrase “regular hardcore” in reference to Speed Plans on a Demolisten episode, and anyone who likes DMU bands but not The Illiterates might need to get their ears checked. This label was instrumental in my enlistment to the punk hardcore gestapo and here I am, four years later, telling you my album of the year is a five track demo that sounds like it was recorded on broken headphones. All hail Kill Enemy.

All 4 All - 2022

Syracuse hosts an unbelievable amount of cool shows. I see bands like Mil Spec, Combust and Burning Lord go through there all the time. Usually, the local support includes All 4 All, which always makes me consider jumping in the car to trek four hours and watch a show with bands I could probably wait three months and see in Toronto. Somehow I still haven’t pulled the trigger and made the pilgrimage to the straight edge holy lands. All 4 All’s second demo in particular is a fully-formed, modern take on democore that, if it dropped six months later, would have catapulted them to the same heights as Collateral. It’s really good. I hope they release new music soon because they’re one of the best bands from this whole wave in my opinion.

There you have it, an exhausting but not exhaustive list of primordial democore that contributed greatly to the landscape we’re currently in. Check back in soon for part 2, including arguably the most vital region for DIY hardcore, The Midwest. Peace.

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