Five of Ontario hardcore’s hardest mosh parts
…and this is only the tip of the iceberg
Southern Ontario, like many other places, has seen a boom of new faces at hardcore shows since the pandemic. With those faces come new bands and new trends. Hard moshing is now in vogue here, and there’s no shortage of ass-beating riffs for the kids to dance to. I wanted to highlight a few of my favourites from new bands across the region. This is by no means a comprehensive list — there are probably like 15 other songs I could bring up here. Perhaps a part two is in order, but for now, I picked five of my favourite local and regional breakdowns to highlight.
Best Wishes - Unconditional Surrender
The fourth track on the brand new Best Wishes EP is bookended by a reworked version of the Mil-Spec live intro, which gives it some Easter egg/nostalgia points. It’s also a hard ass riff in that classic NYHC side-to-side style. You won’t necessarily need to keep your head on a swivel when they play it live, but if you’re at the side of the pit you should be bracing yourself for impact because people are gonna come flying into you.
Reality Denied - “Dollars to the Name”
RD might make you feel like a caveman when you listen to it, but the mosh technicians in this band are on some space program type shit. The last half of this song goes mosh into mosh into mosh (Mosh 3 as they call it on Hardlore Podcast) with some real interesting syncopation and a lot of rhythmic variety. Playing it live as a whole band is probably not the easiest thing to do, but swinging your fists around to it comes naturally.
Friction - “AF (After Friction)”
This song is usually the scariest part of Friction’s set, as the thrashy chugs at the beginning push the hard moshers into overdrive. The intensity gets ratcheted up at the end of the song when the same part comes back in with a double kick over it. Conditioned to Chaos is Friction’s heaviest release, with a ton of moshable moments to choose from, but “AF” always goes fuckin stupid live.
Mile End - “FCHC”
Speaking of “going fucking stupid” there’s really been no bigger song for crowd participation in the local/regional Ontario scene these past few years than the Mile End intro/outro. The entire track is really just one big mosh part, but the gang vocal call and response part in the middle inspires the type of pileups that are rarely seen at shows anymore. It’s especially impressive considering people who want to sing along have to reach the stage by wading through a crowd of moshers swinging indiscriminately to the hard ass riffs.
The Fact - “Tooth and Nail”
I’m not gonna hold you guys — there’s not been a better riff written in Ontario over the last five years than the one this song is built around. That Systems Overload-esque stomp gets stuck in my head all the time and my blood pumps fast whenever I hear it. They use that riff for three of the six parts in the song and each time works better than the last. “Tooth and Nail” is like cooking the perfect cut of steak with salt, pepper and garlic butter. Simple yet sublime.
Honourable mention goes to the doomy bridge on Gavel’s “Step by Step” from their 2023 promo, which isn’t really a mosh part, but deserves major points for being incredibly heavy and creative.
Anyways go check all these songs out and when you’re done, follow all the bands on social media and check for what they and their homies are up to. Too many people are sleeping on Southern Ontario in my opinion and it’s time to wake up!