Review Roundup - January 2024
People who like their hardcore punky and snotty should know by now that Pittsburgh, PA, has the best scene in the world. Countless great bands have sprung from the city over the last decade, from obscure one-demo wonders to some of the most ubiquitously enjoyable artists that type of music has to offer.
Still, Pittsburgh’s scene felt like a well-kept secret for most of the last decade. It didn’t have the same cultural cache of Denver, Richmond or Boston. Now, Pittsburgh seems unavoidable to anyone paying even the slightest bit of attention. It feels like every week a new band from that city is dropping a buzzy, ripping new release. Illiterates and Speed Plans put out two of 2023’s best records in the first half of the year, and in the last few months, a couple PGH heavy hitters threw their hats into the ring as well.
No Time - Suffer No Fool (TKO)
No Time’s record dropped too late to make my 2023 AOTY list, but they’ll almost certainly be on the 2024 one. They play hardcore-indebted Oi (or Oi indebted hardcore, depending on how you spin it) with a stompy midtempo jangle that conjures memories of 86 Mentality. There’s a lot of different stuff going on here. “Rut” has the quick, minor key chord progressions of a hardcore song, while the title track would fit right in on a Ted Nugent album. That sonic versatility keeps Suffer No Fool feeling fresh for most of its 14 track runtime. The record’s first half blazes by, with hit after hit and big hook after big hook. Then the songs get slower and less immediate. There’s some cool ideas on the back half, though, like the pensive, arpeggiated bridge on “Savage Age”. The record’s lyrics are negative but smart. They do a good job articulating the pessimism of being working poor in modern America’s landscape of exploitive overindulgence and digital paranoia.
Heavy Discipline - Your Scapegoat (Painkiller)
Pittsburgh’s Heavy Discipline are carving out quite a formidable discography, with three releases across four years. The songs on their latest EP lean longer and more mid-tempo, but for the most part, we’re getting the same jangly, Boston-influenced early 80’s revivalism. It begs the question— where do these bands go when they outlive what they’re pulling from? The originators of this sound did it for two years and then broke up or got weird. The mould is kind of limited. How long can a band keep making the same record in this vein before the audience loses interest? To be fair, I could listen to this type of shit all day when it’s done well. I don’t think Your Scapegoat nails its hooks quite like the hits on Heavy Discipline’s 2020 self-titled LP. This EP has a couple bangin’ mosh riffs, but ultimately, the band’s best material is on other records. So much specific appeal in hardcore is about personal connection, though. Would I be more into this if it was the first Heavy Discipline record I heard? Possibly. It’s hard to say.
Hate - Life of Pain (Self Released)
I had to check this Alabama band’s second release out when it crossed my Instagram feed because the Jon Mayo-illustrated art is so egregious. Props to Hate for eliciting the type of shock that compels me to click on something I wouldn’t otherwise give a second thought. This is modern beatdown of the “middle class suburbanite imagines life of violent crime” variety. The song “Walked Down” paints a particularly vivid lyrical picture. The band compliments with competent fight riffs, designed to break fists and damage venue walls. This EP isn’t bad (aside from production), but its name alone foretells a lack of imagination and inspiration. There’s so much of this exact thing floating in the ether right now. Shock value is almost the only way to differentiate your band in hardcore’s most cartoonish subgenre. I don’t know what that says about the longevity of this stuff. I doubt Life of Pain will crack my rotation. It’s not offensive, though. Just dumb.
Haywire 617 - Conditioned For Demolition (DAZE)
Boston has a long history of tough hardcore that’s not overtly metallic. Haywire fall into that lineage, although their music draws just as much (if not more) from the similarly street-wise late 80’s New York demo wave. This band is the brainchild of Austin Sparkman, who plays in Conservative Military Image and Skinhead (among others). Like those groups, Haywire is old-school shit with a type of abrasive grizzle that might suggest some of the band members sport Hatebreed tattoos. They limit the spin-kick mosh parts, but this record has an air of bravado I could easily see appealing to fans of heavier hardcore. Similarly, it might have too much jock energy for some of the more discerning demo collectors. Hey, Breakdown were jocks too. I don’t see why anyone who loves the 87 Demo would dismiss this, other than pure aesthetics or a few moments of mid-paced sluggishness. Some of these songs are really good, making this arguably the first “noteworthy” hardcore release of 2024.
Civilian - Demo (Convulse)
Convulse Records started the year with a splash, dropping two new cassette releases on the same day. I was immediately drawn to the three song demo from Baltimore upstarts Civilian, featuring members of Jivebomb and B.R.A.T. playing an interesting twist on a modern trend. We’ve seen lots of Oi-influenced hardcore in the last few years. Same with post-punk propelled by a driving hardcore backbeat. I know a hefty number of bands are also going for that Second Empire Justice-era Blitz mix of detached post-punk with Oi’s anthemic qualities. Civilian try to meld all three genres and do a pretty good job. The sounds and ideas here aren’t exactly novel, but the songwriting feels more indebted to modern hardcore than most offerings in this general world. Civilian’s demo has side-to-side parts and pile-ons. Those decisions might pigeonhole this for dyed-in-the-wool skinheads, but the songs are kinetic and engaging enough that anyone not looking to hand-wring about bullshit will have a good time.
Psycho-Frame - Automatic Death Protocol (Wax Vessel)
I love talking about deathcore’s gradual yet inevitable acceptance into the hardcore scene, but the genre does very little for me musically. This Missouri band’s latest release provides lots to talk about. It’s young kids showing deep reverence for mid 2000’s br00tality like Whitechapel and Suicide Silence — shit most people thought wouldn’t last longer than a fart. There’s also some connections to current hardcore on this EP in the form of guest spots from the singers of Vamachara and Scarab. We could belly-ache all day about this record’s symbolic significance. It’s played and produced in the most palatable way imaginable — with a focus on grime, brutality, heaviness and speed. The specific brand of dick-eating and pandering that made deathcore wholly unapproachable to my younger self is absent here, replaced by an intentional desire to create something ugly. I might throw this in my “once a year” rotation with the first Suicide Silence record and Hate by Thy Art is Murder. It’s alright.
Xibalba - Aztlan (Closed Casket Activities)
Southern California’s heaviest band are back, filled with righteous anger aimed at colonial oppression. These veterans nail an approach I wish every legacy hardcore act would take — forgoing the LP worth of filler to hone in on four really good songs. Aztlan is short and sweet, leaving no time for slower tempos to start dragging. This is the comeback Xibalba needed. Their early discography garnered them a ton of success, but as touring and recorded output slowed down, so did the hype. Their last release — 2020’s Anos en Infierno — was basically a death metal record, yet received a fraction of the fanfare Maggot Stomp bands had at that time. Shit’s changed. Xibalba seem reinvigorated. Timely touring around big festivals has people interested. The band also re-embrace their beatdown tendencies on record, tempering the trem-picking to hit that sweet spot between death metal and tough, ferocious hardcore. This feels like Xibalba’s most vital release since the Suburban Scum split in 2014.
Cosmic Joke - Cosmic Joke (Triple B/Hardlore)
I wonder what the average HardLore fan thinks of the podcast’s first foray into releasing records. I know the hosts have eclectic tastes, but I chuckle at the idea of two dudes who’ve spent almost five hours dissecting their favourite breakdowns kickstarting their label with a band that cites Bad Religion and Adolescents as major influences. There’s hints of early California in this record’s saccharine, minor key melodies, but with a much more modern sensibility at play. A big part of that is Taylor Young from The Pit handling production. The low end has a very 2020’s sounding chunk, conjuring comparisons to Drain on some of this album’s palm-muted thrashing. As a former Punknews casualty, I’m also picking up some Epitaph/Fat Records skate-punk influence, which the band confirmed in a No Echo interview. I would personally prefer if this leaned more into the classic West Coast sound, but Cosmic Joke might just level the room opening for a band with younger fans, like Drain or Drug Church.
Valley Girl - Demo (Self Released)
San Fernando Valley’s newest hype band is shrouded in mystery. Their demo dropped late in January, exclusively on YouTube, with very little accompanying information. Internet sleuths have since deduced that Valley Girl is fronted by indie-pop microcelebrity and apparent Southern Cali hardcore scenester Jesse Rutherford. The Young Brothers are also involved in some capacity. Colin played session drums on the record and Taylor produced it. Moments like the breakdown transition on “Addicted to Suffering” are quintessential Young-core. People are either calling this “demo of the year” or trashing it. Where you fall on that spectrum will depend on how much nu-metal you can stomach in your hardcore. The songs are well written and take an interesting approach to melody. Still, the whole “vintage Turnstile meets Sirius XM alt-metal” thing feels cloying. I’m suspicious of this Rutherford character and his ties to Atlantic Records, too. Let’s see how that plays out.