Label: Nuclear Blast Released: November 6, 2007 One of the earliest NYHC bands, Agnostic Front was also one of the first to cross over into metal back in the mid 80s. The 90s found them getting away from the heavy riffs and more into the singalong Oi! that influenced hardcore in the first place. Their latest release finds them returning… Read more »
Label: Irish Voodoo Records Released: October 31, 2007 Chain Shot plays hardcore like they don’t often make it anymore. It isn’t overly metally or technical, just fast, hard and angry. They forgo the indulgent solos and the now dime-a-dozen growls. Instead, they stick to the raw passion that made hardcore exciting in the first place. The sons aren’t complex, but… Read more »
Label: Facedown Records Released: October 2, 2007 Twenty years or so ago, most hardcore bands relied on raw aggression rather than technical prowess to drive their point home. Over the intervening years however, likely under the influence of metal as much as anything, many hardcore bands developed more and more chops. The result has been a mixed blessing, with some… Read more »
Label: Facedown Records Released: October 2, 2007 If I had to make up a name for Inked in Blood’s music, it would be “pop-punk-core.” They play a brand of hardcore that is a strange marriage of the Descendants and Gorilla Biscuits and they have varying success with it. On one hand, Sometimes We Are Beautiful is typical of hardcore over… Read more »
Label: CD on Black Numbers Records and 7″ on Chunksaah Records Released: August 2007 Oddly enough, even hardcore can over think itself and often enough it ends up getting away from is visceral core as a result. That makes a band like Static Radio NJ refreshing. They aren’t rewriting the genre by any means, but they play straightforward East coast… Read more »
Label: Jump Start Records Released: June 19, 2007 My first reaction to Giving Chase’s A Cheap Print of a Masterpiece was that it was appropriately named. A cursory listen to the first few tracks seemed like just another band traveling down that worn and rutted road of screamo. Certainly they have all the elements, but a better listen also showed… Read more »
Label: Facedown Records Released: July 24, 2007 This is not an entirely new album, nor is it a re-issue. Rather, it’s a re-recording of War of Ages’ first album with a bonus track. I hadn’t heard the original recording, but the band felt it didn’t do the songs justice and opted to take another shot. If the recording quality was… Read more »
Label: Screaming Ferret Wreckords Released: July 17, 2007 The opening track of Spider Rockets’ Ever After kicks right in with that churning metalcore sound that is a dime a dozen these days. It doesn’t raise any hopes for the album even if the song itself is listenable enough. Don’t stop listening there though unless metal or hardcore just isn’t your… Read more »
Hardcore is a genre in which it is really difficult for a band to distinguish itself. You have be heavy, you have to be fast, you have to be agressive. There aren’t that many ways to break that mold and stand out, musically or philosophically. Nonetheless, All Ships at Sea is a young hardcore band from Middletown, CT that is… Read more »