Ranking the hardcore hype bands

Drug Church

Hardcore has been getting a lot of attention recently in the mainstream press. Big alternative publications like BrooklynVegan and Revolver have been paying more attention in recent years, but real mainstream outlets have started to take notice after the explosion of Turnstile's Glow On and the popularity of fests like Sound and Fury. Hardcore press coverage in 2022 has gone from maybe a mention in Pitchfork if you're cool enough, to major spotlights in places like The New York Times and the Grammy's website.

This recent attention has coincided with a bit of a boom period for hardcore at large. Our scene is thriving, and I would estimate across all sub-genres there are at least 100 bands worth talking about in some capacity. It's funny though, because when you read coverage from these outside publications, there is a small group of 10-15 bands who get brought up again and again -- usually using the same talking points. These bands are a bit more presentable in terms of either their musical sensibilities or their aesthetics. Either that or they have an interesting backstory or theme that makes them easy to write about. Or a really good publicist.

These are the hardcore hype bands. I say that with no malice. Some of them completely fall outside what I enjoy. Some of them are my favourite bands going. All of them are interesting and worth talking about. I decided when Grammy.com dropped their list of "10 Bands Expanding the Boundaries of Hardcore" (exclusively featuring bands who end up on a lot of these lists) to check out each band's most recent release and rank them based on my personal taste.

Scowl

Here are the rankings:

10. Soul Blind

I don't think this is a hardcore band. To me it sounds like the Deftones. They're doing that heavy riffing mixed with pedal rock shoegaze adjacent type vibe. I guess there are hardcore kids in this band and they play hardcore shows, but -- not even trying to be elitist -- this is a completely different, already established genre of music. I think the record is really well produced and clearly a lot of effort went into it. It hits a lull for me about halfway through where it becomes very monotonous. I might be more on board for an entire record of this if I liked the style of music, but I don't. I'm still glad I heard it and would watch them if they came through on a tour package with band I liked.

9. Scowl

I already went over why I'm not crazy for this on my No Echo review, so I'll spare the re-hash. This band is interesting for a number of different reasons, so I can see why people are into it. I'm not on board yet, but I have high hopes for their upcoming record.

8. Zulu

The songs on their EPs rip a little harder than I remember upon revisiting. I just wish there was more music here. I'm not a big fan of sound clips, and that seems to be a pretty important part of how they develop the themes for the project. I'm not hating, it's just something that doesn't sonically appeal to me as much as adding a couple extra minutes of music would, so I don't revisit Zulu very often. Hopefully their upcoming record will flesh out the songwriting and give us an abundance of riffs.

7. Speed

I was browsing r/hardcore after one of the cringey threads on there went viral and I saw some idiot comment "I don't really like bands like Speed and Sunami who only write music for dancing". That criticism resonated with me. A lot of Speed's output is just mosh part into mosh part into mosh part. I don't find that objectionable, but it doesn't turn my crank that hard either. I think this is something you need to experience live and the EP is largely a means to facilitate that.

Speed

6. Drug Church

I've been a Patrick Kindlon dick-rider for over a decade, and somehow Drug Church is the only music-related endeavor of his that I don't connect with. I might be sleeping on this to be honest, but there's so much good shit out right now that I never really come back to it. DC just doesn't get my blood pumping and my ass shaking like my favourite hardcore bands do, even though it's undeniably well done.  Kindlon says on his podcast Axe to Grind that Drug Church isn't a hardcore band, but there's enough minor-key palm muted chug on here and his vocals are firmly shouted, making it just as hardcore as 70 per cent of the rest of this list.

5. Regulate

This band has shown a lot of potential since their demo days but not yet materialized into the type of artist who really sticks to my ribs. I've heard their brand new record twice now and I think it could really grow on me, but I'm not quite there. Parts of this record sound like Turnstile Jr with the Bad Brains I Against I groove, but it's also both heavier and cleaner than Glow On. Apparently it pulls from the Equal Vision Records catalog, but I don't know anything about that except Bane and Alexisonfire so I couldn't tell ya. Drug Church is more musically coherent than this, but the Regulate record gets my blood pumping way more. The lyricist Seb has also evolved a fair bit from the demo days and really shines on this one.

4. MSPaint

This is the band you name drop if you want to impress the cool kids and tastemakers of hardcore. I came into this listen expecting to be like "I still don't get it", but I must admit it's undeniably good. The tempos are kind of plodding and lackadaisical, which is why I think this didn't immediately grab me. The textures and tones at work here are super dynamic, though. This reminds me of that Aussie egg punk shit except cool and collected instead of manic and weird. I'm finally gonna give this band the chance they deserve and try to get them in regular rotation.

Militarie Gun

3. Militarie Gun

I'm kind of cheating putting them this high, because the deluxe record they just put out includes their previous two EPs as well as four new songs. I love the previously released material. They sound like they're "going for it" on the new stuff. The guitars are bigger and the vocals are cleaner. They're leaning hard into that 90's non-grunge college rock. I think, after relistening to the the old stuff, that element was always present, but the drumming, production and vocal delivery tethered MG a little closer to hardcore. The new stuff is well written, but it draws on influences I'm not personally familiar with and it may take me a bit longer to get on board. 

2. Buggin'

I really like this band. I think they have a lot of potential and I'll always check for when they drop. Their style is basically a fastball pitch to my tastes -- the bouncy, stompy, but not super tough NYHC worship popularized by Lockin' Out records in the early 2000's. I'm a bit confused as to why the Grammys picked this band specifically, because to me it's basically really good demo-core and there are five to ten bands doing this right now to varying levels of success. This is a great fuckin example of that though so I can't be mad at it.

1. End It

This is my pick for 2022 AOTY so it doesn't get much better to me. This is everything I like about hardcore distilled in eight short minutes. It's heavy and hard but catchy, bouncy and dynamic. It's also fast, which is a core tenet of hardcore that I think people ignore these days. Akil from this band is an excellent front person and has assembled an ass-kicking crew of musicians to get the job done.  

Those are my thoughts on the most hype bands in our scene right now. I have a feeling someone is gonna get butthurt about this but I literally tried to be really nice and fair so take it up with your mom and miss me with that bullshit!

Peace.