TOP FIVE BANDS’ SELF-TITLED SONGS
I have long felt that doing a Top Five treatment of bands’ self-titled songs would be a fun exercise, and now, dear reader, you shall see that come to fruition. You’d be surprised how many bands give their own name to a song: Slipknot, Samhain, Jodie Foster’s Army, Pennywise, Body Count, Iron Maiden, Kajagoogoo, Youth of Today, Brand Nubian, Kool & the Gang, Negative Approach, Talk Talk, and way too many more to name. There were so many quality choices for this list, narrowing it down to a top five was extremely difficult; beyond some strong selections in the aforementioned list, the top few that just missed the cut would be Motorhead, Bad Religion, Black Sabbath, and Green Day. As a quick note, in this Top Five, we'll be excluding name variations (ie, The Clash-"This is Radio Clash," Public Enemy-"Public Enemy No. 1," etc.). Without further ado, we now turn to Eric Roberts The Best of the Best:
5. Living In a Box
No bonus points for the album the song appears on also being self-titled, but the song itself is such a great vintage 80s throwback, with some of the instantly-recognizable hallmarks of the decade’s pop music, such as those synths and the prominent snare. Living In a Box is in the same vein as bands like Go West: very much products of their time, but if you have an ear for this sound—which I obviously do—then it’s paradoxically timeless. I call "Living In a Box" power cheese—the song is actually quite over-the-top (which is a good thing in my view), but it’s also a legitimately great pop tune, particularly thanks to the vocals.
4. Cruel Hand
"Cruel Hand" is equal parts catchy and made for the pit. It’s a banger from the band’s Ride the Lightning-core phase, really epitomizing one of the dominant sounds of that era of hardcore as melodic hardcore was giving way to more beatdown and death metal-influenced hardcore. The whole album this appears on (Lock & Key) is really good, but 2008’s Prying Eyes is even better: one of my favorite hardcore albums of all time, in fact.
3. Ramones-R.A.M.O.N.E.S.
Okay, I know I said no variations, but this doesn’t fall under that umbrella if they’re just spelling the name of the band, right? "R.A.M.O.N.E.S." is such a simple yet catchy song. It’s a fitting anthem for the Ramones and a perfect encapsulation of what made them one of the greatest punk bands of all time.
2. Minor Threat
Catchy isn’t the first thing that typically comes to mind with hardcore or punk, yet like the previous two selections—Minor Threat is of that era where hardcore and punk were still more or less synonymous and not yet two fully separate scenes—that is precisely what this song is. It’s also dripping in run-through-a-wall aggression, yin and yang: "Minor Threat" is the hardcore punk Golden Ratio.
1. Bad Company
Like "Living In a Box," this is another song that epitomizes its era, yet unlike that song, it isn’t one that needs contextualizing. I’m sure the Five Finger Death Punch cover helps its recognizability among younger audiences, but most people, even if they weren’t around back then, probably know the original anyway, standing on its own two feet as a rock n roll classic with attitude.
TOP FIVE THIRTY DAYS OF NIGHT RECORDS RELEASES
Thirty Days of Night Records was one of the best British labels for heavy music in the 2000s and early 2010s, most notably launching the career of heavyweights Bring Me the Horizon with their very first release in 2004’s This Is What the Edge of Your Seat was Made For. Two decades later, and BMTH is one of the biggest and most influential alternative/rock/metal bands in the world. Other TDON releases include material from Architects, Gallows, Eternal Lord, Hang the Bastard, This Is Colour, Azriel, Brotherhood of the Lake, and so many other great bands. I don’t see Thirty Days of Night getting anywhere near the credit they deserve, and given how influential they were both personally and on the scene, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to do a Top Five on their catalogue. So without further ado…
5. Bring Me the Horizon-This Is What the Edge of Your Seat was Made For (2004)
Given how huge the band is now and how they’ve evolved, it’s easy to forget that they were shaggy-haired kids who were actually quite early on the deathcore train. Of course this release is raw, but that’s a) MySpace era deathcore for you, and b) part of the charm. You can clearly hear the potential as a deathcore outfit, but I don’t know that even the members of the band themselves way back then could’ve envisioned how their career would progress. I’ve done a Top Five article on the band and talked about that evolution, and though I wouldn’t stack this EP among their best material, it is still more than just a footnote and worth checking out if you haven’t.
4. Your Demise-The Blood Stays on the Blade (2008)
As with BMTH above, Your Demise would make the jump to the larger Visible Noise (Lostprophets, Bullet for My Valentine) after this release. If you like really pissed off metallic hardcore, then this EP should be on steady repeat. Absolutely nasty breakdowns, this is spin-kick mosh pit nirvana. Vocalist George Noble reminds me a lot of Scott Vogel, and that’s definitely a good thing. I can’t recommend it highly enough.
3. TRC-The Revolution Continues (2009)
The EP rips out of the gate with the furious "Cocky Is Back," just dripping with naked fury and aggression. "Bastard," the second track, is a metallic hardcore banger about exercising self-control when confronted with a poisonous person and their "sick plots" ("It's just another test, will you rise to this pettiness? / Are you tempted to react? I am tempted to react but I'll hold back / I'll be the bigger man, I'll let it go but I will not shake his hand"). "Diamonds from the Smoke" (which leaves off with a tasty breakdown) and "Sweatbox" are, like a lot of TRC songs, seemingly tailor-made for the gym and also quite long by hardcore standards, but that doesn’t diminish their intensity. The EP closes with the sprawling hardcore epic of sorts in "London’s Greatest Love Story," a song which showcases the band’s versatility, pushing well beyond the standard confines of the genre.
2. Dead Swans-Southern Blue (2008)
Melodic hardcore perfection driven by raw, unrelenting catharsis; there are numerous moments on this EP where they remind me a lot of peak American Nightmare/Give Up the Ghost—and that’s an extremely high compliment. After releasing this EP and a split with Architects through TDON, Dead Swans would move to Bridge Nine Records, one of the most important hardcore labels ever, and at that time if not the pinnacle, close to it. Given that the melodic style of hardcore was so predominant at the time, I do think they got lost in the shuffle a little bit, and that’s a shame, because they were really good!
1. Lower Than Atlantis-Bretton (2008)
According to Wikipedia (I know, I know) this EP was first released by Small Town Records (most known for releasing While She Sleeps’s The North Stands for Nothing) before being reissued by TDON two months later, but I can’t find anything on Small Town’s website or discogs.com indicating that to be the case, so we’ll give it to TDON here. This EP is great. Similar to Don Broco and "Thug Workout," it bears very little resemblance to what LTA would become, yet its loose and fun quality of kids basically not giving a shit is a major part of its appeal. There’s a level of wit and self-awareness, too, alongside a kind of exuberant absurdity. Highlights would be the unhinged "The Juggernaut" and "Frankie Goes to Hemel," with its acerbic satire reminiscent of Gallows’s "Orchestra of Wolves." Even though they pretty quickly moved away from this more metalcore sound, you can clearly hear that they already had the ingredients of something special here.
TOP FIVE EULOGY RECORDINGS RELEASES
On this installment of our label dives with a Top Five, we will be looking at the highly-regarded Eulogy Recordings, founded in 1997 and merged in 2018 with Stay Sick Recordings. Despite being known primarily as a hardcore label, Eulogy Recordings was also a major seedbed for easycore and had some strong metalcore and even deathcore releases as well. Given how stacked the back-catalogue is, I had to make some difficult cuts of releases from artists such as On Broken Wings, Evergreen Terrace, and many more. That speaks volumes. I would’ve put Bury Your Dead-You Had Me at Hello on here, but from what I could find it was a German label Eulogy had a distribution deal with that originally put the album out in 2003 and it was the 2005 re-issue that came out on Eulogy proper. I always stick to releases that were originally put out by the label in question with these lists. There might be a couple hot takes here depending on your disposition, but here we go:
5. Thick as Blood-Embrace (2009)
Some of the best ignorant, belligerent basketball short and flatbrim hat moshcore of the 2000s. Made for the pit and the squat rack, I revisit these guys whenever I need to imagine a Nike Airmaxed foot flying toward my face.
4. Catalepsy-Bleed (2011)
Absolutely filthy downtempo/deathcore release that just punishes the listener. Very, very heavy. Fans of that Demolisher-World of Hatred-type deathcore in particular will find a lot to like on this one.
3. Kids Like Us-The Game (2009)
I discussed this album on The Southern Metalcore Bands Draft episode, but I’ll discuss it further here. This is a really interesting album that picks up where the track "Gator Smash" left off in infusing this style of hardcore with a heavy Southern rock flavor. The riffs really add a memorable wrinkle to what Kids Like Us is doing on here; with a small handful of exceptions such as Swamp Thing’s self-titled 2011 EP, I haven’t really heard this approach applied to straight hardcore the same way it absolutely swept through metalcore in the mid-2000s. As I love that style of metalcore with a passion, perhaps I’m blinded by that same passion here but I don’t think so. This is just an exceptional album front-to-back that brings humor along for the ride with airtight songs and a continued leveling-up from the band’s previous material. They sound tighter and nastier here while producing the best and most memorable batch of songs of their career. The bass and snare sounds on this record really pop, and Lars’s vocals sound more gravelly and pissed than ever. I come back to this one all the time.
2. A New Found Glory-Nothing Gold Can Stay (1999)
Before they dropped the "A" and became one of the biggest and most influential pop punk bands of all time, the creators of easycore New Found Glory got their start on Eulogy with Nothing Gold Can Stay. While this album isn’t at the level of, say, their next one (which I would put at probably the second-best pop punk album of all time), it is still exceptional, including an early version of their break-through single "Hit or Miss," as well as songs like "Third and Long" and "It Never Snows in Florida" that stack up with the best of their material.
1. Set Your Goals-Mutiny! (2006)
If you were to make a Mount Rushmore of easycore, I would say Set Your Goals would belong on it with New Found Glory, A Day to Remember, and Four Year Strong. Along with their Epitaph debut This Will Be the Death of Us, Set Your Goals wrote some of the finest easycore you’ll find. They did not have the longevity or quite the breakout success of the others, but their live show was fantastic, they brought real heart and passion to the music, and songs like "Mutiny!" and "Echoes" from this record are some of the best ever written in the genre. Much more influential than they’re often credited for, Mutiny! rightfully belongs atop this list.
TOP FIVE COVERS THAT GO HARDER THAN THE ORIGINAL
It’s covers season over here at The Angels’ Share, and who doesn’t love covers, or at least love to debate them? There are loads of good covers out there (and a fair few covers that are better than the original), but what I really wanted to look at here were bands and artists who took the original and decided to ratchet things up in their cover version (in some of the below cases quite a bit). In brainstorming this list, I quickly realized I had an embarrassment of riches to choose from. As you’ll see, I have a pretty robust honorable mentions section, and I could’ve easily also included the iconic "Faith" cover by Limp Bizkit, The Ghost Inside’s rendition of Creedence Clearwater Revival’s "Fortunate Son," Century’s "Kiss from a Rose," Cancer Bats’ "Sabotage," or any number of Coalesce’s Led Zeppelin covers, among many others. Having said that, here are the songs I settled on for honorable mentions and then the Top Five itself:
Honorable Mentions
Poppy-"Spit"
Poppy just went completely off on this cover of Kittie’s "Spit," adding an unhinged element that really takes this song to another level. It almost has a Slipknot-"Eyeless" kind of vibe.
Dead Swans-"When You Sleep"
Dead Swans’ My Bloody Valentine cover keeps the dreamy vibe of the original, but whereas My Bloody Valentine’s original is more melancholy, this cover is tortured and anguished, leaving the listener with what is ultimately a much more haunting version. This cover will always remind me of my train ride from Manchester to York when I landed in the UK in 2009 for my first of two stints in the country, as I listened to it on repeat most of the way.
Bitter End-"Conversations with Death"
Put succinctly, the boys in Bitter End prove that the traditional folk song "O, Death" is perfectly suited to—is indeed better suited to—its new life, if you’ll pardon the bad pun, as a hardcore song.
August Burns Red-"…Baby One More Time"
August Burns Red has given us plenty of cover options to choose from over the years, tackling everything from Christmas songs to emo, but I went with their Britney Spears cover because I think the band did such an outstanding job "translating" the original into this full-band version and in executing it in such a way that simultaneously preserves the integrity of the original while making it wholly their own; the melodic elements, much as they do across August Burns Red’s discography, give the heaviness an added punch.
A Day to Remember-"Over My Head (Cable Car)"
I mean, putting a huge breakdown in a song by The Fray alone automatically put this cover in contention for list inclusion, but beyond that, it’s the counter-balancing with vocalist Jeremy McKinnon’s clean singing and the more faithful-to-the-original parts that accentuate when the band does go heavy.
T-Pain-"War Pigs"
Okay, maybe this version doesn’t necessarily go harder than the original, but I would argue that it’s actually eerier, so I decided to get a little flexible and include it on this list. T-Pain puts his own definitive spin on the track, keeping the essential template and the driving force of the original while almost leap-frogging Black Sabbath altogether back into some of their influences, accentuating and further teasing out its groove and covering it in hazy synths, making the song feel like some kind of twisted gospel performance. It’s a wild ride.
Top Five
5. Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!-"We R Who We R"
I could’ve just as easily included their Smash Mouth-"All Star" cover, but I like this one better. The French easycore titans do Ke$ha in all the right ways—and ways that are totally organic to their sound—and though it’s not a prerequisite for inclusion on this list, as we’ve seen, throwing a massive breakdown in there is a surefire way to go straight to my heart.
4. Orgy-"Blue Monday"
I love New Order as much as the next guy, but tell me "Blue Monday" wasn’t meant to be an industrial rock/nü metal song. The Orgy version has a driving quality and extra punch that really elevates it. Orgy also gets bonus points for being the first non-concert in the park show I ever attended when my dad took me at age ten to see them at The Asylum in Portland, Maine, not long after the release of Candyass.
3. This Is Hell-"Fight For Your Right"
Great band giving the Long Island hardcore tribute to hip-hop legends the Beastie Boys, who many don’t know actually started out doing hardcore of their own, a kind of Bad Brains worship (BB—Beastie Boys, Bad Brains, get it?). In fact, the Beastie Boys may well have invented the blast beat. At any rate, this juiced-up version brings out the best of the source material.
2. Electric Callboy-"Everytime We Touch"
I talked about this song here, but to recap: given the heavy incorporation of Europop into the Electric Callboy sound, paying tribute to fellow Germans Cascada makes perfect sense, and yes, it does go quite hard; as we’ve seen earlier, though, this effect is enhanced by the contrast with the parts where the band "plays it straight" and stays largely faithful to the original.
1. Awaken Demons-"Here Comes the Hot (2) Stepper"
I mean come on. "Italy’s hardest" doing a metallic Trustkill-style hardcore version of Ini Kamoze’s "Here Comes the Hotstepper"? Yes, please! Everything from the "Nah, na-na-na-nah (etc)" gang vocals to the absolutely nasty breakdown with those panic chords and "murderer!" howled over the top is just so on point. I listen to this cover constantly; it’s true perfection.
TOP FIVE ONE-HIT WONDERS OF THE 1990s
Full transparency: this, our final installment in the One-Hit Wonders Series, will also be my longest. Normally I try to be somewhat restrained with my Honorable Mentions, but I just couldn’t help myself this time, much of it from having so many good options, much of it from the fact that I’m a 90s kid! So sit back, relax, and enjoy our final look back at one-hit wonderland!
Honorable Mentions
Lit-"My Own Worst Enemy" (1999)
Granted they did have other songs that got some airplay, but as a reminder as I laid everything out beginning with Caviar in my 2000s installment, "I won’t note every instance in this series where this is the case in the interests of readability and space, but I'll articulate it here as my modus operandi—we’re not considering minor hits that didn’t make much of an impact and/or hits that might’ve at the time performed well but didn’t have any real staying power relative to 'the hit' seen from the vantage point of today as disqualifiers for inclusion on these lists." "My Own Worst Enemy" was the real smash hit of theirs and is the one everyone remembers. Whereas Caviar’s "Tangerine Speedo" is a fun, quirky song that’s endured more as a cult classic, "My Own Worst Enemy," though, is not just an iconic rock song from this era but has become timeless, and I still hear it played quite often. The whole album containing "My Own Worst Enemy," A Place in the Sun, is actually excellent, first-rate ear candy rock with a healthy dose of American Pie-core. Highly recommended.
Next-"Too Close" (1997)
Lyrically, the song is preposterous, and on humor alone might warrant inclusion, but it’s actually a really good example of this kind of Blackstreet-esque post-g funk R&B.
Skee Lo-"I Wish" (1995)
Corny but innocent fun, a breezy, self-aware tune that stood in stark contrast to the predominant gangsta rap of the day. Not everything has to be dark and edgy.
Marvelous 3-"Freak of the Week" (1998)
Huge, arena-level chorus, that is totally unsurprising when you learn that Butch Walker was in Marvelous 3. I’ll let his Wikipedia explain:
Many of the songs that he co-wrote or produced have been hits for other artists, including SR-71, Avril Lavigne, Sevendust, Injected, The Donnas, Hot Hot Heat, American Hi-Fi, Default, Gob, Midtown, Puffy AmiYumi, Pink, Katy Perry, Pete Yorn, Quietdrive, Green Day, Adam Lambert, Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20, Rayland Baxter, Kevin Griffin of Better Than Ezra, Train, The Wallflowers, Jewel, The All-American Rejects, The Academy Is..., The Cab, Saosin, Never Shout Never, Weezer, New Politics, Fall Out Boy, The Struts, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness, August is Falling, Matt Nathanson, and Elizabeth Cook.
So yeah, totally unsurprising from a man who clearly has "it." Similar to our Bonnie McKee inclusion from the 2010s installment.
Len-"Steal My Sunshine" (1999)
Another breezy summertime jam, this time from the Canadian brother-sister duo. It’s a fun, PG-rated song that really exemplifies the vibe of the era along with groups like LFO (of "Summer Girls" fame) on one end of the American Pie-core spectrum and Blink-182 (less PG and more rooted in punk) on the other.
Lord Tariq and Peter Gunz-"Deja Vu" (1998)
Love the video, love the Bronx swagger, and the beat is great. The intro sample from Jerry Rivera’s "Amores Como El Nuestro" would later gain massive worldwide exposure through Shakira’s sampling of it on "Hips Don't Lie" with Wyclef Jean, but it always reminds me of this song instead.
Haddaway-"What Is Love" (1993)
You could make a credible argument that this is the quintessential 90s dance track. While the "Eurodisco enigma" (as Jason Ankeny describes him) Haddaway did have a smattering of other minor hits internationally, other than "What Is Love’s" follow-up "Life"—which did quite well internationally at the time—this was it for the American audience (and as I reiterate below, being American and having lived most of my life in America, this is primarily the lens through which I’ve viewed these songs and artists). Alas for Haddaway, "Life" (known as "Life (Everybody Needs Somebody to Love)" in the US) and subsequent releases couldn’t match the colossal heights of this track nor its longevity in our cultural memories, but how many artists can even say they were able to break through with such a globally-known and -successful hit in the first place? Part of its enduring popularity can also be credited to the "Roxbury Guys" Saturday Night Live sketches featuring Will Ferrell and Chris Kattan, which ultimately spawned the 1998 film A Night at the Roxbury and its frequent appearance in 2000s memes, not unlike Rick Astley’s "Never Gonna Give You Up" and "Rickrolling."
TOP FIVE
5. Marc Cohn-"Walking In Memphis" (1991)
This is one of those songs, like The Divinyls’ "I Touch Myself" (which I also considered for this list) that exists "out of time," meaning it doesn’t feel like it belongs in any decade, it just sort of always was…and probably always will be.
4. The Verve-"Bittersweet Symphony" (1997)
One of the best rock songs of the 90s, full-stop. Great lyrics and gorgeous "baroque strings worthy of Pachelbel [intertwined] with sedated vocals and shimmering guitar lines" (to quote Jon Wiederhorn in Rolling Stone Issue 771) define a "Bittersweet Symphony" that stacks up with Oasis songs like "Wonderwall" and "Champagne Supernova" as definitive 90s Britpop and as a timeless classic.
As a side note: the Four Year Strong cover of this song is so sick.
3. Deep Blue Something-"Breakfast at Tiffany’s" (1993)
This song is nostalgia overload for me, and therefore it comes in at the three spot. I was five when this song came out, and it’s the first song—along with Technotronic’s "Pump Up the Jam," which as a child I was convinced was Michael Jackson—that I can remember liking that wasn’t explicitly for children. I still do think it’s a very good song in its own right, personal context notwithstanding. Just a very catchy rock song.
2. Montell Jordan-"This Is How We Do It" (1995)
Still gets people hype to this day—it’s pretty much ubiquitous on any party or wedding playlist and for good reason. It’s a "California Love"-tier dancefloor-filler with a great beat and Montell’s vocals suit the track perfectly. It’s s-tier West Coast pool party playlist material.
1. Mark Morrison-"Return of the Mack" (1996)
First off: this is my favorite song, not from this list, but of all time, full stop. Morrison’s inclusion here could be hotly-contested from the perspective of a British reader, as Morrison was the first artist in British pop history to have five songs appear in the Top 10 of the UK Singles Chart from a debut album, but it is "Return of the Mack" that has stood the test of time. Through the British lens, it’s a similar conversation to the one in our 1980s installment when discussing Rick Astley. From an American perspective, which, though I did live in the UK for several years, is the lens through which I’ve largely viewed these songs unless otherwise noted, it’s pretty easy: this is the only song of Morrison’s that, for all intents and purposes, made any kind of impact. S-tier beat with Morrison’s distinctive vocals, "Return of the Mack" takes the vibe and essence of "This Is How We Do It" and ups the ante with a Morrison betrayed by his lover "back up in the game…letting all the people know that [he’s] back to rock the show" (the lyrics always reminded me of this scene from Entourage, perhaps in part because the song was featured in one episode). The C&J Extended Mix (see below) is truly where it’s at, with the introduction building up to the beat hitting and with its longer R&B version of the "Chelsea Smile" interlude.
TOP FIVE ONE-HIT WONDERS OF THE 1980s
On this, our penultimate installment in the series of One-Hit Wonders Top Fives, we explore the very best (according to my taste) of the 1980s’ one-hit wonders! We will conclude the series with the 1990s, that decade of my childhood nostalgia.
Honorable Mentions
Rockwell-"Somebody’s Watching Me" (1984)
Rockwell, son of Motown founder Berry Gordy, secured a record deal with the label without his father’s knowledge or influence in order to avoid the appearance of nepotism, and perhaps for similar reasons the work of his childhood friends Michael and Jermaine Jackson on "Somebody’s Watching Me" was uncredited at the time of the song’s release. It is in particular Michael’s distinctive vocals for the chorus to "Somebody’s Watching Me" that drive the song, but credit where credit is due to Rockwell, as great leaders delegate.
Taco-"Puttin’ on the Ritz" (1982)
One of those really absurd tracks that could only exist in the early 1980s musical ecosystem and cultural zeitgeist, this synth-pop cover of the 1920s Irving Berlin song is so over the top in so many ways, it had to warrant inclusion. When the song entered the Billboard Hot 100 Top Ten, it made the then-95-year-old Irving Berlin the oldest living songwriter to ever have a composition enter the Top Ten. Also, I’m convinced Taco is really Tim Curry.
Thomas Dolby-"She Blinded Me With Science" (1982)
I’m obsessed with the idea of "science" in this sort of catch-all abstraction meets gonzo, Weird Science-type vein, and this song perfectly encapsulates not just that, but like Taco’s "Puttin’ on the Ritz," the early 1980s musical ecosystem and cultural zeitgeist. In a lot of ways the 80s were the plastic 1950s with synthesizers.
TOP FIVE
5. Jermaine Stewart-"We Don’t Have to Take Our Clothes Off" (1986)
The anthem for men not wanting to be sluts is this Jermaine Stewart cut from 1986, where Stewart tells his potential lover "I’m not a piece of meat, stimulate my brain" and "We don't have to take our clothes off to have a good time." Amen, brother. Travis McCoy and Patrick Stump, however, would beg to differ.
4. Scandal-"The Warrior" (1984)
After a short-lived run, Scandal would collapse not long after this song’s wild success. Interestingly, in the aftermath, former lead vocalist Patty Smyth was actually recruited by Eddie Van Halen to be David Lee Roth’s replacement in Van Halen. but she declined for various reasons. Listening to her soaring and powerful vocals here, it’s a fun exercise to imagine what they would have sounded like in Van Halen.
3. Oran "Juice" Jones-"The Rain" (1986)
Jones, a former sniper officer in the Marine Corps, laments witnessing his cold-hearted lover with another man over this ice-cold beat. Jones would eventually retire from the music business after a failure to follow up on the single’s success, but if it’s any consolation to Jones, Rolling Stone Australia states that Jones "delivers a break-up monologue that should’ve won an Oscar. 'What was you trying to prove? This was the Juice! I gave you things you couldn’t even pronounce!'"
2. Baltimora-"Tarzan Boy" (1985)
It was in 1993’s Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles III film that I was first exposed to the force of nature that is "Tarzan Boy." Featuring what is apparently called the "Millennial whoop"—a term coined by Patrick Metzger describing the melodic motif featured in so many late-2000s and early 2010s pop songs such as "Tik Tok" by Kesha, "Bad Romance" by Lady Gaga, and "California Gurls" by Katy Perry, but also present in The Time’s 1984 hit "Jungle Love," so perhaps it could also be described as the "jungle whoop"?—"Tarzan Boy" is fun, it’s cheesy, and it’s far catchier than perhaps it has any right to be.
1. Rick Astley-"Never Gonna Give You Up" (1987)
Okay, so technically Astley isn’t a one-hit wonder in the strictest sense as he did have subsequent successes after this mega-hit, most notably "Together Forever," but I’ve given myself license to "cheat" in this series through our view from the present in looking back over the careers of these artists. Although the vast majority of the inclusions in this series meet the general consensus of a one-hit wonder, I’ve decided not to always use a strict definition through any kind empirical measure or set metric like chart performance (although referencing chart performance can be helpful context). What we’re doing here is considering the artist’s and song’s legacy to date. In the case of Astley, what has been remembered by most people as—and therefore has over time become—"the hit" is how I’m viewing this inclusion. I guess in some ways it’s a kind of revisionist history, because you can say objectively Astley had more than one hit (example: "Together Forever" went number one on the Billboard Hot 100 on June 18th, 1988), but the revision in cultural memory—in this case pop cultural memory—is how legacies work. Today, an average music fan will know "Never Gonna Give You Up" as for all intents and purposes the Astley song. With that in mind, this song is so well-known—in no small part due to the enduring popularity of the song through "Rickrolling"—and the incongruity between Astley’s voice and appearance is so great, that I simply had to headline our 1980s list with it. Also, it’s just a great song on all counts.
As a side note, if you like blackened symphonic deathcore, then this mash-up is for you!
TOP FIVE NON-AOTY-APPEARING SONGS OF 2024
First things first: this is not a "consolation prize" list; last year, I only did a year-end songs of the year list (and I did it kind of prematurely in November 2023 at that) and no albums of the year. In 2024, I decided to: a) actually wait until the end of the year, and b) do both, but with a twist. Having covered what were in my estimation the top ten full-lengths from 2024, I wanted to give oxygen to some individual track highlights from other artists as well that either were from records that just missed my list, were on EPs, or in one case each were a single and a bonus track, respectively—each of which stood out for its exceptional quality. Essentially there was so much good music from this past year I wanted to recap this was the best way I thought to do so. With that in mind, I have five honorable mentions here before we get into the top five proper of what to me were the very best tracks released this year that did not appear on any of my Top Ten Albums of 2024.
Honorable Mentions
One Morning Left featuring Olli Herman, Reckless Love, and Popeda-"Summer Lovin'"
The Finnish neon metalcore outfit, operating in the same sonic space as bands like Blessed by a Broken Heart and Electric Callboy, hit it out of the park with this pop metal cut I’ve had on constant rotation since its release.
Speed-"The First Test"
It was a good year for bands doing their best Trapped Under Ice impressions, whether that was in Sweden with Sidestep (you can check out my interview with them here) or down in Australia with Speed. Here we have the infamous "flute song" from Speed; to quote Jamey Jasta:
Exactly.
Poppy-"Negative Spaces"
Poppy’s Negative Spaces, produced by former Bring Me the Horizon member Jordan Fish, was the final album on the outside looking in on my Top Ten Albums of 2024. Fish’s influence on the record is clear, and Poppy continues to move into the Spiritbox realm both sonically and popularity-wise; she’s equally impressive, though, when she lets her inner Cold Cave/Depeche Mode flag fly. There were numerous songs from the album I thought stood out, but it interestingly it was the title track, which is neither Spiritbox nor Depeche Mode, that did so the most for me. Two reasons, primarily: 1) verses one and two and again briefly later in the track recall very strongly the Hole’s 90s rock classic "Celebrity Skin," and 2) the über-catchy pop rock chorus.
Tether.-"Hollywood Trauma"
In my interview with two of the guys from London’s Tether., they told me they’re essentially trying to fill the void left behind by the dissolution of Every Time I Die. To an extent, I agree, but we’re actually going with a bit of a deeper cut here for a comparison—a band like The Holly Springs Disaster for this generation, who combined post-hardcore and Southern metalcore to produce an interesting and underrated sound I haven’t heard attempted in at least a decade. These guys should be way bigger.
Many Eyes-"Amateurs"
Speaking of Every Time I Die, we now arrive at my new favorite Christian metalcore band in former ETID frontman Keith Buckley’s Many Eyes, named after biblically-accurate depictions of angels. "Amateurs" is among several standouts on The Light Age, featuring an excellent chorus and plenty of ETID-esque aggression. Lyrically, the song reads as a meditation on finding faith through what I assume are Buckley’s experiences in recovering from alcoholism: "I went down too far, I went straight through hell / And I came back out / On the other side I was purified, I was finally found," and having that faith tested and standing strong: "I lost the hand and I lost the foot / I lost the tongue, I did not lose faith / I did not lose faith."
TOP FIVE
5. Ocean Grove-"LAST DANCE"
As I described my favorite cut off Ocean Grove’s ODDWORLD record in my November review: "'LAST DANCE' is a beautiful ballad that hits 'all the feels,' at one point introducing some 'HMU'-esque 80s-style guitar." It’s a powerful, emotive track that shows not just depth but the versatility of, again quoting myself, "one of my favorite bands in the Australian metalcore (if you can call them metalcore) scene." Indeed, Flip Phone Fantasy is my favorite album to come out this decade.
4. Mitchell Tenpenny featuring Underoath-"Demon or Ghost"
The best 2024 countrycore track this side of Bilmuri (Tenpenny is also a feature on a previously-released song on Bilmuri’s 420CC Edition of AMERICAN MOTOR SPORTS, my album of the year), full stop—although shout-out to Lakeview for putting their own top-shelf butt rock spin on the sound from this growing subgenre. The synthesis here between Tenpenny and Underoath is perfect.
3. Cheem-"Charm Bracelet"
I didn’t want to crowd the list with Cheem cuts, but I could’ve easily included the breezy 311-Transistor meets pop rock gold that is "Slushee" from Faster Fashion or the dancehall-infused, insanely catchy "Motorola Razr" from Fast Fashion as two others. "Charm Bracelet" is a garage-meets-emo anthem, a genre synthesis that like much of Cheem’s oeuvre is so unlikely yet so seamless it’s really a marvel. One of the most interesting and unique bands in the game, I was bummed they had to pull out of the Rock Star Energy Tour before I had a chance to see them at the Massachusetts date.
2. nightlife-"strangeluv"
I was, however, fortunate enough to see nightlife headline, and (show attendees will get this joke) they really set the place on fire! The class of the RnBcore genre, the shorthand way I’ve always described this band to people is "imagine if Cameo grew up listening to Bring Me the Horizon." It doesn’t fully capture the band’s unique blending of genres, but it’s a useful starting point for characterizing a band that, like Cheem, is really pushing sonic boundaries and blending sounds in some of the most euphonic ways possible. Excerpted from my original interview with the band in March: "the mission & vision are always shifting, but we’re still here to bring groove & the funk to the genres of alt & heavy music we love so much…[regarding influences] it’s hard to narrow down, each member has different sides they bring to the table at different times. for hansel, it’s a lot of r&b and music with experimental production mixed with the heaviest shit you’ve ever heard. julian brings a more eclectic background in reggae, funk, soul, and so much more with him, in addition to also digging tech-djent and other progressive stuff. isaiah’s a drumhead through & through, and fucks with a lot of instrumental/experimental hiphop and jazz fusion stuff with killer rhythms on top of deathcore & the more progressive sides of metal. all of us can kinda come back from whatever tangents we’ve gone on musically and center around heavy, groovy guitar stuff as a group pretty naturally."
"strangeluv" features a killer vocal performance from frontman Hansel Romero, complemented perfectly by the addition of the vocal trio Espera, and the rhythm section is, as always, locked in with a lethal groove. There’s a dream-like quality to the track, as well, particularly during the haunting beginning section, and, as defines most of the songs on this list, it’s catchy as hell. Yet another band that should be way bigger.
1. Beartooth-"ATTN."
Headlining our list here is Beartooth’s bonus track addition to the Deluxe Edition of my 2023 album of the year in The Surface, essentially updating the listener on bandleader Caleb Shomo’s journey to finding self-love, -belief, and -empowerment ("Been on the run, I got strong / I put the work in all year long / I found inner peace / I found self-belief / I even fell, fell, fell in love"). Lyrically, as you can see, the song is affirmational and the music matches "A new way I speak / A new lyric sheet" as it absolutely soars. Put simply, the song is pop perfection, and while this direction of the band might be alienating to some longtime fans, like the rest of The Surface, I actually think it represents Shomo unlocking that next level with the band’s best material to date.
TOP FIVE UNLIKELIEST ONE HIT WONDERS
Here on our next one-hit wonders installment, we consider the unlikeliest artists to achieve their major flashpoint of mainstream success relative to reputation, expectation, and/or other "priors."
5. Buster Poindexter (David Johansen)
If in the 1970s you thought it was in the cards for New York Dolls frontman David Johansen to later score a massive hit with his 1987 cover of "Hot Hot Hot" as his lounge singer alter ego Buster Poindexter looking like Perez Hilton before Perez Hilton, you’d probably have gotten some looks. Indeed, it was in the cards, the fever dream of ridiculousness gaining heavy airplay and remaining a karaoke fixture to this day.
4. Los del Rio
It is an unusual career trajectory for a group to score a smash hit after over thirty years of existence, yet that is precisely what happened when this Bayside Boys Remix of the Spanish duo’s "Macarena" became an international mega-hit with its own signature dance, staying at Number One on the Billboard Hot 100 for 14 weeks between August and November 1996. You simply could not escape this song at its height; think "Party Rock Anthem" or "Call Me Maybe" for the 90s.
3. RuPaul
Given the era, that it was the height of grunge and g funk/gangsta rap, and the obscurity of RuPaul coming from the underground drag scene, it wasn’t a given Tommy Boy Records had a future superstar on their hands. Granted, musically, they didn’t, as much like Mark Wahlberg/Marky Mark, that superstardom only came after music provided the springboard. In terms of cultural influence, one could make the argument that it was through the success of Madonna and of RuPaul that a generation later the ground was fertile enough for the cosmic rise of Lady Gaga, who is a kind of artistic and cultural synthesis of the two in her import. You will also find a RuPaul cameo appearance in the extremely advanced film To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything! Julie Newmar starring one of our next inclusions.
2. (Tie) Eddie Murphy and Patrick Swayze
On the back of his hugely successful run on Saturday Night Live and ascension to superstar status with 1983’s Delirious and through roles in films like 48 Hrs., Trading Places, and Beverly Hills Cop, the comedic talent of Eddie Murphy was unquestionable. What was, though, was whether the man could sing. According to Murphy, a $100,000 bet was made with comedian Richard Pryor regarding Murphy’s vocal talent, leading to the recording of "Party All the Time" at Rick James’s home studio (James wrote and produced the track as well). In the liner notes to the full-length the single appears on, How Could It Be, Murphy wrote: "To Richard Pryor, my idol, with whom I have a $100,000 bet. No, motherfucker, I didn't forget."
Not only did Patrick Swayze star in the film Dirty Dancing, but he co-wrote and sang the single "She’s Like the Wind" from its soundtrack. Swayze had several other songs appear on soundtracks, including two on Roadhouse’s soundtrack, but none hit like "She’s Like the Wind." Although like RuPaul and Wahlberg Swayze and Murphy’s forays into music also netted a hit, unlike RuPaul and Wahlberg the musical success came after they were already established stars and wound up as more of an unusual line on their impressive respective resumés as they carried on making hits in Hollywood instead.
1. Chumbawamba
The likelihood of an anarcho-punk band living in a Leeds squat whose music appeared on a Crass Records compilation eventually competing with the likes of Aqua for chart supremacy would seem rather low, and yet, in 1997, it happened (to be fair to Aqua, although "Barbie Girl" is generally lampooned for its vapidity, in reality that vapidity is precisely what the song is lampooning—could it be that pop music in 1997 was far more subversive than anyone at the time realized?). To that point, as Adam Lewis writes:
The burgeoning rave culture was a huge influence as it spread throughout England, fuelled by illegal warehouse parties and in constant battle with the authorities. And soon after, sample culture allowed them a new way to subvert mainstream pop culture and undermine copyright law. As all of these influences collided, the group’s reputation grew, and in 1997 they were offered a contract with EMI Germany. It was an offer that, on surface value, went against everything the group had stood for — after all, they’d recorded on a compilation years earlier called “Fuck EMI”. But after fifteen years of provocation and political action, they decided to turn it into their most subversive act yet: mainstream success…Chumbawamba…briefly held the world’s attention — and they made decisive, bold use of it to champion their causes. Take the 1998 Brit Awards, for example. In one of their first major television appearances, they performed ‘Tubthumping’ against footage of British protest movements, surrounded by the red and black flags of rebellion and anarchy, and clad in jumpsuits with bold phrases like “Sold Out”, “Shift Units”, and “Label Whore”. And throughout the song, they incorporated the phrase “New Labour sold out the dockers, just like they’ll sell out the rest of us”…But the most infamous moment came later that night, when vocalist Danbert Nobacon ambushed then-deputy Prime Minister John Prescott at his table, dumping a bucket of ice cold water on his head mid-event. In the press, they were similarly controversial. Virgin stores started selling the album from behind the counter after vocalist Alice Nutter told a talk show that fans who couldn’t afford the album should steal it from chain stores. In Melody Maker she was at her most militant, seemingly advocating for violence against police. Licensing was another form of protest — the band very publicly turned down a $1.5m offer from Nike to use the song in a World Cup advert. Several years later, they would accept USD$70K from General Motors for use of another of their songs in an ad — only to immediately donate it in full to activist groups, to be used in a campaign against, you guessed it, General Motors.
To quote Christopher McDonald’s character in the film SLC Punk!: "I didn't sell out son. I bought in. Keep that in mind."
TOP FIVE ONE-HIT WONDERS OF THE 2010s
In this second installment of our one-hit wonders series, we’ll be looking at what in my humble estimation are the top five one-hit wonders of the previous decade, the 2010s, with a trio of Honorable Mentions to get us started!
Honorable Mentions
Sam and the Womp-"Bom Bom" (2012)
This one’s especially for my British readers. One of the most relentlessly catchy songs of the decade, "Bom Bom" refuses to be denied entry into your brain for repeat spins long after the track is over, even if you don’t want it there.
Kiesza-"Hideaway" (2014)
This deep house smash of 2014 really recalls some of the best of 90s dance, and for me that is a resounding positive. The Canadian former Naval Reservist Kiesza, who relocated to London, explained the traction the song gained in her new domicile in an interview with Geoffrey Rowlands of the Gulf Times stating that, "'Hideaway' is a deep house song but it's regarded as mainstream. That kind of thing doesn't happen in America or back home in Canada." The song was massively popular in the UK and across Europe—and actually did perform quite well in her native Canada—but she was certainly on to something as the track peaked at 51 on the US Billboard Hot 100.
Cali Swag District-"Teach Me How to Dougie" (2010)
Post-snapping, ghost riding the whip, Cupid Shuffling, and jerking, we now learned how to Dougie. On the horizon we’d watch Willow whip her hair back and forth and Silentó whip and nae nae.
TOP FIVE
5. Far East Movement featuring The Cataracs and DEV-"Like a G6" (2010)
In mainstream pop music, the years 2008-2013 were basically one big party on the dancefloor with Lady Gaga crushing the Madonna playbook, EDM and dubstep’s takeovers of the airwaves, et cetera. Smack-dab in the middle of that era, Far East Movement dropped "Like a G6." Though the beat isn’t dubstep, this song’s release also coincided with the rise of dubstep and kind of scratched the same itch for fans of that style. The song is definitely a product of its time, but it’s a fun time capsule. DEV is obviously not a one-hit wonder, but as with another track we’ll discuss below, she is a feature and thus "doesn’t count" so to speak. The Cataracs did some other production work for prominent artists, including DEV on "Booty Bounce," but their star never quite ascended to these same heights with the duo dissolving just a couple years later.
4. Bonnie McKee-"American Girl" (2013)
When this song dropped, it definitely had an end of an era feeling. There is something almost melancholy about the song, despite its upbeat and insanely catchy nature. Bonnie McKee may not have any other hits as a singer, however she is an S-tier songwriter; per her Wikipedia:
She has written 10 singles that have reached number one in either the United States or the United Kingdom, which have sold more than 30 million copies worldwide combined…McKee is particularly known for collaborating with pop singer Katy Perry. The duo wrote the hits "California Gurls", "Teenage Dream", "Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.)", "Part of Me", "Wide Awake", and "Roar". McKee also co-wrote "Dynamite" by Taio Cruz, which became the second-best-selling song by a British artist in the digital era. McKee co-wrote other hits including "Hold It Against Me" by Britney Spears and "C'Mon" by Kesha; she has written for Cher, Christina Aguilera, Kelly Clarkson, and Adam Lambert.
Don’t cry for her, Argentina.
3. Icona Pop featuring Charli xcx-"I Love It" (2012)
Obviously Charli xcx is not a one-hit wonder, but she’s the feature here, so "the kid stays in the picture." Could you make the argument the song is obnoxiously repetitive? You could, but in such a way that: a) captures the zeitgeist of the era, and b) regardless of whether you like it or not, it is going to bludgeon itself past your defenses into your brain and stay there on repeat, which perhaps perversely is a testament to the strength of the songwriting. Still gets people hype today.
2. Kreayshawn-"Gucci Gucci" (2011)
Man, what could have been with Kreayshawn. I feel like she had genuine superstar potential, and I’m not sure what happened. I absolutely love this track. Kreayshawn comes in sounding like Too Short, with some great one-liners and surprising and hilarious rhymes. Like the next song on this list, "Gucci Gucci" doesn’t just hold up, it still sounds like the future in a lot of ways.
1. Azealia Banks featuring Lazy Jay-"212" (2011)
Vulgar, irreverent, and undeniably catchy, "212" is it. For Tom Ewing, "The more you dig into the song, the more you can hear details and decisions that suggest a scary degree of pop talent." Like our previous selection, I’m surprised Azealia Banks never became a superstar. Banks has had an interesting career to say the least, and given the "off-field issues" so to speak never truly ascended the way I thought she would. Nonetheless, as with "Gucci Gucci," at least we still have this forward-sounding classic. Indeed, Banks is often under-appreciated for her approach to incorporating house and other dance music styles into her hip-hop akin to what I typically associate much more with some British hip-hop artists. "Liquorice," for example, is exquisite. Though less mortally tragic, Kreayshawn and Banks are to me the rap version of the "what could have been" of Len Bias in basketball.
TOP FIVE ONE-HIT WONDERS OF THE 2000s
For many people, myself included, there is an ongoing fascination with one-hit wonders, the reason for which is somewhat difficult to pin down. Is it the "what-if" factor? The here today gone tomorrow result of an often-fickle music industry and/or public? Nostalgia? Other factors? Whatever the case, I’ve decided to lean in to this fascination with a series of Top Fives pertaining specifically to one-hit wonders. This will be the first of said series, a head-first dive into the 2000s in all its glory!
Honorable Mentions
Caviar-"Tangerine Speedo" (2000)
Caviar did have a song I remember getting some light airplay on my local alternative rock radio station but never charted in the hilarious and very catchy "Goldmine" (sample lyrics: "She got the goldmine / I got the shaft / She’s Thomas Jefferson / I'm William Howard Taft"), but—and I won’t note every instance in this series where this is the case in the interests of readability and space, but I'll articulate it here as my modus operandi—we’re not considering minor hits that didn’t make much of an impact and/or hits that might’ve at the time performed well but didn’t have any real staying power relative to "the hit" seen from the vantage point of today as disqualifiers for inclusion on these lists. Like "Goldmine," "Tangerine Speedo" also mixes in humor. It has a power pop meets a kind of 1950s resort getaway sound to craft this underrated gem from an era that actually had quite a few of them.
D4L-"Laffy Taffy" (2005)
It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, at least when it comes to mainstream rap. Despite catching heat from Ghostface Killah, it wasn’t enough to stop the track from hitting number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in January 2006. It’s a fun if dated song that exemplifies the style of snap that, along with hyphy, would be the short-burning heirs to crunk in the mainstream (I’ll be doing a retrospective Top Five on the hyphy movement at a later date—have no fear).
New Boyz-"You’re a Jerk" (2009)
Jerking was such a great micro-trend, but like hyphy and easycore, it came and went way too fast, and I thought it had so much more potential. Alas…but the classics endure!
Dynamite Hack-"Boyz-N-The Hood" (2000)
This inclusion is less about this acoustic version of the Eazy-E song, which is perfectly fine but not much more than a novelty, and more about the record it appears on in Superfast, which is an exceptional collection of power pop meets pop punk songs that I’ve been listening to continually since I was like twelve. Highly recommended.
Lucky Boys Confusion-"Fred Astaire" (2001)
Great pop punk song off what is actually a really strong pop punk/ska punk record that has a lot of the band Sublime to it with more of an American Pie-core flavor.
TOP FIVE
5. Damien Marley-"Welcome to Jamrock" (2005)
As one of I don’t know how many of Bob Marley’s children, another Marley hitting the mainstream probably shouldn’t have come as a surprise, but this song just exploded out of seemingly-nowhere in mid-2005, becoming one of my primary summer jams that year. It’s a lyrically-unflinching look at the state of "Jamrock," musically with one foot in the 1980s mainstream heyday and "classic" sound of reggae with its Sly and Robbie riddim and the other in the (then) modern era incorporating elements of dancehall and hip-hop. Definitely still holds up.
4. Fountains of Wayne-"Stacy’s Mom" (2003)
Though the early 2000s are much more synonymous with "iPod-core" (The Strokes, etc.), power pop and power pop adjacent/-influenced bands also had their day, none more so than Fountains of Wayne with a song in "Stacy’s Mom" that has become an all-time classic known by multiple generations at this point.
3. Wheatus-"Teenage Dirtbag" (2000)
Having said that, I do slightly prefer "Teenage Dirtbag" as a power pop-adjacent song. In fact, the entirety of their self-titled 2000 debut album is really good. As with Dynamite Hack, it may be rose-colored nostalgia glasses, but I come back to it often.
2. Junior Senior-"Move Your Feet" (2002)
The Danish duo crafted what was a massive hit in the UK and parts of Europe that seems to crop up periodically in advertisements of various stripes. A little corny, yes, but undeniably catchy, particularly that chorus.
1. M.I.A.-"Paper Planes" (2007)
Few songs ever benefitted more from being featured in movie trailers nor from having gunshots and cash register sound effects in them than M.I.A.’s "Paper Planes." Maybe M.I.A. is not a "true" one-hit wonder in the way we normally think of them given her career success, but we’re looking back at these songs from the viewpoint of today, and if a song has become "the song" of the artist in general perception, I think it’s fair to include it. It’s hard to look past just how huge this song was. It even spawned another hit in "Swagga Like Us" based on a sample from "Paper Planes" featuring four of the biggest rappers at the time: Jay-Z, T.I., Lil Wayne, and Kanye West. "Paper Planes" was literally everywhere at its peak—and deserved to be. The beat, with its "Straight to Hell" by The Clash sample, is exquisite and is indicative of the incredibly forward-looking genre fusion and experimentation she was riding for her first two albums especially. M.I.A. glides easily across the track, her almost meek-sounding vocals standing in stark and effective contrast to the subject matter, and the chorus works in a "Hard Knock Life"-esque fashion. Overall, "Paper Planes" is true genius and is one of the best songs of the era.
TOP FIVE ARTIST TRAJECTORY COMPARISONS
On this Top Five, I thought it would be an interesting and fun exercise to investigate five artist comparisons where I was able to see a lot of parallels through the reasons I will explicate below in their career trajectories. Some are a little more unusual and slightly tongue-in-cheek, some more obvious and serious, but in observing the trajectory of these artists’ careers, the comparisons immediately suggested themselves to me. Without further ado, let’s get into them:
1. Thrown and Ice Spice
Thrown are the Ice Spice of the heavy music scene: a meteoric rise with a relative paucity of material. Insane levels of hype. A highly-anticipated full-length barely cracking twenty minutes. People divided on if they’re overrated or the real deal. While sonically nothing alike, to date the trajectories of each in their respective spheres are actually stunningly similar.
2. Bring Me the Horizon and The Clash
Genre-bending titans always one step ahead of the curve, rising to levels of popularity their beginnings in the genres of deathcore and punk, respectively, would’ve seemed to preclude, I can’t help but map much of the career of Bring Me the Horizon onto that of "the only band that matters." As ultimate gateway bands and legends in their respective spheres with an ear for radio-friendly hooks who perhaps paradoxically are/were unafraid to experiment and even alienate inflexible fans, the comparison seems more than apt from my vantage point.
3. Malevolence and Hatebreed
I’ve test-driven this comparison a few times and the reception has seemed a bit tepid, but I’m going to give it one final go and try to better articulate it: it’s not just the bands’ sonic similarities in their ability to combine both groove and metallic precision with the aggression of hardcore, S-tier mosh parts, and ever-so-slight flirtations with more mainstream rock. Each have proven massively influential in their own right, and are actively hand-picking bands for Jamey Jasta’s Perseverance Media Group and Malevolence’s MLVLTD Music, respectively. Obviously Hatebreed has been around for far longer and have cast perhaps the largest shadow of any hardcore band of the last thirty years, so the comparison might be unfair, but it’s less about the measuring stick of what Hatebreed has meant to hardcore and more about Malevolence’s similarities so far in their career as a band with similar crossover potential and as modern heirs to the style of Hatebreed carving out their own legacy.
4. Slaughter to Prevail and Megadeth
I feel like this one is pretty obvious beyond both bands being in a respective "Big Four"—modern deathcore in the former case, thrash metal in the latter—with each’s polarizing, "anti-woke" frontman in this Tom MacDonald/Ronnie Radke space of readily leaning into and seemingly actively courting controversy to the delight of a certain number of their core followers and to the disgust of their critics. At least neither has featured Ben Shapiro (…yet?), and hopefully it stays that way. One Shapiro feature is one too many.
5. Knocked Loose and Trash Talk
I almost went with Sleep Token and Genesis: proggy and weird with a keen pop sensibility and significant mainstream potential, but I had to go with Knocked Loose and Trash Talk as Knocked Loose’s career trajectory has remarkably-similar parallels to that of Trash Talk: not only have both bands gotten significantly more attention outside of the hardcore world by Pitchfork types who usually doesn’t come anywhere near this stuff, but even their crossover into the world of rap has been oddly synchronous. It’s not even that both bands have performed extensively with rappers (and in Trash Talk’s case had Suge Knight and Katt Williams show up at a show on top of being signed to Odd Future Records), it’s down to the specific rappers: both bands have opened for $uicideboy$ and have shared or will share the stage with Danny Brown!
TOP FIVE IN AT THE DEEP END RECORDS RELEASES
One of the things I’ve been trying to do with some of these Top Fives is highlight record labels that have been hugely consequential in their arena, such as Death Row and Hellcat; obviously Death Row had far more of a mainstream impact than Hellcat, but Hellcat had a run from the late-90s to mid-2000s where it didn’t just dominate the punk scene, it was a legitimate launching pad to mainstream success for bands like The Distillers and The Dropkick Murphys. For this Top Five, we head to the UK to look at In at the Deep End Records, responsible for releasing music by artists such as Send More Paramedics, Polar, Feed the Rhino, Bastions, and November Coming Fire, a label that was highly consequential in the hardcore and metalcore scenes in Britain in the latter half of the 2000s. For whatever reason, I don't really see them given the credit they deserve for launching the careers of very successful and/or influential artists and issuing many great and underrated releases besides. So with that in mind, I thought it was time to do a Top Five releases from the influential yet underrated In at the Deep End Records.
5. Sylosis-Casting Shadows (2006)
After putting their first two releases out with IATDE Records (along with 2007’s The Supreme Oppressor), Sylosis would go on to make the jump to the much larger Nuclear Blast and their career would really take off. While it might be tempting to call this their "humble origins," Casting Shadows clearly exhibits their potential. The Supreme Oppressor is an objectively superior offering and a clear level up on pretty much every front to the rawer Casting Shadows, but to me at least there's a certain charm and appeal in that relative lack of refinement in this case, and I say relative because, again, the band’s "floor," if you will, was already so high this early.
4. Centurion-One Hundred (2007)
I know very little about this band, but I remember finding this EP on one of the blogs back in the day—if you know, you know—and really digging it, but I ultimately forgot about it. When running through the label’s releases to figure out what was going to go on this list, I saw and remembered this one, and was confirmed in its quality on re-listening. Definitely a product of its time, but don't read that as a critique. There are shades of early Architects, particularly in some of the guitar parts, punishing breakdowns, and some touches of melody incorporated as well. The songs are kind of all over the place, but it works. It feels like youthful exuberance, taking me back to those early years of when I was diving head-first into the scene.
3. Architects-Nightmares (2006)
Speaking of Architects…
I would assume if you're reading this, Architects need no introduction. Nightmares and its Dillinger Escape Plan vibe is from the pre-Sam Carter era of the band with original vocalist Matt Johnson (who would go on to form a band called Whitemare with former members of Johnny Truant and the above-mentioned Centurion). You can tell they were still in the process of putting the pieces together and finding their identity on this album, but the fact that their baseline was this nasty, especially given how young they were and already being able to play this well, foreshadowed the heights they’d eventually climb. Though Carter would prove the missing ingredient mixed with the addition of bassist Alex Dean and the band's leveling-up as songwriters with Ruin and especially the incredible Hollow Crown, there are still some serious bangers on this album in songs like "To the Death," "Minesweeper," and "They’ll Be Hanging Us Tonight."
2. Shaped By Fate-The Unbeliever (2007)
Once dubbed "the future of British Metalcore" by Kerrang!, the Welsh outfit absolutely punishes listeners on this ten song set of sprawling yet frenetic Furnace Fest-core. They always reminded me a little of Johnny Truant in the way that they were pushing the boundaries of what metalcore could be. Though the genre largely seems to have gone in a different direction, listening to this album now still feels like I’m hearing the vanguard.
1. Gallows-Orchestra of Wolves (2006)
For readers who weren’t around back then, Gallows was like Thrown is now. I had the good fortune to see this lineup twice, once in York, England with Trash Talk and Sharks, and once in Massachusetts with This Is Hell and Cancer Bats. I remember throwing down at that latter show to "Just Because You Sleep Next to Me Doesn't Mean You're Safe" having just gotten a big tattoo on my shoulder the day before, blood and pus seeping through the bandage and my shirt as I was getting smashed into over and over again. Ah, the days of youth.
Gallows with Frank Carter on vocals was truly a special band, and released what I would categorize as one of the best punk albums of all time in 2009’s Grey Britain. Orchestra of Wolves is a classic in its own right, with Epitaph founder and Bad Religion guitarist Brett Gurewitz calling it the best hardcore album since Refused’s The Shape of Punk to Come (Epitaph would pick the album up in the US). The title track is one of the best hardcore songs of all time. Orchestra is a unique combination of influences with all of these weird angular parts and jagged breakdowns rubbing shoulders with punk rock abandon, rock n roll sensibilities, and memorable songwriting. "Abandon Ship" is a perfect microcosm of the melding of these different sensibilities and influences into a distinct and cohesive whole: the track leans into the band’s melodic side while maintaining their ferocity; there are sharp off-kilter parts, some chugs, and the lyrics are a well-crafted political critique that avoid being preachy and are strengthened by an urgent and commanding vocal performance from Carter, a magnetic frontman who took the band's live performances to the next level. I don't use words like "classic" lightly, but the first two Gallows records are classics, full stop.
TOP FIVE MOST SIGNIFICANT CURRENT MUSICAL TRENDS & DEVELOPMENTS
My second batch of August Shout-Outs will arrive next week, but for this piece I thought it would be an interesting exercise to apply the Top Five format to some of the major shifts occurring in the contemporary musical landscape, a little bit more of a "tree-top" view of where things are and/or appear to be headed.
1. Country is the new rap.
In terms of dominance in popularity and the cultural zeitgeist, at least in the United States, country is improbably eclipsing rap (I say improbably as it has labored, for many years, under often stereotypical characterization), primarily because: 1) the pop songwriting is that good and people want hooks, and 2) melodic trap burn-out. The most apropos pivot here is of course Post Malone, but Beyoncé is a must to mention as well. Most crucially in terms of demographic significance as the following demographic is largely what drives pop culture, the popularity of country has surged (unapologetically) among the teens and early- to mid-20s demographic.
2. Nü metal is the new classic rock.
Like it or not, for Millennials and to a large extent but with a different relationship to them Gen Z, bands like Deftones, Limp Bizkit, and Linkin Park are effectively what bands like Led Zeppelin and the Rolling Stones are to Baby Boomers and older Gen Xers or Metallica and Nirvana are to the bulk of Gen X. One could put the mall emo flag-bearers here as well, but the point is that there is a clear re-set on the baseline touchstones of today’s rock and metal bands and fans. Anecdotally, virtually every heavy band I’ve interviewed has referenced bands from the nü metal and/or mall emo era of the late-90s to mid-2000s high water mark as their "gateway drug" to alternative music, and the influences are often apparent on listening. Despite the negative treatment of the genres by the "tastemakers" of the time, nü metal and mall emo have endured as not just nostalgia trips but as foundational touchstones.
Here’s some premium contemporary nü metalling from Ocean Grove.
3. Countrycore is the new hot scene trend.
Just like Southern metalcore from roughly 2005-2007 at its peak, the hybridization of a "down-home" genre is suddenly sweeping through metalcore and adjacent scenes, with Bilmuri leading the charge, much like Every Time I Die did with the Southern metalcore trend. Lakeview works here as the Norma Jean of this comparison, and there are other examples such as Beartooth’s collaboration with Hardy and Mitchell Tenpenny’s with Underoath. Belmont’s "Country Girl" is another song that is more easycore goes country, but can easily fit comfortably alongside these other examples. There will be many more to come, and I’m here for it, just like I was then.
4. Countrycore and scenecore 2.0 are perfect bedfellows.
Particularly as it dovetails with the emo revival, there is the old joke about country that if you play all your country records backwards, you get it all back: the job, the spouse, the dog, the house. Compare these two Underoath features—the one above with the one below—as an example and it comes into even sharper focus. While not applicable in every case, there is more than enough in the center of the Venn diagram to explain this kind of mutually-reinforcing lyrical and tonal emphasis between two burgeoning scene sub-genres with plenty of potential to create even more interesting combinations—and with any luck, these two subgenres will cross streams, as for the reasons explicated above the results could be very exciting.
5. Adding pop and/or "core" to any genre instantly improves it.
I’m being somewhat tongue-in-cheek here, but in the story of genre hybridization of the last twenty years—at least in "the scene," but in other areas further afield as well—these particular integrations seem to be predominantly where the action is: metalcore, deathcore, hyperpop, easycore, RnBcore, pop country, countrycore, shoegazecore, pop metal, noise pop, trap metal…the list goes on. Where to next? Bratcore? More of whatever Paledusk is doing? Comment below.
TOP FIVE UNDERRATED ALBUMS OF THE 2010s
This is the first of what will eventually be three installments of underrated albums from particular decades, working in reverse chronological order from the 2010s back to the 90s. I’ll be circling back to the 2000s and 1990s in a few months. There really aren’t any specific criteria for these lists beyond that I think these are great albums that are generally underappreciated in one way or another, and I wanted to find space on this site to discuss them!
Honorable Mentions
Ellie Goulding-Halcyon (2012)
Narrowly edging-out The Prodigy’s triumphant return to form (and, tragically, the final record with Keith Flint) in 2018’s No Tourists and Cold Cave’s 2011 icy-synthed, edgier Depeche Mode record Cherish the Light Years, this might seem a somewhat odd selection given that it was a major mainstream success. Having said that, I don’t think the album is properly appreciated for what it is: gorgeously-crafted, emotionally powerful and transcendent woodland sprite pop. It’s actually a very unique record in a lot of ways.
Deaf Havana-Rituals (2018)
This record is what the hyper-polished anthemic radio rock bands of the decade should have been doing.
Legend-The Pale Horse (2011)
Punishingly-heavy metalcore that seemed to get slept on for whatever reason. I describe this album as a Golden Ratio of earlier Volumes and vocalist Chad Ruhlig’s other band For the Fallen Dreams.
Grave Maker-Ghosts Among Men (2010)
Two words: "fucking bounce!" Ghosts Among Men was the second and final record for the Canadian road warriors who absolutely killed it live. Maybe it was the artwork that threw people off into thinking they were getting Amon Amarth rather than high-energy hardcore with very distinctive vocals and a bunch of sick mosh/throwdown parts to get kids "picking up quarters from the floor" that caused them to get overlooked, I don’t know, but for whatever reason they never quite got the buzz I felt they deserved.
Speaking of distinctive vocals, another excellent and underrated hardcore band that straddles the 2000s and 2010s is Mother of Mercy; I considered their record IV (2011) here as well. They leaned very heavily into Glenn Danzig territory, particularly his band between The Misfits and Danzig in Samhain, creating a dark and brooding atmosphere that complemented the raw hardcore fury and metal influences in creating a very unique sound. III (2009) and IV are hardcore masterpieces.
BONES-PaidProgramming (2013)
One of my favorite rappers to emerge during this era, this dude is prolific. If I had to pick one album that I think represents BONES’s best work, I would point to PaidProgramming, which is deceptively experimental in its own right and often downright catchy. Some of the highlights for me include: "RotatingBed," which has an 80s funk/R&B Oran "Juice" Jones-type sound to it; the Memphis-meets-emo-meets-80s synthwave of "Waking Up Crying"; and the haunting earworm beat packed with a bunch of absurd and (I’m assuming) intentionally-dated pop culture references of "JonathanTaylorThomas" (and beyond: honorable mention shout-outs include Macaulay Culkin 1992 and Bo Derek 1984), which also exemplifies BONES’s flow. BONES’s singing voice also adds another dimension to the dark and often depressive atmosphere that permeates the record, the vibe really anything but "chill," with the overwhelming sense that despite being superficially laid-back most of the time, there’s a deep sense of unease and even malice lurking just under the surface.
TOP FIVE
5. Hands-Give Me Rest (2011)
While the boundaries of rock and metal have been pushed outward dramatically through the experimentation of post-rock and post-metal, respectively, this particular direction is fairly uncommon in metalcore. Give Me Rest is the finest work of post-metalcore—not in the Bring Me the Horizon post-genre sense of post-metalcore but in the widening of the genre into these huge sonic vistas that paradoxically feel so intimate—this side of Misery Signals. While Misery Signals makes sense as a touchstone, the approach of Hands in crafting something so beautiful and expansive out of the raw materials of metalcore on this album is unlike anything else I’ve heard, however.
4. Harms Way-Posthuman (2018)
This album is massive in every way. The production added crispness and heft to what was already a crushing unit, and the intellectual scope of the record deals with pressing concerns of where humanity is headed, particularly with our relationships with the planet and with technology. By accentuating the industrial/Jesu-like elements of their sound further and somehow getting even heavier, what Harms Way did here was create a work of devastating beauty, an album that is vital to listen to in its entirety to get the full effect, impressive in its scope and ability to make the listener feel like they are "just a part of a smashed landscape, just a piece of the rubble, just a fragment of what man has deeded to himself."
3. Poppy-Am I a Girl? (2018)
Before she became the darling of the metal world, Poppy was pushing creative boundaries with rare fearlessness and vision; to me, Am I a Girl? is the most impressive and fully-realized example of said fearlessness and vision, not in experimentation for its own sake, but experimentation that felt so organic and necessary. This is another album that should be listened to front-to-back in its entirety, especially as it evolves in essentially three movements. The first portion of the record is fairly straight-forward and often tongue-in-cheek pop, whereas the conclusion explores what happens when contemporary bubble gum pop, 1950s and 60s girl-pop, and metal are brought into wildly-successful synthesis. In the middle, Poppy’s post-human android musings, futuristic synths, and other genre blending pays similar dividends, taking us from pre-guillotine ballrooms to apocalyptic ones, from the mad scientist’s laboratory to outer space.
2. Don Broco-Technology (2018)
Don Broco started out doing a kind of new wave-infused alternative rock style and some metalcore-ish stuff like "Thug Workout," crafted a pop rock masterpiece in Priorities under-pinned by its rhythmic muscle, and then dropped the slicker but also first-rate Automatic, an album that also found the band continuing to push their sonic horizons outward such as in the arena rock "Money Power Fame," the Hootie and the Blowfish-like "Further," the incorporation of electronic textures, and more. Not necessarily a radical departure from Priorities, but further evidence the band, like sharks, can’t stop in one place—and that’s a good thing, as Technology arrived and while still being clearly Broco accelerated the experimentation. Whether it’s the sludge-pop of "Technology," the funk-rock of "Greatness," or the pop songcraft of "Come Out to LA," this album is a genre-bending ride executed to perfection. And another thing: this band can write hooks. They are on the shortlist for the best and most interesting bands in rock today, not dissimilar to new labelmates Ocean Grove or countrymen Bring Me the Horizon in their ability to not just combine and explore different sounds, but have the results be so consistently organic, interesting, and memorable.
1. Young Guns-Bones (2012)
I could’ve picked their debut or follow-up to Bones as well. I settled on Bones more for nostalgia reasons as the final differentiator, as each of those first three records is equally excellent, and even 2016’s Echoes has some top-tier songs on it. Ones and Zeroes explored the addition of more electronic elements and All Our Kings Are Dead has more of a harder edge to it and the drumming in particular feels more "core." Still, Young Guns are a rock band through and through and a great one at that. Their melodies soar, the vocals suit the music perfectly, and the heart and passion add an extra intangible "something" to the songs that further elevate them, sort of like a rock version of the Bouncing Souls in that way. Many of the songs on here are stadium-ready, but they also shine when they go more meditative, such as on "Dearly Departed" and "You Are Not." Young Guns is everything I look for in a rock band.
TOP FIVE ALBUMS OF THE 20s (so far)
Over the last half-decade or so, the evolving trend seems to be artists emphasizing releasing their material in the form of standalone singles or EPs much more than full-lengths, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing, especially if the alternative is putting out maybe a handful of good songs and a lot of filler. Plus, fans rarely want to wait years between releases anyway, and this often shrinks that wait-time. Albums really should be reserved for artists simply having that many killer tracks and/or wishing to express themselves in longer form where they find that creatively necessary, be it for sonic, narrative, and/or other reasons. The de-emphasis on full-lengths and embrace of the EP and/or single especially has been uneven across and even within different genres and by different artists, and consequently I found as I started creating my list of candidates, the results were sometimes totally expected, but at other times surprising. An example of a band embracing the spectrum of release options would be Spiritbox, where although their full-length Eternal Blue (2021) is excellent, I actually think some of their best material comes from "beyond the LP," such as "Rotoscope" (2022) and "Cobra (Rock Remix)" with Megan Thee Stallion (2023). Having said that, I thought it would be an interesting exercise to consider those instances where a full-length bucked the trend and was not just appropriate but necessary.
I decided to zoom out and reflect more broadly on the decade so far and what in my humble opinion have been the very best albums released to date. The working criteria for the list came down to a highly-unscientific formula of which albums had the best songs, as you might well expect, but also which flowed best and were most cohesive and complete front-to-back. I also considered the nebulous factor of "artistic accomplishment," and the final differentiator, after a recommendation from a close friend during a conversation about the list, which ones did I come back to most often. We’ll take a look at some of the albums that were ultimately just out of the top five, and then the top five (which is really a top six) itself.
I only have three more things to say: "God bless our troops. God bless America. And gentlemen, start your engines!"
Bilmuri-AMERICAN MOTOR SPORTS (2024)
Squats, Farquad haircuts, and Americana, Johnny Franck has embraced the aesthetic of "your dad, but edgy" while sharpening Bilmuri’s sound into the bleeding edge of pop- and emo-infused country-core on the hook-laden LP AMERICAN MOTOR SPORTS. It is indeed an awesome ride.
Four Year Strong-Brain Pain (2020)
Four Year Strong have never been shy about their love of the 90s—indeed, their 2009 album Explains It All was entirely 90s covers! With Brain Pain, though, they really leaned in to those touchstones for their originals, and it paid massive dividends. For a band that belongs on the Mount Rushmore of easycore, their ability to write insanely catchy songs has never been in question, but what’s different here is their ability to combine those sensibilities with their 90s rock ones, while also further accentuating their punk and hardcore influences, resulting in a unique combination I call "90s-rock-core." The heavy lyrical nod to The Verve on "Usefully Useless" was further explored with the release of their excellent cover of "Bitter Sweet Symphony" the year after (included as a bonus track on the deluxe edition). As a child of the 90s, there is certainly a nostalgia factor here for me, but rather than the album being a walk down memory lane—and in some ways it is that both for reviewer and band—the combination of influences resulted in an album that is a nod to the past but is also fresh and distinctive. These guys are such good songwriters; there are a lot of deceptively intricate moments on the record that add depth. Some of the highlights of Brain Pain would be the really interesting breakdown at the end of "It’s Cool," the heavy 90s vibes of "Get Out of My Head" and "Usefully Useless," and the perfect synergy of hardcore aggression, 90s rock, and pop punk of "Crazy Pills."
Superlove-follow:noise (2023)
My closest comp for follow:noise is, perhaps strangely, Andrew W.K.’s relentlessly upbeat 2001 record I Get Wet in its "jam everything up to eleven and largely keep it there" nature, in the best way possible. Take a little of the euphonic Heart of Gold, some Don Broco, and shades of Republica and blend them with djentified pop-punk and you get easycore for the future? However you want to characterize the sound of Superlove, it’s all their own. The incredibly catchy, sugary-sweet songwriting on this record makes almost every track feel like a singalong hit single, yet those moments where the band eases their collective foot off the gas shine in their own right. The songcraft here, particularly the pop elements, is exquisite. Consequently, I’ve had this record on repeat consistently since its release.
Heart of Gold-Beautiful Dangerous (2022)
Speaking of pop songcraft…my goodness, this album is it. Beautiful Dangerous is an exceptional record awash in gorgeous atmosphere and a sound that recalls aspects of Rituals-era Deaf Havana, Superlove, the poppier elements of Bilmuri, or in the case of songs such as the post-emo pop of "September Sunburn" what Emarosa did on Sting (which came later—this is offered as a point of comparison). Indeed, all of these reference points are presented merely as touchstones to orient the would-be listener regarding this distinctive and lushly-textured offering. It’s got all the feels and all the right moves.
Diamond Construct-Angel Killer Zero (2024)
For more on "metal trap" titans Diamond Construct’s Angel Killer Zero, see my full review here, but in a nutshell: it sounds like the Matrix falling apart in a glitchy, earth-shakingly heavy manner. If Darko US is Emmure for the Space Age and Gideon’s concealed carry-core is Emmure for south of the Mason-Dixon, then Diamond Construct is Emmure for doomed digital dystopias.
Enter Shikari-Nothing Is True & Everything Is Possible (2020)
This is an example of an album that is: a) representative of the "Covid sound," b) a cohesive whole that is best listened to in its entirety, with its remix-like track variations and classical music-like movements enriching the overall experience, and c) a masterclass in intricate and textured songwriting that incorporates a wide variety of influences in a wholly organic manner. Having said that, there are still numerous stand-out tracks to highlight, including the dark rave-core of "T.I.N.A.," the 90s Britpop/rock of "Modern Living," the delicate and soaring "Satellites," or the super catchy tandem of "Crossing the Rubicon" and "The Dreamer’s Hotel."
TOP FIVE
5. Don Broco-Amazing Things (2021)
Speaking of intricate and textured songwriting that incorporates a wide variety of influences in a wholly organic manner, we arrive at Don Broco’s amazing Amazing Things. Don Broco never stays in one place in terms of genre-bending and experimentation, and yet they always have maintained their own distinct sound, not an easy accomplishment by any means. They’ve also always had a knack for writing hooks and this album is just saturated in them. There are the more obvious and high energy bangers like "Bruce Willis" (where vocalist Rob Damiani does his best Right Said Fred impression, with one of the most advanced music videos of all time to boot) or the Rage Against the Machine-"Bulls on Parade"-esque riff of "Revenge Body," there are the more "vibe-y" tracks like the outstanding Deftones-influenced "One True Prince," and there are others that require more patience from the listener as they unfold, but ultimately are just as if not more rewarding, such as "How Are You Done with Existing?" and "Anaheim." Some of the more creative tracks on the record include the Caviar-"Tangerine Speedo" meets Deftones of "Swimwear Season" and the back-and-forth between something I feel like I would’ve heard in a posh hotel’s elevator like fifty years ago with Limp Bizkit before segueing into a pissed-off and funky nursery rhyme-esque taunt in "Bad 4 Ur Health." "Easter Sunday" is a gorgeous but emotionally difficult to listen to closer, which with the above examples speaks to the band’s ability to evoke deep emotional resonance in the listener as well as explore and combine different sounds and create different soundscapes at an elite level.
4. (Tie) Bring Me the Horizon-Post Human: Survival Horror (2020) and Post Human: NeX GEn (2024)
Okay, I cheated a little here: Post Human: Survival Horror is technically an EP, but with nine songs, a run-time over a half an hour, and being a cohesive piece of art that tells a story, flows seamlessly, and is "all killer, no filler," I had Anthony Bourdain-No Reservations about putting this offering on the list. It was a much heavier left turn than fans had any reason to expect, and officially signaled that BMTH could now do anything—they weren’t just continuing to trend in a lighter direction (albeit a direction on a record like Amo that had many surprises and delights). Here, the band pulls from Mick Gordon, nü metal (more specifically Linkin Park), and their own heavy past—and, indeed, parts of their recent, more subdued past. "One Day the Only Butterflies Left Will Be in Your Chest as You March Towards Your Death" with Amy Lee is one of the most powerful songs they’ve written. Bring Me the Horizon are The Clash of modern metalcore, insofar as they can be called metalcore.
Linked in the series but also tied in quality, these two records from BMTH showcase a band at the height of their powers. Whereas Survival Horror was more of the global apocalypse/dystopia, NeX GEn is more of the internal one. Granted a song like "YOUtopia" carries in it a more hopeful note, but the album is mostly predominated by struggling with and looking at the dark side of mental health and addiction. That beauty and pain—often inextricably intertwined—is part of what makes NeX GEn such a resonant record, along with the exceptional songwriting that mines some hyperpop and post-hardcore, but especially emo. Indeed, frontman Oli Sykes has talked about songs like "Die4U" as part of his vision for "future emo," and that definitely comes through. A cohesive project packed with standout singles as well, songs like "Die4U" and "R.i.p. (duskCOre Remix)" evidence, to quote Tom Ewing talking about Azealia Banks’s "212," "details and decisions that suggest a scary degree of pop talent." Indeed, this band’s ability to write what are fundamentally Top 40 pop hits (or should be hits) with this degree of consistency and with this strike rate—not just on this album but across multiple records—is rare and impressive enough in its own right, but to have said songs hybridized in the fashion they have with other genres and influences while constantly evolving their sound puts Bring Me the Horizon in a truly elite, all-time tier.
3. Electric Callboy-Tekkno (2022)
Elite, pop-sensibility songwriting that as above with Superlove makes almost every song on this album feel like a hit single. No band does it quite like these guys with their vision, their humor, and their ability to blend Europop (or schlager) with punishing metalcore. Along with "Hypa Hypa" and that EP, Tekkno signaled a massive leveling-up for the band. The replayability factor here is the big one.
2. Beartooth-The Surface (2023)
This is really more like number 1B, and honestly I kept going back and forth between it and the album that wound up at number one (or 1A), which we’ll discuss shortly. You can read my deep dive on it here, but put simply, The Surface is a monumental achievement that took all the best attributes of Beartooth and amplified them dramatically while adding some new wrinkles. It is an exceptional record front-to-back that follows a compelling real-life narrative about recovery and growth, a narrative that in a lot of ways speaks to me on a deep personal level.
1. Ocean Grove-Flip Phone Fantasy (2020)
Here we find ourselves on an alternate timeline in the time-slipped universe of pre-Y2K meets 2020 Oddworld, where Ocean Grove deliver this elite alliterative set of retro-futurist tunes on dial-up: "As we move into 2020 / Visions of the past
/ That obscure fast / Elementary. Blast! Yeah, the future sent me." Whether it’s the 90s funk rock style of the anthemic "Ask for the Anthem," the 24 Hour Party People style of "Guys from the Gord," the "All Apologies" of Nirvana meets a dreamy afternoon on the beach of "Sunny," or the straight hardcore meets surf rock of "Neo" that prove The Matrix may have been on to something by calling 1999 the peak of human civilization, Flip Phone Fantasy delivers on all fronts. Elsewhere the band explores other areas of and often combines 90s alternative rock, the Manchester Sound, hip-hop, bouncy nü metal, and metalcore. "Junkie$" and "Thousand Golden People" are album highlights and both microcosms of this synthesis in different proportions. A great record by a unique band exploring a sound all their own.
TOP FIVE ALBUMS IF RELEASED TODAY WOULD MAKE HARDCORE KIDS LOSE THEIR MINDS
For decades now, the hardcore scene has been selectively mining metal for inspiration, whether it’s chugs and breakdowns or the groove of Earth Crisis and their as Finn McKenty describes it "Pantera without guitar solos." Even though metal and hardcore fanbases generally did not overlap to much of an extent until more recently, even back in the 1980s plenty of bands were dabbling in, hybridizing with, or even going full metal (and of course the influences went the other way from punk and hardcore to metal as well). Indeed, the creation of entirely new genres as offshoots of hardcore in metalcore and deathcore, for example, owes itself to the hybridization with metal. There’s been a ton of blurring at the edges of the genre to the point where it’s not entirely clear quite where some of these heavy bands sit exactly, and frankly that’s perfectly fine as far as I’m concerned, as I would hate for the genre to become stagnant and I love hearing fresh sounds. There’s certainly nothing wrong with a tried-and-true template well-executed, either, but it is always interesting to see how trends evolve and what from the past is given more or less currency at a given time.
Currently, I would say no band has a larger fingerprint on modern hardcore than Merauder, themselves pretty clearly heavily influenced by metal. In fact, one of their first big tours came in opening up for Fear Factory, whose 1995 album Demanufacture I seriously considered putting on this list with how influential those chunky, syncopated riffs have been. To that point, we’re looking primarily at bands from outside the hardcore world whose sounds have become so influential within modern hardcore that were they to release one of these albums below today, would blow up and be one of the most hyped bands on the scene. For example, if it was 2014 and Entombed’s Wolverine Blues dropped, they would’ve set the scene on fire. Today, these are my top five selections for albums from the past, predominantly from the metal world, that given the current trends in hardcore (and adjacent genres in some cases), if they were released today would have kids absolutely losing their minds.
5. Machine Head-Burn My Eyes (1994)
When I hear a song like "Davidian," it honestly feels like a snapshot of a particular subset of today’s hardcore scene. I could totally see a band like Momentum taking these little whipper-snappers in Machine Head out on tour and the crowd just losing it!
4. (Tie) Meshuggah-Nothing (2002) and Linkin Park-Hybrid Theory (2000)
The face on the cover of Nothing had to have been that of the guys in After the Burial when they heard Meshuggah for the first time (and my face after I heard After the Burial for the first time). To be fair, I probably could’ve picked any of a couple Meshuggah albums here, but I feel like this is the one that really planted the djent seed that would bloom into that first cohort of djentcore bands. This one is less about the hardcore scene proper than its metal offshoots—today’s brand of metalcore especially. If Helen of Troy was the face that launched a thousand ships, this combination would be the one that launched a thousand modern metalcore bands.
3. Obituary-Cause of Death (1990)
This one works two ways—loads of "hardcore kids" playing in old school death metal revival bands and loads of hardcore bands incorporating aspects of old school death metal. There were a few options here, but anecdotally Obituary is the name I hear referenced most often. I also apropos of nothing hardcore-related wanted to share this extremely advanced story of how Obituary drummer Donald Tardy came to play on Andrew W.K.’s first album I Get Wet, excerpted from Phillip Crandall’s 33 1/3 I Get Wet book:
"[Andrew] wrote me a letter in pencil when he was 19 or something," Donald Tardy remembers. "He said, 'I love Obituary, you're one of my favorite drummers, and I would love to see if you would be interested in helping do my album.' He sent me the Girls Own Juice EP, and of course I was blown away by it."…Hearing Andrew's music…convinced him he'd be up for the "fun challenge." He agreed to be in Andrew's band…and was given the task of putting the rest of the band and crew together.
2. Monsters-Self-Titled (2011)
Tell me fans of bands like Ten56. wouldn’t go completely nuts for this if it came out today with slightly punchier production. That said, this is not Monsters’ best—that honor goes to 2009 EP The Righteous Dead, at minimum one of the top three deathcore releases of all time. So much bounce and groove—if you like your deathcore hoppy, The Righteous Dead is truly the Holy Grail. I just see the style of the self-titled album with more hip-hop and nü metal influences finding a warmer contemporary reception.
1. Urban Dance Squad-Mental Floss for the Globe (1989/1990)
This one’s more for the Turnstile set. Honorable mention in a similar vein would be a band like Orange 9mm (although they were very much a product of the hardcore scene, which isn’t necessarily in keeping with the spirit of the list, but I digress), who walked so a Trapped Under Ice side project could not just run but eventually transcend the genre altogether and become one of the biggest hardcore bands of our time. Pretty wild. In any case, between this sound and this aesthetic, throw Urban Dance Squad on the bill at a Turnstile homecoming show in Baltimore right after nightlife. and watch the crowd go off.
TOP FIVE PURE NOISE RECORDS RELEASES
Pure Noise might be a relatively young label, but it quickly became—and remains—one of the best on the scene today, with a stacked roster currently featuring artists such as SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Koyo, Bloom, the Bouncing Souls, UNITYTX, Year of the Knife, ‘68, the Amity Affliction, and more! On this Top Five, we consider (using the highly subjective metric of my taste, as pretty much always) the very best full-length albums Pure Noise has released since its inception. Without further ado…
5. State Champs-The Finer Things (2013)
Narrowly edging-out Four Year Strong’s fantastic self-titled 2015 offering, this is to me the peak of the pizza, friends, and floral print era of pop punk. Youthful exuberance and passion meets crisp songwriting packed with hooks. If I were to make a Top Five for my favorite pop punk albums of all time, this would at minimum be in the conversation for Honorable Mentions.
4. Terror-Pain Into Power (2022)
Terror is for me tied with Hatebreed as the greatest hardcore band of all time. Vocalist Scott Vogel has been in the game a long time and he sounds as pissed as ever here. The band’s streamlined approach with less than half of the songs even cracking two minutes in length means we’re in, we’re out, and it’s all killer no filler. Songs like "One Thousand Lies" stack up among their best; the recording quality is noticeably rough, but I feel like this was an intentional move along with the brevity of many of the songs, the songwriting itself, and black-and-white videos like "Pain Into Power" to evoke an earlier era of hardcore. It’s kind of like an OG mic drop.
3. Knocked Loose-Laugh Tracks (2016)
Two words: "ARF ARF!" and things were never the same. 2014’s Pop Culture EP had already created a ton of buzz for this band, and when I saw them live for the first time around when this album came out along with Eternal Sleep and Harms Way opening for Every Time I Die in Portland, Maine, the crowd was going absolutely berserk. I haven’t seen too many crowd reactions that fervent in almost twenty years of going to hardcore shows (Foundation’s set on one of the last dates of Have Heart’s farewell tour in I think Massachusetts with Cruel Hand and Crime In Stereo, and Harms Way themselves one of the last years of Warped Tour are two others that come to mind—where and when I don’t remember, I want to say Hartford, Connecticut?). Bryan Garris’s high-pitched and frenzied, nervous-breakdown-like vocals are an acquired taste for some, but in contrast with the death metal-inspired backing vocals paired with insanely heavy music is a lethal combination that’s continued to catapult this band to the A-list of hardcore and beyond. Really any of their full-lengths could’ve gone here, but if I had to pick one the jump from the already-good Pop Culture, the more memorable songs, and the freshness of their sound here makes Laugh Tracks my pick.
2. Four Year Strong-Brain Pain (2020)
Spoiler alert: I will go into more detail about this album on my Top Five Albums of the 20s (so far) in the Honorable Mentions, but this is an excellent record full of standout songs that in some ways continued in the direction of Four Year Strong’s post-In Some Way, Shape, or Form re-birth while accentuating both their hardcore influences and the 90s alternative rock influences that had clearly always been a touch-stone for the band. As catchy as ever, but in said accentuation of these elements, a fresh new sound emerged that I call 90s Rock-core. The breakdown at the end of "It’s Cool" bears special note here as it is, indeed, very cool.
1. First Blood-Rules (2017)
The title says it all: First Blood does, indeed, rule. Typically I don’t care for sloganeering and being hammered over the head with politics in music, but somehow it’s a thing of beauty when First Blood does it. Sort of like Emmure, the rules don’t really apply to them (see what I did there?). The energy First Blood manages to capture in recording—aided by all of the gang vocals and said sloganeering functioning as call-outs—with just nasty breakdowns aplenty is consistently impressive for the band that self-identifies as "straight-forward metal-edged hardcore mosh." Peak camo cargo short hardcore, these guys are legends and one of my all-time favorite hardcore bands.
TOP FIVE UNDERRATED NEXT GEN RAPPERS
On this Top Five, I wanted to look at rappers I’ll call "Next Gen," which I’ll loosely define as those who are relatively new to the scene and/or are pushing the genre forward and are not getting the attention and credit they deserve for their talent and vision. One caveat: this is a Top Five specifically for rappers I haven’t talked to/about on the site yet; I could very easily have put Abstract Sekai, Shunaji, Poetical Nadz, Icykal, and Lil Tytan on this list. If you haven’t checked those interviews out yet, I encourage you to do so (and check out their music of course!). Without further ado…
5. Kamaiyah
We’ll start with the most established of this group in Kamaiyah, part of XXL’s 2017 Freshman Class. I would describe her style as a hybrid informed by hyphy, vintage Bay Area hip-hop like N2Deep, and Missy Elliott, but a style that is, indeed, all her own. I saw a comment on one of her videos describing her as having "subtle bangers," and that’s such an accurate descriptor for tracks like "How Does It Feel," where her ability is on full display with hooks for days, her silky-smooth flow floating over a tight neo-80s beat.
4. $atori Zoom
According to his website, "$atori Zoom has played fast and loose when it comes to genres, often incorporating elements of experimental rap, punk rock, goth, alternative, and hip-hop…Drawing influence and inspiration from the likes of Joy Division, XXXTENTACION, The Germs, Playboi Carti, and Radiohead, $atori Zoom has been able to craft a clear vision for his musical direction." Intensely forward-looking, Zoom aesthetically and sonically could sit comfortably next to say, Xavier Wulf and some of that modernized Memphis menace, or in the ballpark of a lot of the more interesting dark trap or trap metal, but he’s not staying seated in one spot for long.
3. Backxwash
What initially caught my eye with the Zambian-Canadian rapper and producer based in Montreal, Quebec was the intriguing aesthetic blend of black metal meets dark shamanic ritual meets Integrity, and the music proved to be equally intriguing and dark in its own right. There’s a bit of some of that early- to mid-2000s Epitaph Records alternative rap like Sage Francis in there, some Moor Mother, all sorts of at once expansive and oppressive soundscapes twisted through various tortured filters like horrorcore, metal, and more weaved into Backxwash’s hellscapes. A track like "Spells" mines Deftones pretty heavily with an Eminem-like flow, and yet it doesn’t sound at all as that description reads. I probably wouldn’t listen to any Backxwash if you’re in a good mood or want to get in one.
2. Jujulipps
Born and raised in South Africa and now based in New Zealand, Jujulipps’s bombastic, fun, and flexible approach borrows influence from artists like Keikeli47 and Rico Nasty; a track like "Airplane Mode" feels like something Moonchild Sanelly might write. Exceptionally talented with a unique vision, Jujulipps is only just scratching the surface and it’s already this good.
1. Juice Menace
The brash and versatile Cardiff, Wales-based Juice Menace has such a seemingly-effortless flow and skilled delivery, exemplified on tracks like "24s," "Creepin" (my personal favorite Juice Menace cut), and the nightclub-ready "Pink Notes." Loads of attitude and obvious talent, it’s only a matter of time before she’s on the A-list of UK hip-hop.
TOP FIVE RAWKUS RECORDS RELEASES
For those that follow college sports, you’ll know that the Mountain West Conference, at least for basketball and football, is that one conference that isn’t considered Power Five but is consistently much more competitive than the other low- and mid-major conferences. For a time in the world of hip-hop labels, Rawkus Records was the Mountain West Conference, and can rightly be cited as the most influential label in underground hip-hop in the late-90s and early-2000s, as well as credited for breaking "backpack" rap into the mainstream. Here, we’ll reflect on this crucial juncture in hip-hop history by looking at the top five albums to be released on Rawkus during its late-90s and early-2000s heyday.
5. Company Flow-Funcrusher Plus (1997)
Edging out Pharoahe Monch’s Internal Affairs (1999), we have what is commonly-cited as one of the most important underground hip-hop releases of the 1990s in Funcrusher Plus. Featuring El-P (Run the Jewels, the Def Jux label), Bigg Jus, and Mr. Len, it’s an often off-kilter and unorthodox, lyrically proficient ride that in terms of production actually reminds me a lot of vintage Wu Tang with that kind of murky menace. Very influential on what came next in alternative, backpack, and underground hip-hop.
4. Talib Kweli-Quality (2002)
Buoyed by what became a pretty big breakout hit in 2003 in "Get By," produced by Kanye West, Quality was the long-delayed debut record from Talib Kweli. West also produced two other tracks on the album, as did perhaps my favorite producer of all time in J Dilla. "Shock Body" is probably my favorite cut on the record with Kweli spitting fire, that soaring almost movie-score-like beat by DJ Scratch, and the sweet counterpoint of the female vocals. One of the definitive backpack records of the era.
3. Mos Def-Black on Both Sides (1999)
In a lot of ways, this is Mos’s solo extension of Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star that had come out the year prior, dealing with many similar themes and featuring similar excellent production. "Ms Fat Booty" is humorous and masterful storytelling, and a song like "Mathematics" really showcases an MC at the peak of his powers. Another foundational album for the backpack scene.
2. Big L-The Big Picture (2000)
If not for the untimely death of Big L at the age of 24 in a drive-by shooting robbing rap of one of the most promising MCs of all time, Big L is probably Jay-Z. As Nas stated after hearing Big L, "He scared me to death. When I heard that on tape, I was scared to death. I said, 'Yo, it's no way I can compete if this is what I gotta compete with.'" Indeed, as Adam Fleischer writes, "His punchline-driven, multisyllabic rhyme style laid a blueprint for many that would come after L." You can hear that on this posthumous sophomore album on a song like "Ebonics," where he lyrically rips the track to pieces in the most seemingly effortless fashion. Jay-Z himself raved about Big L’s ability to write "big records, and big choruses" and was poised to sign L to Roc-a-Fella before his death. Killer album showcasing the elite talents of an underrated MC who, if you couldn’t tell, is also one of my all-times favorites.
1. Black Star-Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star (1998)
Not only did this record have a seismic impact on hip-hop, it is packed with first-rate lyricism, great beats, and brother-like chemistry between Mos Def and Talib Kweli. In stark contrast to the glorification of violence and "that life" in mainstream rap, while not as militantly as Dead Prez, the duo instead took a much more socially- and identity-conscious approach to their material, as the name "Black Star" after Marcus Garvey’s Black Star Line would also indicate. Very much rooted in the tradition of KRS-One/Boogie Down Productions, it was a seminal record that paid homage to hip-hop’s roots while also looking forward. I regard Mos Def and Talib Kweli are Black Star as a classic and one of the best hip-hop albums of the 90s, in a lot of ways the underground hip-hop analog to Lauryn Hill’s The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill from that same year.
TOP FIVE RAPPERS OF ALL TIME DRAFT
Poetical Nadz returns to talk about her new song and for a draft of our top five rappers of all time! Who will be the top picks? Find out below.