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.