Cross Check – if you’re not afraid then why are you shaking
Cross Check has been steadily refining their furious metalcore sound since their impressive 2023 demo. This EP sees things dialed in further with even crunchier riffs and punchier breakdowns. The vocals also shred, channeling lyricism depicting hurt and rage into fiery performances. This is in many ways the platonic ideal of metallic hardcore – it’s angry, clouded by a dark atmosphere, and raw as hell. As much as I like Slewfoot, Cross Check has taken the top spot as my favourite hxc band with a hockey-referencing name.
Die My Will – …And Still We Destroy
Die My Will is a band that seems a little overlooked as far as the canon of 90s hardcore goes. For me, they rank at the top tier of a smattering of bands in that decade making bleak sludge-influenced metalcore, alongside the likes of Groundwork, Disembodied, Will Haven, and Breach. The Connecticut-based band’s small but excellent discography is characterized by crushingly heavy riffs and an overwhelming sense of dismal anger. It’s the feeling of being in hell and pissed off about it rather than accepting your fate. On …And Still We Destroy, we see Die My Will at their most urgent and concise, with short fast songs that barrage the ears like a freight train going off the tracks into a pile of wreckage. Its blend of speed, sludge, aggression and heaviness is about as extreme as metalcore can get without mutating into grindcore or powerviolence. Have a listen and tell me this isn’t some of the hardest shit you’ve ever heard in your life.
You Must Believe in Spring – “Sing to Me”
Every so often I’ll hear a song that sounds as if the band is striving beyond groundedness to become airborne and fly in resistance to gravity’s pull. This physical feeling of being stuck on the ground but aiming for the sky is a metaphorical depiction of longing to go beyond the limits of unfulfilled desires. It may not really be the band that feels this way, but it is how I feel listening to a song like this. It conjures up the reminder that there has to be more out there beyond one’s immediate grasp. I have dreams, but they are fuzzy and lacking clarity. That lack of clarity only makes them more evocative. They hang around like ghosts, reminders that I am constrained in my attempts to get closer to them. Transcending the mundane of the everyday is possible through the experience of art, which acts as a vessel to strive for this attainment. “Sing to Me” is a desire to experience something beautiful and fleeting, and becomes beautiful and fleeting in this act towards desire fulfilment. I don’t usually write about individual songs in this column but I’ve made an exception for one that I’ve been completely enraptured by since late last year. Self-described as Cascadian yearner rock, You Must Believe in Spring have crafted a heavenly ethereal spell of a song with this one.
Plagued by God – Summer Promo 2024
A key difference between good hardcore and mid hardcore is that good hardcore band write good songs, whereas mid hardcore acts may write good parts of songs, but the songs as a whole may as well not exist in their inability to convey a narrative or feeling that the listener can latch onto and sit within. Plagued by God has put together a couple great songs on this release. The mosh fodder is there, but it’s encased within songwriting that incorporates subtle melodic flourishes accentuating an already palpable sense of passion in their performances. This was a band that burned bright but briefly, having come together and then breaking up within less than a year. Although I would’ve liked to hear more from this group, I do suppose it’s better to burn out than to fade away.