That experience been hugely gratifying, and it’s kept me excited - not just about hardcore but about music in general. I’ve always loved hardcore, but I’ve really immersed myself in the past few years after neglecting the genre too much for too long. I don’t really do it for the bands, either. When I write about hardcore on this site, I don’t really do it for you, our readers. On another day, my list would’ve looked vastly different, both in the stuff that I liked enough to pick and the stuff that made sense on a hardcore list. There’s no hard, fast definition here your own version of hardcore is essentially a personal thing. The Armed’s Ultrapop has a ton of hardcore influence, but I didn’t consider it for this list.
Gatecreeper made a great record that basically is a hardcore album, but they’re a death metal band. Converge made a great album that is also their least hardcore album. By that same token, Chubby And The Gang’s new album rules, but it’s not really a hardcore album - even if one of the albums on this list is from a band that shares both members and musical DNA with them. Angel Du$t are a band that comes from hardcore, and YAK: A Collection Of Truck Songs was probably my favorite power-pop LP of the year, but I can’t really call that a hardcore record. When you make a list like this, you have to make some judgment calls about what counts as hardcore and what doesn’t. Recent EPs and demos from Sentinel, Drug Church, Tempter, Colossus, Knocked Loose, Private Hell, Never Ending Game, KOYO, Action News, MOVE, Slow Fire Pistol, and Final Gasp are also highly recommended, as is the Sunami/Gulch split.
I came close to cheating and considering Militarie Gun’s two All Roads Lead To The Gun EPs as a single album I love those things. As in past years, I limited this list to full-lengths, but the year in hardcore has given us a ton of great EPs, some of which are on our list of 2021’s best. Within hardcore, EPs matter just as much as albums.
It hurts my heart that I didn’t have space for the Amygdala/Listless split LP or the absurdly stuffed America’s Hardcore Volume 5 compilation. Anyone who likes these albums would be well-advised to check out the new LPs from Dead Heat, Regional Justice Center, Ekulu, Enforced, DARE, Thirdface, SeeYouSpaceCowboy, For Your Health, Ingrown, and Filth Is Eternal, among so many others. If I had time, I would’ve made this list two or four or ten times longer. In 2021, though, there’s been a flood of great music, both from established bands and from the groups who are still just finding their footing. Hardcore records never stopped coming out, even in the depths of the plague depression. (At that Show Me The Body gig, most of us weren’t masked up.) But on some other level, these shows are needed, and now they’re back. Hardcore shows might not always be the healthiest thing in pandemic terms those shows probably started back too soon, and even now, they carry risks. For many of us, the return of live music has felt like the removal of a massive weight. It’s a source of mutual support and a much-needed pressure valve. For the people who love hardcore, it’s not just a genre of music. Those are things that you can’t do when a pandemic has shut the world down. We’re talking about the genre that relies the most on mass in-person catharsis - on the ability to jump and scream and sweat in each other’s directions. Motherfuckers were literally hanging from the ceiling. They threw themselves around the stage with absolute abandon, and they had kids losing their minds. In person, though, Show Me The Body made perfect sense. To me, they always sounded like King Krule if he was trying to sound like Unsane, and that shit was weird to me. I’m not totally clear on whether Show Me The Body count as a hardcore band, and I never really got their records. They headlined a wild bill that also included Candy, Regional Justice Center, Tempter, and the debuting Earth To Heaven.
#Best holiday albums 2021 full#
This past weekend, I saw Show Me The Body make a room full of people go nuts.
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