Melodic Hardcore’s Stunning Mid-2020s Resurgence
Hardcore has experienced a meteoric rise in popularity since 2020. Subsequently, the past two years have brought a revived interest in melodic hardcore.
punk
Myanmar Hardcore Rebels Cacerolazo Amp Up the Volume for Revolution
Born out of the chaos of post-coup Myanmar, Burmese punk collective Cacerolazo’s debut LP rails against the brute forces of injustice and dictatorship.
Dead Pioneers Are Punk Rock’s New Conscience
American punk rock needs a bold new punk ethos. Native Gregg Deal and Dead Pioneers are punk rock’s new conscience.
Cataloging Punk Permutations
Iain Ellis’ engaging Punk Beyond the Music’ goes beyond the usual permutations of punk into the fascinating cultural arenas of comedy, education, and sports.
Haunted Horses’ ‘Dweller’ Is an Intriguing Heavy Album
Haunted Horses get further under your skin, infecting and infesting you with their bleary, spectral plague of madness and maybe a slight spark of hope.
Lambrini Girls’ “God’s Country” Rejects PJ Harvey’s Melancholic England
Unlike PJ Harvey’s sad voice singing about the polluted Thames and England, for the Lambrini Girls, there is no mythic past when these symbols were great.
Hüsker Dü’s ‘New Day Rising’ Still Sparkles at 40
Hüsker Dü’s New Day Rising provided equal parts muscular intensity and melody as the band laid the groundwork for the future of alternative music.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Features/Lists/Music/Music Features/PopMatters Picks/The Best Music of 2024
The 10 Best Punk and Hardcore Albums of 2024
Thematically, much of this year’s best punk and hardcore music addressed mental health and working through the past while striving for a more peaceful present.
Featured: Top of Home Page/Academia/Books/Culture/Economics/Film/History/Music/Performing Arts/Politics/Reviews
Punk Is a Virus That’s Infected Everything
Tracing punk’s mutations, Iain Ellis’ Punk Beyond the Music is a robust and kaleidoscopic survey of this once-outsider subculture’s continuing, pervasive influence.
Meryl Streek Is Still Angry in ‘Songs for the Deceased’
In Songs for the Deceased Irish avant-garde punk’s Meryl Streek rages against the landlord class, which perpetuates the violent system of precarity.
The Linda Lindas Are Earnestly Edgy on ‘No Obligation’
The Linda Lindas voice the trials inherent to growing up in a society that devalues perspectives of the young, the feminine, and the ‘different’.
Drug Church Critique Hypocrisy and Retain Their Edge on ‘PRUDE’
Drug Church’s PRUDE takes its place alongside Gouge Away’s Deep Sage as a highlight of the year in hardcore that could reach outside the flock.