If you like hardcore punk that actually sounds like punk, don’t sleep on Big Laugh’s debut LP. They cite classic Revelation Records (which they’re also signed to) and Japanese hardcore as core influences, and they’re part of the same fast hardcore lineage that extends from those bands to early Ceremony/Trash Talk to contemporaries like Scowl/Gel. It’s high-speed but still moshable, caustic but also catchy, and it just bangs from start to finish.

Broken Vow’s knack for primal chugs and environmentally-conscious lyrics suggest a love of Earth Crisis, but there’s much more happening on their debut album Anthropocene than idol worship. From thrash riffs that could fit on Ride the Lightning to atmospheric passages that fall on the more post-hardcore side of things, the music is far from one-note, and the lyrical content follows suit. Environmental crises inform a lot of these songs, as does the corruption and oppression brought on by the American government and military, but Anthropocene isn’t all rallying cries; it’s also about the times when those rallying cries feel hopeless. One of the album’s most powerful, personal songs is “Function,” which vocalist Tommy Harte (who also plays guitar in Anxious) says is “about the feeling of powerlessness and worthlessness in the face of a catastrophic state of the world.”

Hardcore so often functions as a form of dance music, and Buggin’s debut LP Concrete Cowboys has some of the best grooves you’ll hear in all of hardcore this year. The way their riffs and rhythms lock in with each other is electric, and their kinetic energy is matched by the caustic aggression of lead vocalist Bryanna Bennett. Bryanna takes shots at a wide variety of assholes, from the ones who tokenize non-men in hardcore to the ones who severely need to touch grass. It’s an album that’ll fire you up and it’s also fun as hell to listen and move to.

Picking up where their 2021 debut LP In Transmission left off, Capra deliver another awesome batch of metallic yet tuneful hardcore songs. Their riffs sound like the second coming of Hot Damn!-era Every Time I Die, and Crow Lotus’ forceful, distinct shouts make Capra stand out among both forebears and peers. Capra do have a metal side, but from the unfussy production to Crow Lotus’ raw sincerity, this is punk as fuck.

Mixing razor-sharp crossover thrash, Riot Grrrl attitude, and the occasional clean-sung hook, the young Ukraine trio Death Pill are a total force on their self-titled debut album. The songs are full of rage and discontent and Death Pill already hit harder and tighter than bands who have been around twice as long as them.

Most bands with a penchant for menacing thrash/groove metal riffs also revel in dark, evil imagery, but Drain is what happens when evil finds light. From their fun-in-the-sun artwork to the beach balls and boogie boards at their ridiculously awesome live shows to vocalist Sammy Ciaramitaro’s bright demeanor, Drain is a tough-sounding band but they’re also a bright, fun party that everyone’s invited to. Living Proof picks up where the band’s great 2020 debut LP California Cursed left off, captures the energy of their live show, and works in some new tricks like a hip hop interlude and a clean-sung Descendents cover. And underneath the colorful exterior and gut-punching riffage, Sammy opens up and injects this album with sincerity and vulnerability. It’s a multi-faceted album that reveals itself to be deeper and deeper with every listen.

After just two full-lengths and a few shorter releases, Denver hardcore band FAIM called it quits this year, and they went out with a bang. Your Life and Nothing Else is some of their strongest material yet–dark, melodic hardcore of the Modern Life is War/Touché Amoré variety with songs that range from fast-paced punk to post-rocky climaxes and a delivery from vocalist Kat that’s full of fire, passion, and purpose.

From their insistent rhythms to Sami Kaiser’s caustic shouts to the subtly catchy melodies, Gel have written one of this year’s most enduring hardcore records. It’s just off the beaten path enough to earn Gel’s self-proclaimed “hardcore for the freaks” designation, but also inviting enough for really any type of hardcore fan to get on board with. It makes sense that they’ve spent this year playing with everyone from Drain to Thursday to Screaming Females to Gorilla Bisuits–they might be freaks, but they seem to fit in everywhere.

In a sea of hardcore bands who pick a hyper-specific subgenre/era/region to worship and channel, Gumm refuse. We’ve been touting their debut LP Slogan Machine as a cross between Drug Church, Touché Amoré, and Revolution Summer, and that should give you a good idea of their range, but it doesn’t stress enough that–like those bands–Gumm always put their own spin on things, even when their influences are easy to spot. Slogan Machine grooves, rips, and vibes out, and vocalist Drew Waldom brings emotion, grit, and sticky choruses that pack punch after punch.

On Cerebral Circus, Initiate are going for it like never before. It’s one of the catchiest and meanest hardcore records of the year, and it completely ignores subgenre barriers without every biting off more than it can chew. Heavy metallic hardcore, post-rocky screamo, grunge, shoegaze, and power pop all have a place on this LP, and Initiate frequently combine two or more of those things in entirely unexpected ways. Crystal Pak primarily sticks to a ferocious bark, but when she does belt the melodic chorus of “The Surface” or delivers the spoken word and pained shouts of “Transparency,” she shows off a striking amount of range. The possibilities of where this band could go next seem endless.

In an era where regional scenes tend to have less of an identity than ever, there’s still no place like Texas, where the metal and punk scenes are one and the same. That’s reflected in so many heavy bands from The Lone Star State, especially the latest Judiciary album. It’s one of the most monstrous thrash albums of the year and also one of the most fiery hardcore punk albums. It’s obviously a line that’s been toed before, but Judiciary toe it in a way that takes me by surprise every time, with songs that will rip your heart out.

Toronto melodic hardcore band Mil-Spec aren’t on social media, they don’t do many interviews, they don’t tour much; they just let the music do the talking. And when the music’s as good as it is on Marathon–their first album in three years that dropped in October with very little warning–that’s all you need. They’re part of the long lineage of melodic hardcore that spans from 7Seconds to Dag Nasty to Turning Point to Modern Life Is War to Title Fight–the last of whom’s Ned Russin co-produced this album–and they tip their hats to a variety of forebears while always bringing something new to the table. Marathon feels like the past 40 years of melodic hardcore condensed into one ripping album, and it’s all tied together vocalist Andrew Peden’s passionate, tuneful screams.

Ian Shelton has long been a staple of the hardcore scene, but with Militarie Gun, he wanted to make a Big Rock Record. He kept one foot planted in the hardcore world the whole time, but he also allowed himself to write the most catchy, most earnest songs he could, without holding anything back, and the result is one of the year’s most addictive records–in rock, punk, hardcore, or otherwise. It ranges from arena-sized rock anthems to sunny power pop to gnarly post-hardcore, and it rarely takes its foot off the gas. It’s full of songs that would’ve been all over the radio in the ’90s, but also reminds you that alternative rock came from punk/hardcore in the first place. It makes sense that Militarie Gun have been covering Hüsker Dü a bunch; they’re one of that band’s most promising spiritual successors.

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On the surface, Never Ending Game seem like one of the toughest, heaviest hardcore bands around, but dig deeper into their sophomore Outcry, and you’ll find a lot more there than aggression. Not unlike Trapped Under Ice (whose Justice Tripp and Sam Trapkin both appear on Outcry‘s “Never Die”), N.E.G. use brash sounds as a vessel to look inwards–vocalist Mike Petroski often uses this album to examine his own psyche and mental health. The band was also more concerned with “pop” song structure on this LP than on earlier releases, and that’s reflected in the melodic thrash and metalcore riffs, and refrains that feel like real choruses. There are moments on Outcry where Never Ending Game sound like they should be whipping up walls of death at Ozzfest, but still with the raw sincerity of a band who literally plays VFWs.

Open City share two members with Paint It Black, who also put out a new album this year (spoiler: it’s also on this list), but these two albums are entirely different beasts. Dan Yemin (who sings in PIB and played guitar in Lifetime and Kid Dynamite) is on guitar here, and he’s pulling from all kinds of classic hardcore and post-hardcore influences and shaping them into something that feels totally new, while vocalist Rachel Rubino (ex-Bridge and Tunnel) delivers some of the most powerful, impassioned lyrics and vocal performances of her career. It’s a dark, heavy, angular record, and once you’re sucked in, it’s nearly impossible to stay away from.

Pain of Truth’s debut album will take you right back to the tough-as-nails sound of early ’90s New York metallic hardcore, and the guest-filled LP features one of the OGs of that era (Freddy Madball), plus members of Terror, Trapped Under Ice, Incendiary, Mindforce, The Movielife, Vein.fm, 200 Stab Wounds, Buried Dreams, Bad Seed/Title Fight, Criminal Instinct, and Last Wishes. With a cast like that, there’s no doubting this record’s hardcore pedigree, but guests aside, none of this would work if POT themselves weren’t as powerful as they are. From the primal thud of the musicianship to vocalist Michael Smith’s antagonist bark, POT have clearly absorbed the influence of their forebears and the way they spit it back out is nothing short of menacing.

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Famine is basically a lesson in how to age gracefully within hardcore. It’s Paint It Black’s first new record in ten years, and it comes over 30 years since Dan Yemin first started playing in notable hardcore bands, and it sounds as raw and urgent and vital as any great hardcore album should, no caveats needed. From the very first lyric (“This is the America of fable”), you can tell that this album is a reflection of the bleak world it’s being released into, and Paint It Black reflect and respond to that world with all the darkness, anger, and power that you can ask for.

It’s kinda crazy to think that Scowl only released 10 minutes and 22 seconds of music in 2023, because this has been a huge year for them. From being a rare hardcore band at Coachella to selling out several dates of their own headlining tour, they’ve been an unstoppable force, and it’s clearly only the beginning. However brief, the five songs on the Psychic Dance Routine EP have been the fuel for all this fire. Their foray into melodic alternative rock on “Opening Night,” the title track, and half of “Shot Down” has helped open Scowl up to entire new audiences, while the ferocious hardcore punk of “Wired,” “Sold Out,” and the other half of “Shot Down” has continued to make them a force for the moshers and stagedivers. These are easily the five best songs Scowl have written yet, and some of the most replayable songs I’ve heard all year. The art of the perfect 7? is a time-tested, sought-after quest in hardcore, and with Psychic Dance Routine, Scowl have made theirs.

With nine songs in less than 18 minutes, Chicago hardcore band Stress Positions (three members of C.H.E.W. + vocalist Stephanie Brooks) tear through an onslaught of high-speed ragers that will rip your fucking face off, with songs that tackle sexuality, religious oppression, law enforcement, and more. Harsh reality indeed.

Having started out as Anaiah Rasheed Muhammad’s solo project, Zulu is now a full, collaborative band, and with all these different voices and contributors, they’ve crafted an album that sounds like nothing else in the world right now. The bulk of the album is heavy, metallic hardcore with an overwhelming amount of groove, and they also seamlessly dip their toes into psychedelic soul, jazz, and hip hop, along with samples that bring reggae and Afrobeat into the equation too. Anaiah’s growl is contrasted by drummer Christine Cadette’s higher-pitched screams, along with guest vocals from Soul Glo’s Pierce Jordan, Playytime’s Obioma Ugonna, and Truth Cult’s Paris Roberts. From the diasporic approach to genre to much of the lyrical content, it’s an album that celebrates Blackness and challenges the expectations that Black art should reflect trauma. It’s also truly an album-oriented work of art, a force of its own that stands tall next to the power of Zulu’s live show.