Given that we are well over the first quarter of the year, here’s some new music for you. Rohit Chaoji compiles an interesting bunch of Hardcore Punk releases.

So far, 2020 has been a bit slow. At least on my end, so to speed things up a bit, I resorted to listening to some hardcore punk. These are 10 hardcore-adjacent records I have heard this year. Hardcore-adjacent means everything that has been influenced or derived by the genre, so this includes something as heavy and abrasive as noisecore to something as melodically rich as post-rock influenced screamo. This is because I’m also trying to simultaneously represent lesser-known subsets of the genre. Since I have listened to 10 records encompassing these genres, it was easy to rank them.

10. Demersal – Less (screamo)

Black metal has always been a fascination for screamo bands, especially because of their similarity when it comes to expressing misery or creating dark atmospheres. Demersal is among the modern bands who play a combination of the two, but the screamo pretty much dominates here. The closest comparison I can think of is Respire.

9. Internal Rot – Grieving Birth (grindcore)

Australian grindcore band that blasts away with a rather old school fury. Their approach is almost like bands such as Excruciating Terror or Brutal Truth. There are certain aspects of this album that make it obvious that it belongs to the current era, though, such as the production.

8. Envy – The Fallen Crimson (screamo/post-rock)

Screamo legends Envy actually surprised me with this album, considering how not impressed I was by Atheist’s Cornea. That wasn’t a bad album, just a rather uneventful one, especially compared to The Fallen Crimson, which is probably Envy at their most melodic

7. Raspeberry Bulbs – Before the Age of Mirrors (hardcore punk/noise rock/black metal)

Raspberry Bulbs is actually rooted in black metal but always played with heavy influence from hardcore punk. With this album, they  find themselves straying further from black metal and moving more into punk and noise rock territory and they seem quite comfortable being uncomfortable there.

6. Mammock – Itch (noise rock/math rock)

This album sounds like it was written when the band members decided to watch The Jesus Lizard on acid. It also has finely-placed jazzy breaks that remind me of NoMeansNo and some sections that call back to Unwound and Slint. I’d recommend it to fans of 90s post-hardcore.

5. Eye Flys – Tub of Lard (noise rock/post-hardcore)

Quite like the Mammock record on this list, this is heavy noise rock inspired by bands from the 90s such as The Jesus Lizard, Unsane, Shellac, etc. Their rather metallic quality separates them from the aforementioned band, and they also lack the math rock and jazz sections. This puts Eye Flys in the same league as KEN Mode and Blacklisters.

4. Decacy – Non Cambiera (screamo/emoviolence)

This is some fast, urgent and somewhat melodic burst of energy. They only ever let up the pace to treat us with beautiful emo guitar noodles only to return to their loud and restless selves very quickly, and seamlessly switch between the two.

3. 44.caliberloveletter – A Hedgehog’s Dilemma (emoviolence)

The variation in mood present in this album is uncommon, though not unusual. This record smoothly moves between faintly nostalgic melodies and vocal lines to short-lasting, but effective, frantic and chaotic sections where everybody plays in almost-freeform and yet in a highly controlled manner. This is peppered with spoken, prose-like lyrics that gives it a personality of its own.

2. Fucked – Hypersomnia (grindcore/emoviolence/noisecore)

Very abrasive, rather blackened grindcore with heavy emoviolence leanings. Fucked seem to not express their weeb-grind themes here and in the other EPs they released this year. This is of course not straight-forward grindcore and has some unexpected melodic elements thanks to the black metal and emoviolence presence.

1. Serpent Column – Endless Detainment (black metal/mathcore)

A black metal record at heart, Endless Detainment is Serpent Column’s fourth offering, encompassing both LP and EP length releases. This album sounds heavily inspired by the likes of Jesuit, Converge and The Dillinger Escape Plan. The way Serpent Column has combined the two genres is interesting, with a good part of its melodic base coming from black metal, while mathcore is more or less present in the rhythmic aspect of the music, with prominent breakdowns and massive, percussive chords.