As Flaming Wrekage’s brutal fourth album tickles your earholes, you know this is something special. …
With Paramore throwing back to the ’80s, what better time to take a look back on the modern bands taking cues from years ago? If you’ve got a fave we missed, feel free to comment and remind us of how old we all are!
Knocked Loose – 90s Hardcore
Open pits and bloody noses. 90s style pit masters like Bulldoze and Terror knew that’s what the kids liked. Fast forward a decade (or two for Bulldoze) and their legacy is still kicking. Knocked Loose’s Laugh Tracks is a more polished affair than their 2015 split with Damaged Goods, but both still require (controlled) violence to truly appreciate the work. Their contemporaries like Code Orange are keeping first aid workers in business, and the hardcore spirit alive. // Jonty Simmons
Violent Soho – Grunge
We’re not that far removed from the grungy stylings of Cobain and the like, but Violent Soho have made sure that the iGeneration don’t forget a few chords make all the difference. Singer Luke Boerdam’s high pitched shrieks and the band’s penchant for a bitta good smoke and good beer harken back to the glory days of a still culturally relevant MTV. Lucky we’ve still got Rage firing on all cylinders right? // JS
Creeper – Horror Punk
Throwing back as far as The Misfits and as close as AFI and My Chemical Romance, Creeper have grabbed the goth rock romance of horror punk and packaged it for the 21st century. Check that purple aesthetic (#nofilter) and tell us it doesn’t make you want to chuck a nap in a neon-lit graveyard. // JS
Vince Staples – ’90s Storytelling Rap
Long Beach California is probably the last place you’d expect to find a youngster out to bring back the type of street poetry that injected the ’90s New York rap scene with quasi-literary credibility, but that’s exactly what LBC native Vince Staples is bringing to the rap game. When so many of his peers just want to repeat (repeat) ad libs and hit those triplets, Staples is more interested in writing verses where personal reflection comes across like the biting social commentary of Nas’ Illmatic or Big’s Ready to Die. // Tom Hersey
Power Trip – ’80s Battle Jacket Thrash
Imagine if the Big 4 of American Thrash had a kid even more pissed off than all of them combined? You get a new … new wave of American thrash led by double denim thrashers Power Trip. Power Trip and their ilk have led a spirited revival of neck-snapping crossover punk meets classic metal lixx. You don’t need to be AmeriCAN to AmeriDO, either. Aussie exports Harlott, Finnish hellions Lost Society and fellow Colorado monster mountains Havok all turn the thrash tricks. SMOKE BEER, or whatever. // Tom Valcanis
Editor’s Note: 11:55pm: A previous version of this article included a sentence misstating that Terror were a 90’s band, and misspelt ‘Bulldoze’. Hysteria regret the error.
