Hardcore Triple Feature

In this day and age it’s unusual for three hardcore albums to be released in the space of a couple of months. It’s even more unusual for three titans of the genre to release quality albums. Many bands are just seemingly going through the motions and churning out similar-sounding records but these are some of the best new releases I’ve heard in recent years.

First up is Ratos De Porao’s  Seculo Sinistro. Don’t be put off by the fact that it’s “in foreign”, this Brazilian four-piece have been producing South America’s greatest hardcore for over thirty years. In fact, apart from Sepultura, name another South American band who’ve achieved success worldwide and inspired a whole host of younger bands. You can’t, can you?

From the off, it’s apparent that they have returned to their more successful crossover sound of the Onisciente Coletivo era. Bands like D.R.I. or Municipal Waste would kill to sound as good as this.

It’s a shame there’s only little over half an hour of material, given that this is RxDxPx’s first release in eight years, but no band is ever going to release a double concept album of hardcore that lasts an hour and a half. It would be amazing if they did though!

Depending on which translation you believe, Ratos De Porao means either “Basement Rats”, “Sewer Rats” or “Bilge Rats”. Bilge it isn’t, but I can imagine an intimate (not in THAT way) show of this album played in its entirety in a basement would be a real treat.

Next is another band who haven’t released anything in years and have a career spanning over three decades, 7 Seconds.

Nine years have passed since Take It Back, Take It On, Take It Over! And Leave A Light On picks up exactly where that left off. 7 Seconds have been accused of being “too melodic” and according to a guy I spoke to in a pub: “sounding too punk”. Both criticisms are nonsensical, but neither are as ridiculous as the label “pop punk” which their Wikipedia page saddles them with.

There has always been a great deal of melody in 7 Seconds’ music and singer Kevin Seconds (probably not his real name) has always eschewed the shoutier side of the genre and favoured the simple singalong variant. This album is packed full of songs that could easily be described as anthems or instant classics and most have the feel that they’ve been part of their armoury for a long time. Exceptional, I Have Faith In You and Empty Spots would have been worn out by now if I’d bought this on LP instead of MP3.

My only criticism of this record is the cover. A black Labrador carrying a big stick? Not very hardcore!

The final album is Madball’s Hardcore Lives. It’s only four years since their last full length release and there was an EP in 2012, so fans haven’t been totally forgotten about.

I always thought that Set It Off was their greatest album and that they’d been running on fumes ever since. I also thought that they’d really just existed in the shadow of Agnostic Front – the singers are brothers and the bands have exchanged members numerous times over the last twenty years. This record sees them finally step out of that shadow and make some music that puts them towards the top of the pile.

Doc Marten Stomp is possibly the most melodic song Madball have ever created, although it would still probably be described as “shouty” by non-hardcore fans and Mi Palabra is the token “I’m a Latino, don’t you know?” offering, but all in all it’s a record that will set it off in many moshpits at many shows.

Hardcore does indeed live.