Hardcore started out in the 1980s taking the foundations of UK punk music. Bands like UK Subs, The Damned and the Sex Pistols were turning it up to 11 in the departments of aggression, speed and general raucousness - with acts like Bad Brains, Black Flag and Minor Threat all becoming greats of the sub-genre. Although hardcore (as the name suggests) is clearly all about the in-your-face bombastic take on punk, these bands have all always had a very strong allegiance to catchy melodies and hooky vocal lines (there's no better example than Bad Brains' self-titled debut).
Fast forward to 2023, hardcore is having its biggest rise in popularity since the 1990s when bands like Cro-Mags and Rancid first hit the airwaves. Turnstile's mainstream success has paved the wave for a beautiful and diverse scene with bands like Scowl, Zulu and Speed and a million others creating maybe the highest quality of international hardcore we've ever seen. The scene has everything from metallic-hardcore with titans of the genre like Jesus Piece and Knocked Loose to insane new genre blends, like what Mississippi's own MSPAINT are doing with their synth-infused output.
All this is to say, the spectrum of bands in the scene right now is ridiculous and wonderful.
Enter Militarie Gun. Their stupidly catchy take on old school hardcore sounds with their refreshingly clean production, singable riffs and excellent vocal content set them aside as one of the most exciting bands out right now. Tell me what other band can hit these levels of feel good melody mixed with hardcore aggression in such a well balanced way. None.
With anthemic choruses and vocal ad libs calling back to the best Bad Brains and Black Flag tunes, there's a decidedly indie twist to the guitars. This album clearly takes influences from all walks of rock music alongside the more obvious classic hardcore, although interestingly none of the influences I picked out seem to be directly responsible for the album - as we found out speaking to lead singer Ian Shelton on Episode 23 of the GROAT podcast. Ian explained in our chat that one of the smoothest tunes on the album, 'Will Logic' has an opening riff that is not in fact inspired by Interpol. None of the band are actually Interpol listeners and it is instead inspired by a Guided By Voices deep cut that was meant to be on a rock opera! The other major influence I personally picked out was Green Day's 1039/Smoothed Out Slappy Hours. Ian said it wasn't a record he was directly listening to at the time, but the whole band grew up with records like Insomniac (the band actually soundcheck with Geek Stink Breath). His personal list of influences includes Guided by Voices, Fugazi, The Rolling Stones, The Jesus Lizard and Rollins Band. He described the record as "trying to make a hardcore version of classic rock."
Another major success of the album is its flow. It's a short and sweet listen, clocking in at around 25 minutes. All tracks on the record are sub-three minutes, giving their musical ideas time to do their thing, with a tasteful lack of dragging anything out to fit standard pop structures. These songs are as long as they want to be, not as long as they're told to be.
On an album as consistent as this, it's impossible to talk about highlights - but I'll do my best. All three singles are peaks of catchy songwriting and absolute must-listens for fans of the genre. Outside of this, the new version of 'Big Disappointment' is a really lovely way of bringing the track into their new era with them. 'Seizure of Assets' has a wicked jumpy riff that you couldn't not get down to in a live setting and 'See You Around' is a beautiful more introspective cut, before we get treated to the massive title track as the closer.
I can very much see Militarie Gun following in Turnstile's footsteps, being the next hardcore band to break into mainstream music nerd circles. This album will be a classic of the genre in ten years' time and I feel blessed to have been here when it drops. I even get to see the band on release date at Outbreak Festival 2023!
Check out our chat with lead singer Ian Shelton on Episode 23 of the podcast!
Comments