KNUT
'Challenger'
(Hydra Head)
JJJJ
Over the past five years, it seems as though hardcore music has been wilfully flushing itself down the drain, unable to breach its own rigid sonic and cultural boundaries, flailing helplessly in the cyclical confines of a dozen or so done-to-death chugga-chugga riffs and an appalling lack of musical dynamics. Yet, every year, all the big hardcore labels crank out a new batch of "old-school torchbearers" or "spastic metalcore innovators" - typically a precocious bunch of "streetwise" teenagers with a little more than a carefully-script set of influences and a plethora of freshly-inked tattoos. Of course, there are a few gleaming, jagged needles in the homogenous haystack of modern hardcore, and the brightest of the bunch rely on the critical knowledge that all the best hardcore music these days is really just metal - albeit cleverly disguised and often harshly mutated beyond cursory recognition.
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