Top hardcore of 2016

2016 was fucked up on many levels but I abstain from being a pussy about it cause I know 2017 gonna be even worse. And I’m not even talking politics yet, this shit is gonna be out of control. But as the saying goes, when going gets hard, hardcore gets going and there was shitload of good hardcore to help me deal with personal demons and this world going mad. I expect momentum to continue during next 12 months as the social, political and economic situation deteriorate and people have to deal with serious real life shit not he said she said gossip and being fucking sensitive for the sake of it.

Best hardcore in 2017 was:



Harley Flanagan - Cro-Mags
This is hands down the best record of the year. One of the best hardcore to come from NYC in recent years. Harley made 2016 his bitch with this one.

Manipulate - Becoming Madness
My second favorite hardcore record from 2016. Hard-hitting hardcore with ‘80’s crossover vibe so many bands try to recreate but Manipulate did it perfect.

The rest of the list goes in no order.

Backfire - Where We Belong
It’s 2016 and Bf! Continues to deliver uncompromising hardcore recreating the old golden eurocore sound in new ways that make it fresh. I applaud this one for being so in your face.

Bent Life - Never Asked For Heaven
Once this record gets going the shit never stops. Hard as hell!

Knuckledust - Songs Of Sacrifice
London diehards back with a record that deals with the ills of society over thick and pounding hardcore. The music, the message, the attitude - everything works on this one.

Naysayer - Nation Of Greed
Pure menace. Naysayer don’t do nuance which means that ep is filled with that uncompromising, no-weird-shit sound that made them rich and famous.

Point Blank - Burden Of Humanity
This is most likely the least-recognizable title on the list, but it deserves to reach a wider audience. You’re looking at major war shit!

Risk It! - Cross to Bear
Another banger from Europe. Very strong album with each track filled with good stuff that makes you want to incite violence.


Other shit that wasn’t bad:
Absolute Power - Self Titled
Government Flu - Vile Life
Gods Hate - Mass Murder
Ill Intent - Us Vs You
Regulate - Years Of Rage
Rhythm Of Fear - Maze Of Confusion

Destroy Cleveland - official trailer

Destroy Cleveland is a documentary about the Hardcore music scene in Cleveland from '86 to the present. This scene was notorious for it's violence and mayhem. Rustbelthammer.com for more info.

Features: Dwid Hellion, Aaron and Lenny Melnick, James Bulloch, Tony Erba, Tony "Chubby Fresh" Pines, Paul Schlacter, Steve Peffer, Chris Pellow, and many more.

2 weeks till this gem hits the streets, you can get your pre-order here.

Here are the hardest hitters of 2014

The real science behind the list below is me trying to remember on which records I wasted the most of my valuable time in 2014. I might have forgotten something or simply missed some nice records, but it is what it is.

King Nine is hands down my favorite band of 2014 and ‘Scared To Death’ is the hardest record I heard last year. I got no problems putting it among classics like Master Killer or In The Eyes Of The Lord and I am ready to fight anyone questioning my judgment. That’s a type of hardcore we need more of.

New Cold World was dope as well, nothing groundbreaking compared to their earlier shit, but still hard. The same with Sheer Terror, Madball or Ringworm - dope albums that were just like you expected them to be.

New releases by Last Dayz, Survival or Shrapnel prove that 7” is probably the best format for hardcore. Short burst of force and fury to get your testosterone to the right level.

I went through like 20 other lists of such to see the bigger picture of what’s really trending in hardcore lately. The amount of bands included there that I don’t know makes me question my credentials to run such respectable blog like this. Driven by my natural curiosity and enthusiasm to try new things I checked some of the bands and it was shit. I am not even dropping names cause I don’t want to embarrass anybody, but some people need to get their shit together and stop listening to weird hipster shit and focus on real hardcore. Hardcore for hardcore.

Anyway, the list goes like:

Albums:
King Nine - Scared To Dead
Cold World - How The Gods Chill
7 Seconds – Leave A Light On
Battle Ruins - Battle Ruins
Madball - Hardcore Lives
Backtrack - Lost In Life
Sheer Terror - Standing Up for Falling Down
Ringworm - Hammer Of The Witch
Foreseen - Helsinki Savagery

EPs:
Last Dayz - Ready To Die
Survival - Forged In Iron
Forced Order - Eternal War
Souls Search / Minus - Split 7"
The Real Deal - Demo 2014
Desperate Times - Looking For Solution
Indication - XI
Born Low - Refuse To Beg
Criminal Instinct – Fever
Shrapnel - Frenzied State

With so much stuff being released nowadays it’s hard to keep track, so if you wanna add anything do it in the comments.

The hardest track of the year:

Forgotten Classics: Stormcore

France was a hot bed of sick, evil and heavy hardcore bands in the late 90s and Stormcore was one of the finest of the pack along likes of Kickback, Trapped In Life and Drowning.

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Forgotten Classics: Self Decay

Late 90’, upstate New York, Time Served Records - yeah, it's exactly that kind of hardcore music. You can do that style poorly or you can do it right, and these guys knew how to do it right.Heavy and rugged, simple and straight-forward, this is some classic material from this forgotten upstate New York band. Self Decay started in 1996/1997 (I’m not sure exactly) and Beneath The Lies seems to be their only release. The band featured Rigg Ross, who went on to play with Hatebreed and subsequently joined a slew of NYHC bands like Madball, Skarhead or Rag Men. He did a wonderful stuff on this album so I totally understand why he ended up playing on NYHC ep.

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Behind The Camera: Interview with Taylor Rambo

Taylor Rambo is a talented photographer from upstate New York responsible for tons of great pics from random hardcore shows. The dude was so kind to let me use his photos for the Concrete interview, and I was so impressed with his work that I thought it would be dope to follow up with a short interview where he could shed some light on his work. So, here it is! Plus, check out the cool pics of TUI, Backtrack, Malfunction, Vehement Serenade and couple other dope bands.

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Detroit Hardcore Comp - Interview with Mike from Lost Time Recs

Lost Time Records are about to release a 7” compilation to feature couple of up and coming hardcore bands that represent Detroit hardcore scene. The bands involved in this project are Freedom, From Hell, True Love, One by One, and Retribution. Each band is contributing a brand new track! Check out the interview we did with Mike, the man behind Lost Time Recs, who shares some info about this project!!

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Hardcore History: John Joseph of the Cro-Mags

John Joseph recounts his personal journey growing up punk on the streets of 1970s New York City and how he came to find inner peace. Very nice interview with cool stories from the 80' when John was a street kid trying to get by, how he met HR and Bad Brains, and what brought him to Krishna.

Horror: Night Of The Living Punks

Small town punk rockers THE BRAIN DEADS have their first out of town gig. But there are a few problems: The venue is deserted, the promoter is a creep, their bass player has gone missing, and the only kids in the audience appear to be bloodthirsty monsters from hell. It's gonna take a lot more than a few power chords and teenage angst to survive this night.

Night of the Punks is low-budget 80′s slasher worship with a style bringing to mind Troma classics or Night Of the Living Dead flicks. The movie was directed by Dan Riesser and got everything you'd want from this type of movie. The right amount of gore and bad humor makes it actually fun to watch.

Joe Lauzon: "The Problem Solver"

Here's a cool documentary which was published in December 2012 as a part of Vice's Fightland series, filmed and directed by McFarland & Pecci. If you're scratching your head cause the name Ian McFarland sounds familiar, it's possibly because he used to play bass for Blood For Blood before pursuing full-time documentarian and commercial director career. Judging from the clip, Joe Lazon is a really cool and intelligent dude and I respect that he is not taking the easiest route, but instead choses the hard way to make his dreams reality. You might know him from The Ultimate Fighter 5, but here's more insight into his mindset as a figher and what motives him to go on. After watching this, also check out documantary about Dan Hardy, which was also filmed by McFarland & Pecci.

Short Movie: The Ellington Kid

Director Dan Sully is mostly known for his work in music videos but the guy recently teamed up with Vice for this short thriller with a bit of twisted humor. It's about two kids enjoying a meal when one of them recalls a story about some kid who got stabbed and managed to stumnle into the same shop they the due is eating. Very nicely made, and the flow of the stroy is awesome combinign both thriller and comedy elements.

Watch 'Into The Woods' Short-Movie

Into The Woods is a short horror flick that was brought to you by Downpour Creative, the same folks that made the recent Crowd Deterrent and Race Riot videos! (as well as one by Japan's Creepout!) It follows group of kids who get themselves in serious problem when they encounter a bizarre cult when out in the woods. The movie is nicely put together and with maybe not groundbreaking, but nonetheless entertaining plot. It's an enjoyable story, well developed within a very brief running time. Written by Matt Naylor & David Wilson. Directed by David Wilson.

Punk Rock House Party Volume 01: Race Riot59

Hardboiled's best of 2012

So 2012 is in the past and the world unfortunately didn’t die in pain and suffering. It was another year of great depression though, with everything about the economy being messed up, people not finding job or being underpaid and treated like shit. On the other hand, hardcore didn’t suck that much last year. I guess when times get tough, tough gets going and that’s the way to go! The music, the message, the scene – it all was here to keep you strong through these hard times. No matter how hard it got, there was always some band to tell me to quit being pussy and to get a grip.

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Hardboiled Radio #4 - One Scene Unity

This edition got music from bands like Empire of Rats, Bad Advice, Soul Search, Toe to Toe, Vulgar Display, Southend, World War4, Crowd Deterrent and more. Hope everyone will like it. If you know the tunes, just play it loud and have good time. If you don’t know these bands, I encourage you to give it a listen. Playlist after the jump or open it in a pop-up window for more convenience.

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Guns Up! - ‘All This Was’ Documentary

Guns Up! is streaming the entire ‘All This Was’ DVD online, which includes goodies like live shots from their last and final show, interview with the band members and other footage from their tours. Especially the live set is incredible, with great sound quality and crazy stuff going with all the stagedives and sing-alongs. The band has not been around for some time already but they obviously left their mark on the scene. Not to mention the music that still sounds powerful and honest.

Crowd Deterrent - Japan Tour 2012 Documentary

Watching recent Crowd Deterrent videos makes me think about how excited I was when I first heard Real Domain song by you know who. Everything about this style of hardcore is appealing. Crowd make some great tunes and have the ability to get their point across with great ease. They ain't taking no shit from anybody and play by their own rules. Musically, there’s always a hook to sing along with and easy-to-follow verses so I can just imagine the mayhem they cause during live shows. It's equally ignorant, provoking and violent, but they're also about staying true, respecting yourself and most of all, cheesy horror movies. This video is short documentary for band's Japan Tour 2012. Filmed by David Wilson. Produced by Downpour Creative and Crew Life. Get ignorant, bitches!

Terror - Keepers Of The Faith (Full Length Documentary)

Terror documentary “Keepers of the Faith” which the band has posted in its entirety for free streaming. Good stuff, not only for die-hard Terror fans. I believe the band does not need any introduction, but it's good if kids can see and appreciate how much effort they put in to make it work. One of - if not the - most prominent bands in hardcore right now which has not compromised its credibility and integrity. There's a lot of passion and dedication in what these guys do and it definitely shows in this video. KOTF!

D.I.Y (Short Hardcore Documentary)

A short documentary on hardcore by Asher Lloyd. Features interviews from Rotting Out, Backtrack, Cornered, Ceremony, Broken Teeth and V Revolution. The author is currently working on a full length feature, this is just a taste.

HardBoiled Scene Report vol. 1

We’re proud to present you the first Hardboiled mixtape which we have compiled with the help of few friends from various labels and bands that were so cool to let us use their music. It might has taken us a while to get this volume one published, but here it is! The overall idea is that you can download it for free and enjoy music from bands that have more or less recently put out good hardcore albums. These are bands that we totally support and believe they represent what hardcore should be about. From the kids, to the kids.

DOWNLOAD

Download the compilation HERE (Mediafire).

FRONT COVER

BACK COVER

The plan is that it will be followed by next digital releases so the kids know what’s going on in the scene. This issue has bands from Europe and USA mainly, but we would be happy to feature acts from Asia, Africa or South America. If you want to take part in the next release, get in touch now!

The track list is as follows:

01. Step Aside - Intro - Mind In A Maze
02. Provider – Wasteland
03. Animal Instinct - What´s Your Name Again
04. King Of Clubz - Society's Prey
05. Represent - Intervention
06. Providence - Vengeance Over Victory
07. Show Of Force - Left Behind
08. Truth In Needles - Against The Grain
09. Brawl - Stand Up Fight Back
10. Bloodstained - Unfilled
11. In Clear Sight - Struggle For Life
12. Represent - Sad State of Affairs
13. Bitter Taste Of Life - Ill Intent
14. Losin' It - Fuck Off
15. Sawchuk - Torn Apart/img/blank.gif
16. State of Mind - Modern Eyes
17. Bloodshed Remains - Countdown
18. Truth In Needles - Pure Hate
19. Cast Iron Jaw - How I See The Worldh
20. Wolf City - Cross Roads
21. Blame It On The Ocean - Fall Depression

Thanks to the following labels: Ratel Records, BadAss Records, Clenched Fist Records, Take It Back, Seventh Dagger, Life To Live, Irish Voodoo.