Much like punk, hard-core finds itself in an interesting place in this angry world, There is no shortage of people claiming to play it, but to find real hard-core that is not afraid to point the finger at all sides while refusing to conform is a harder aspiration, given the masses' willingness to conform. These albums captured the true spirit of hardcore by doing their own thing and bringing the anger. After I sort through the top 10 albums of all the respective genres, I use those lists to compile the top 10 albums of the year. 2024. The very fact these bands made it on the list speaks to how great these albums are, so it's not a slight that the number 8 album is above the 9th album, there is something that just gives it an edge that makes me want to listen to it more. After all, we can try to look cool and pick the hippest bands for a list, but at the end of the day what makes an album the best is that it makes you want more, you look forward to listening to it again. Perhaps you can find your next favorite on this list; and have included links to reviews of these albums if you want to check out the audio on these guys. Anyway here are the top 10 Hardcore albums of 2024.
10--Rejoice-"All of Heaven's Luck"
Rejoice is a band from Ohio who are kicking some venomous brand of metallic hardcore. Their singer's malicious snarl gives it a darker edge along with the Slayer vibes coming from their riffs. They are not afraid of guitar solos but do not overindulge in them. They mosh on the fine line between hard-core and metal.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/01/rejoice-all-of-heavens-luck.html
9-Lifesick - "Loved By None, Hated By All"
This Danish hardcore band packs a punch that is more metallic than not. They take you back to the 90s when this style really began popping off. If you were a fan of Victory Records styled hardcore then these guys will appeal to you. If you just like in-your-face, hyper-aggressive metal you might also dig this.
8-New Skeletal Faces- "Until the Night"
I was not expecting this to be a thrashing hard-core album. Sure some of the death rock guitars tones are in place, but the vocals are screaming at you with more aggression to rally the rest of the band to fall in line behind them. This has more in common with old AFI than it does Night Sins. It is more in-your-face and hard-core than I was expecting, but the songwriting works with the blend of sounds they fused in a more organic manner, that plays to the originality infused into these old sounds.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/11/new-skeletal-faces-until-night.html
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/04/terminal-nation-echoes-of-devils-den.html
6-Knocked Loose -You Won't Go Before You Are Supposed To"
This album's grooves grew on me. It was heavier than expected. It's hard-hitting without falling into too many of the metal tropes. This is the album, that is poised to break these guys big, yet they offer little compromise. The music press miscalculated when trying to hype these guys, as the poster children the next nu-metal revival. These guys declined the position and stuck to their hardcore roots
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/knocked-loose-you-wont-go-before-youre.html
5-SPEED- "Only One Mode"
These guys have captured the feel of NYCHC pretty well. They pack the metallic punch of hard-core while staying true to the thrashing of the late 80s. The riffs and the overall sound left me pretty impressed by the end of the first song. they found a great balance of hooky metal riffs, breakdowns, and being true to old-school hard-core while trying new things in their homage to it. They took chances with this formula that paid off.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/08/speed-only-one-mode.html
4- Umbra Vitae - "Light of Death"
Despite being less of a love letter to the classic death metal these guys grew up on, the sophomore release from this supergroup is every bit as angry as their first album. Riffwise there are more hints of Jacob Bannon's main band Converge. His screams are less guttural than what we heard from him with "Shadow of Life". The hard core intensity that commands the metallic attack is deadly serious, maker for a darker album.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/06/death-is-june-umbra-vitae-light-of-death.html
3-Take Offense- "T.O.tality"
This band is kicking up 80s-era skate punk. This means "Join the Army " era Suicidal Tendencies. There are a few more foot-on-the-monitor guitar heroics, so other late 80s cross-over hardcore could be referenced. The most important thing is they are not just trying to dial in the sound, but they are focused on writing hooky songs, even if they took notes from their heroes on how to do so.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/take-offense-totality.html
2-Candy-"It's Inside You"
This band's 2022 album "Heaven is Here" took the number two spot on our Top 10 Extreme Metal Albums list of the year, and tenth on the best overall Metal list of the year. The bar was high and they cleared it with ease, this album sits more firmly on the side of hard-core but finds them experimenting with industrial sounds on this album in bold new ways, making this one of the year's more interesting listens, even when the lay heavy on the Ministry influence.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/05/candy-its-inside-you.html
1-Nails - "Every Bridge Burning"
t's been 8 years since the last album from this California-based hard-core band. They are just as angry as they were on "You Will Never Be One of Us". The grind-core influence on the band has them spitting out minute-and-a-half songs that are propelled by an unrelenting momentum. The faster moments that create a frenzied wall of sound are balanced out by the intentional songwriting masterstrokes delivered here, and find this album as being worth the wait and puts the band on the top of the heap, this time it's the hardcore heap rather than the extreme metal one.
https://abysmalhymns.blogspot.com/2024/09/nails-every-bridge-burning.html
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