Hardcore's rise over the last half-decade has happened for many reasons, but one of the most pertinent is young musicians remembering that this is a genre that needs to evolve and be experimented with.
“Post-hardcore just meant hardcore guys trying new and different things,” shrugs Excide frontman Tyler Washington. “We definitely come from that lineage and ideology.”
You’ll hear that loud and clear when you stick on Excide’s second album, Bastard Hymns. It’s a superb slice of pounding hardcore, but peppered throughout with odd, angular time signatures and huge swathes of grungy, alt rock melody.
Snapcase showed me that you can make hardcore weird.
Tyler Washington
For fans of forward-thinking heavy music, this is a real gem. Tyler namechecks Quicksand, Failure, Fugazi and others as influences, but there’s one band that stands above them all.
“For me, it all started with finding [cult 90s New York hardcore band] Snapcase,” Tyler says of his biggest inspiration. “The lyrical content is super-positive, but it still has that poetic element. It showed me that you can make hardcore weird. We try and do that: rip a power chord and then throw a little pinkie out there and it just makes it… sort of strange.”
Considering the success of pioneering peers such as Turnstile and Knocked Loose, it’s not outside the realms of possibility that Excide could follow their lead. But Tyler states that as much as he’s pleased for them, he’s happy to stay in his own, idiosyncratic lane.
“Seeing those huge shows Turnstile do is awesome, so I’m not diminishing anyone’s achievements at all,” he begins. “But I’ve been in this scene and making this music since I was 15. I know I’ll be doing the same thing until I just can’t anymore. The ambition comes not from achieving success, but from connecting with people with our unique music.”
Bastard Hymns is out now via SharpTone
IN SHORT
SOUNDS LIKE: A fantastic amalgam of 90s alt rock heroes Failure’s melody with Every Time I Die’s knack for a killer riff
FOR FANS OF: Snapcase, Quicksand, Every Time I Die LISTEN TO: Call Box
