Modern Life is War Owe You Nothing
I don’t have many pet peeves, but one sits at the top: people being timid at a four-way stop. The rules are simple—yield to whoever shows up first, or if you stop at the same time, the person on the right goes. Two scenarios with two defined outcomes. If you know these rules then your response should be obvious. Quit it with the tepid "No you go first." It's wasting everyone's time.
My close second pet peeve? Fans judging bands for not remaking the album that first hooked them. Take Modern Life is War. If you were around hardcore in the 2000s, you know the grip that Witness has on people. Myself included. From the first pile-up-inducing, “SO WHAT THE FUCK ARE YOU GONNA DO KID?” it tugs at your heart for 27 relentless minutes. It's both a feat and a curse to create an album like this.
Browse the hardcore subreddit and the curse is clear. Witness looms so large that fans judge every other release against it. And that’s a shame, because since then Modern Life is War has quietly built one of the most interesting catalogs in the scene. No breakdowns. No thrash riffs. No formulas. Instead, non-traditional song structures, spoken word verses, and noisy guitar rock. That freer take on hardcore shines on their latest release Life on the Moon. But not every band needs to break from tradition.
Sometimes you just want speed, aggression, and a metallic edge with punk attitude. Many Eyes deliver exactly that on “The Clock Behind All Other Clocks” off their upcoming Combust EP. Keith Buckley sounds more energized than ever, and I can’t wait to hear what’s next. Meanwhile, SPACED channel their frustration with society on “Cause and Effect.” Riding bouncy power chord riffs, the New York crew step into the lane GEL left behind. Still hungry for more speed and aggression? Dead Heat’s “Perpetual Punishment” from their upcoming LP Process of Elimination, rips through three minutes of crossover thrash fury.
Where hardcore leans on tradition, nu-metal thrives on breaking it. Tallah push that forward on Primeval: Obsession // Detachment, a collision of hip-hop, funk, metal, and hardcore that nods to the past while carving a new lane. It’s raw, weird, and brimming with energy—a much-needed injection into a genre that’s coasted on its pioneers for too long. Along the same lines, Bodyweb’s deadwire is a hardcore record laced with nu-metal DNA. At times it’s pure Iowa-era Slipknot, other times it’s closer to modern hardcore like Gridiron. Either way, it hits.
At the end of the day, hardcore and heavy music work best when bands know which rules to follow and which ones to break. Just like a four-way stop, clarity and conviction matter.
