AM Radio: The 2023 Halftime Review
The new Anti-Matter is only three weeks old. In terms of this year's best new music, we've got some catching up to do.
Nothing influenced my decision to bring Anti-Matter back in 2023 more than the absolute wealth of new and current music that have kept hardcore—and all of its splinter groups—alive and well and moving with its eye towards the future. The original Anti-Matter was better known for its interviews, but I’m proud of the fact that some of its music coverage marked turning points of exposure for then-obscure bands like Refused, The Promise Ring, Snapcase, Gameface, and even Sunny Day Real Estate, where I mourned in the summer of 1994 that it was “only a matter of time before the world catches on. Enjoy it while you can.”
I’d like to continue that tradition here, in a feature I’m calling AM Radio, which will be published on the last Sunday morning of every month. I’ll also be keeping rolling playlists of these new music recommendations on Spotify and Apple Music, so feel free to follow along there as well.
For this first installment of AM Radio, I decided to play catch up. I went back and picked my favorite 20 songs from the first six months of 2023—all 20 of which you’ll find on the playlist—and then came back here to highlight five standout tracks that cut through for me in a particularly memorable way.
FOLLOW & LISTEN TO AM RADIO: Spotify | Apple Music
ONE STEP CLOSER “Turn to Me” (Run For Cover, Jan 2023)
It’s not exactly a hidden gem by this point, but One Step Closer’s Songs for the Willow EP is such a natural and inevitable site of growth that it deserves to be singled out—as does “Turn To Me,” which shows a turn towards songwriting-as-craft that feels as close to fully realized as they’ve ever come. Any opportunity I get to call a hardcore song “gorgeous” is an opportunity I will take.
I AM THE AVALANCHE “Honey Bee” (Self-Released, March 2023)
Few things spark genuine depth in a song more than the death of a loved one, but in the canon of hardcore songs that have even tried to touch grief, Vinnie Caruana’s performance on “Honey Bee” is audibly heartbroken. The first time I heard him sing the line, “One of these days, I won’t be around / Blink if you understand,” I truly felt that raw nerve you can only know if you’ve been through it.
HOLY FIGURES “Donnybrook” (New Morality Zine, March 2023)
There’s a type of post-hardcore that tries to rub the harder end of the alt-rock spectrum (think Hum or Failure) against the more progressive end of the hardcore spectrum (say, Quicksand or Hopesfall), and generally speaking, it almost always proves to be an impossible errand. Holy Figures’ “Donnybrook” somehow hits that balance in all the right ways with enough precision and character to feel singular.
BUY IT: Bandcamp
NOWHERES “Breathe In, Bleed Out” (Genet, April 2023)
One of the best hardcore records of the year comes from Linköping, Sweden, and “Breathe In, Bleed Out” is the closest I’ve recently heard anyone come to translating everything I loved about mid-’80s D.C. hardcore for the youth of today. Like all the best bands in that tradition, Nowheres tackle social issues with a personal conscience. But the way they feel both traditional and modern is a rare pleasure.
INITIATE “The Surface” (Triple B, April 2023)
I gravitated towards Initiate’s Cerebral Circus more than most records this year. There’s both a clear sense of self and a total lack of pretense that lends itself to repeated listens in a way that many of Initiate’s peers haven’t quite tapped into yet. Crystal Pak’s vocal and lyrical dexterity allows “The Surface” to tap into multiple, seemingly disparate dimensions—savagery, beauty, melancholy—while still coming in at under two minutes, and that alone is a feat.
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Thank you for the recommendations! Although I know the hardcore classics, I have practically no knowledge of current hardcore, except for a few groups that manage to make it to the comments/more general rock lists, so it's much appreciated.