Hardcore punk is not a genre that takes prisoners: it cracks your skull open and turns your brain into porridge. And this is exactly what Capra do on their sophomore album, Errors. A continuation of their debut, In Transmission, this is furious and angry old-school '90s hardcore taken into the 2020s. Gone are the lyrics about left-wing political views and animal rights. Instead, Crow Lotus is spitting and growling out her lyrics about oppression, mental health, and her own personal issues and anxiety. Errors is a knuckle sandwich best taken straight to the face and pain has never felt this good.

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Deathcore has undergone some massive tectonic shifts in the last decade, and Carnifex have enjoyed a rare freedom to pick and choose which trends they want to cultivate and experiment with: they’ve been stitching in black metal for a while now, and Necromanteum sees them introducing tasteful splashes of the symphonic deathcore that’s all the rage these days. Their fundamentals are so solid that whether they want to go melodic or technical, groovy or brutal, they can shift with impressive aptitude and not miss a beat: whatever Carnifex does, it’s bound to be as interesting as it is crushing.

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Dreamwell, while being a screamo band, lie on the softer side of things, especially with how a lot of their sound's skeleton relies on having really bright, clean guitars and how much of a presence vocals that aren't screams have - a lot of it is pretty much modern post-rock with more aggressive drumming and vocals, with a bit of a math rock twang in the riffing. That's most of the modus operandi of the front end of the record, with a lot more diverse and heavy moments coming in the album's latter half, with extremity arriving both in short bursts and in drawn-out atmospheric pieces. In My Saddest Dreams, I Am Beside You is a record that lives most in its brightness and in how that contrasts with its heaviness.

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Dutch metalcore outfit For I Am King are arguably in a minority when it comes to the new breed of metalcore bands in drawing extensively from the melodeath influences that inspired earlier generations in the genre, and by moulding together these old-school sounds with modern trends, the end result simultaneously feels fresh and classic, well placed to appeal to NWOAHM enthusiasts and the more modern crowd alike. Crown, their fourth album, delivers hooky guitar leads, rousing choruses, and tasty breakdowns, while also dabbling with djent grooves and subtle atmospheric layers. The album’s tight tracklist is crammed with tracks destined to get heads banging and mosh pits swirling.

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Before the "Harm's Way running man to various songs" Facebook page popularized Harm's Way to a whole crowd of internet dwellers, mostly off the back of just how towering of a hulk vocalist James Pligge is, Harm's Way were mostly known for how huge their hardcore sound is. Well, metallic hardcore, and Common Suffering really pushes on how far that "metallic" side goes, emphasizing both heaviness and atmosphere. There's some extra oomph from a bit of post-metal/post-hardcore, the slower parts feel even slower, and there are some clean vocals (including a guest spot from King Woman's Kristina Esfandiari), which end up making Common Suffering feel even more towering and menacing.

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Out of all the classic screamo bands, Jeromes Dream is among the only ones that not only started going soft in their original run but also already have a second post-reunion album. But more importantly The Gray In Between completely negates the softening of Jeromes Dream's sound by putting the vocals at the forefront of the album's extremity; even with how harsh and chaotic and oppressive the entire thing sounds, somehow Jeff Smith's screams sound even more harrowing. And still, it continues the songwriting maturation to create something more grounded than their original harsh material and to finally make something that feels fully realized.

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New kids on the block Mélancolia had no time for including spaces when titling their debut album, HissThroughRottenTeeth; they were too busy getting signed to Nuclear Blast Records and conjuring up a fresh brand of deathcore. Like many modern deathcore acts, there’s blackened and symphonic elements across this record, but there’s more unexpected influences that seep into this record from the likes of industrial and post-metal to keep listeners on their toes with what’s coming next. Australia has a rich modern history when it comes to the -core genres, and Mélancolia are already well positioned to add their own name into the discussion.

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Symphonic/’blackened’ deathcore is arguably the hottest sound in metal in the past half-decade, but among the many imitators, the elite talent has reliably risen to the top, and so it is with Mental Cruelty, who establish themselves as both fiercely adept and unexpectedly ambitious on their fourth album, Zwielicht. With a core sound of relentless blasting riffing and brutal breakdowns accentuated by legitimately blackened guitar tones and dramatic symphonics, the band could have easily impressed without offering any surprises, but by subsequently delving into meloblack and folk metal as the tracklist progresses, Mental Cruelty take things to another level. Zwielicht is the kind of album that should both enchant the Lorna Shore bandwagon fans while also showing them how much more deathcore can offer musically.

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After joining LLNN, Victor Kaas is now part of arguably the three most destructive bands coming out of Denmark, but while Telos hasn’t yet built the reputation of LLNN or Eyes, an album such as Delude should put them well on their way. The album is grounded in metallic hardcore, but ventures into mathcore, post-hardcore, post-metal, and even briefly post-rock turn Delude into more than just an onslaught of aggression. However, there’s also plenty of vicious belligerence in store for those looking to get their faces kicked in.

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Unfurl - Ascension. Both of these words have associations with movement, transformation, growth. The process of evolution is one that Unfurl have undergone first in the journey from album #2 to album #3 and again across the entirety of Ascension itself. If there's a reason we still keep hardcore and metalcore and deathcore in the same place, it's albums like this, and if we needed to throw in the other -cores (math, grind, alba) into the same category as well, this would also be justification - Unfurl spend one second doing trigonometry, the next cracking the skye, the next revving up a motorcycle to slam into a wall, and the next shattering kneecaps with brutal breakdowns. Ascension is a fantastic rise and fall of so many sickening sounds and textures that your stomach will probably unfurl by the time the album finishes.

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