Ruiner

Ruiner were a five-piece melodic hardcore band from Baltimore, Maryland that formed in 2004 and called it quits in 2010. They did reunite to play This Is Hardcore earlier this year though. Without a doubt these guys are one of my favourites from their era, which is saying a lot considering their peers were bands like Modern Life Is War and Verse. Ruiner played an intensely emotional form of hardcore, with very personal lyrics being shouted a top some pounding instrumentation, full of octave chords and the like. Their two full-lengths are stone-cold classics, as well as their one compilation, I Heard These Dudes Are Assholes, which includes all their early material. The only thing I'm missing here is their Under The Influence split with Attica! Attica! that includes a cover of Oasis' "Morning Glory", so if anyone happens to have it, please send it over. Besides that, enjoy!

Prepare To Be Let Down (2007)

1. Prepare To Be Let Down

2. Bottom Line: Fuck You

3. The Lives We Fear

4. That Stone Better Be On Fire

5. 40 Miles North

6. A Song For Beggars

7. Long Time Coming

8. Repetition

9. Choke On It

10. When The Morning Ends

11. Sleepless

12. Kiss That Motherfucker Good Night

I Heard These Dudes Are Assholes (2008)

1. Once Loved

2. Paint Peals

3. Adhering To Superstition

4. Lockjaw

5. Getting Over The Overs

6. Out Go The Candles

7. A Bridge Too Many

8. Six By Six

9. Dear Philadelphia

10. Sincerely

11. Paint Peals

12. Adhering To Superstition

13. Six By Six

14. The Lives We Fear

Hell Is Empty (2009)

1. I'm Out

2. Dead Weight

3. Two Words

4. Part One

5. Part Two

6. Convenient Gods

7. Meat

8. Loneliest Of Hearts

9. Committed

10. Solitary

Lemuria

Lemuria are a three-piece indie rock/punk band from Buffalo, New York that formed in 2004. Without a doubt, they are one of my favourite bands around now. They write some of the catchiest songs, with great riffs and irresistible hooks matched with the energy of a punk band and the lightheartedness of a pop band. The dual male-female vocals of guitarist Sheena Ozzella and drummer Alex Kerns work perfectly together as counter-dynamics to each other, but also can easily stand on their own for entire songs. As far as their influences go, think of any great 90's alternative rock band, whether it be Superchunk or The Breeders; Lemuria take that foundation and make it their own to craft some amazing songs to define both this decade and the one before it.

The band has an extensive catalogue, with a ton of great splits and three stellar full-lengths, with their debut Get Better probably being the standout. That album consists of twelve perfect tracks that can be played over, and over, and over again and only "get better" with each listen. This band is at the top of my recommendations list for just straight-up good music that could appeal to tons of people regardless of their personal taste. Lemuria have also worked with a ton of amazing labels, including Alex Kern's own Art Of The Underground, Asian Man, and are currently signed to Bridge 9, who are most well-known for their roster of amazing hardcore bands. Here's as much of their discography as I've been able to accumulate over the years, it's near-complete, though if there's anything potentially missing I'd be grateful if you could send it to me. Enjoy.

Demo (2004)

1. Getting Over Ourselves

2. Searching For Contrition

3. Hey, I'm Over Here

4. An Attempt To Think About You

5. Let's Think About What Just Happened

Your Living Room's All Over Me (2006)

1. Lemuria - Hours

2. Lemuria - Lick Your Lips

3. Lemuria - Bugbear

4. Lemuria - Keep Quiet

5. Lemuria - Rough Draft

6. Lemuria - Bristles And Whiskers

7. Lemuria - Sophomore

8. Kind Of Like Spitting - Shallow Doses

9. Kind Of Like Spitting - Team Reasonable

10. Kind Of Like Spitting - You I Seek

11. Kind Of Like Spitting - Why I Smoke Mad Weed

12. Kind Of Like Spitting - Afraid Of Crushes

The Ergs!/Lemuria (2007)

1. The Ergs! - Introducing Morrissey

2. The Ergs! - Hey Jealousy

3. Lemuria - Little Silver Children

4. Lemuria - Clean

The First Collection (2007)

1. Hours

2. Lick Your Lips

3. Bugbear

4. Rough Draft

5. Keep Quiet

6. Bristles And Whiskers

7. Sophomore

8. In A World Of Ghosts...

9. Who Would Understand A Turtle

10. Bee Spit

11. The Origamists Too

12. It's Not A Lie, It's A Secret

13. Bookworm

14. The Origamists

15. Home For The Holidays

16. Piranha

17. Trivial Greek Mythology

18. The Origamists II

Get Better (2008)

1. Pants

2. Yesterday's Lunch

3. Lipstick

4. Buzz

5. Wardrobe

6. Length Away

7. Dog

8. Dogs

9. Get Some Sleep

10. Hawaiian T-Shirt

11. Fingers

12. Mechanical

Ozzy (2009)

1. Ozzy

2. Expert Herder

Under The Influence Vol. 7 (2009)

1. Lemuria - Alec Eiffel (The Pixies cover)

2. Off With Their Heads - Scarred By Love (Nobodys cover)

The Second Collection (2010)

1. Getting Over Ourselves

2. Searching For Contrition

3. Hey, I'm Over Here

4. An Attempt To Think About You

5. Let's Think About What Just Happened

6. Muzzle Your Wisdom

7. An Attempt To Think About You [Alternate Version]

8. Little SIlver Children

9. Clean

10. Alec Eiffel [Pixies cover]

11. Mechanical [Live Version]

12. Pants [Pink Couch Session]

Note: Unofficial compilation

Chautauqua County (2010)

1. Chautauqua County

2. They Are Who I Say They Are

Cheap Girls/Lemuria (2011)

1. Lemuria - Single Mother

2. Lemuria - Lemons

3. Cheap Girls - Pure Hate

Pebble (2011)

1. Gravity

2. Wise People

3. Pleaser

4. Yellowstone Lady

5. Irregular

6. Ribcage

7. Different Girls

8. Bloomer

9. Durian

10. Chautauqua County

11. The One

Varoom Allure (2012)

1. Varoom Allure

2. Cannonballs To Hurt

Brilliant Dancer (2013)

1. Brilliant Dancer

2. Helloing

The Distance Is So Big (2013)

1. Michael And Stephen Moon

2. Brilliant Dancer

3. Clay Baby

4. Scienceless

5. Paint The Youth

6. Dream Eater

7. Oahu, Hawaii

8. Chihuly

9. Baffling Situations

10. Public Opinion Bath

11. Congratulations Sex

12. Survivor's Guilt

13. Ruby

Turnstile Comix #3 (2014)

1. Christine Perfect

2. Foggy Smoke

3. Courtesy Mercedes

Recreational Hate (2017)

1. Timber Together

2. Sliver Of Change

3. Christine Perfect

4. More Tunnel

5. Wanted To Be Yours

6. Kicking In

7. Lake Below

8. Trembling

9. Marigold

10. Best Extra

Companion (2018)

1. Recreational Hate

2. Neon Prison

3. Trembling Reprise

4. Wanted To Be Yours

5. More Tunnel

6. Kicking In

7. Sliver Of Change

8. Lake Below (Alex Kerns Car Demo)

9. Recreational Hate (Alex Kerns Car Demo)

10. Kicking In (Alex Kerns Car Demo)

11. Wanted To Be Yours (Alex Kerns Car Demo)

12. Created By Lovers (demo)

13. Ox (demo)

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Bridge 9

Cruel Hand

Cruel Hand are a five-piece hardcore band from Portland, Maine that formed in 2006. Since they began, they've been keeping very active and have certainly set themselves apart with their unique style of hardcore. Their last.fm page puts it best, describing them as "equal parts New York hardcore and west coast thrash". They do still stick to the classic chug of Madball, they go beyond that as they go further into their career. Their intelligible vocals, hard rock attitude, and inclusion of guitar solos are just part of what defines them and has helped them garner such a large fan base that goes beyond hardcore purists. They've worked with labels such as 6131, Triple B, Bridge 9, and Hopeless. Also, if anyone has their Sound and Fury set, please send it to me! Cruel Hand have been requested forever, so here they finally are, enjoy!

FFO: No Warning, Trash Talk, Expire, Backtrack, Bane

Without A Pulse (2007)

1. Without A Pulse

2. Trust Me

3. Fact or Fiction

4. Lack Thereof

5. Severe Character Flaw

6. Crashing Down

7. Nothing Between Us

8. Under The Ice

9. Never Fall

10. The Countdown

Prying Eyes (2008)

1. Above And Below

2. Dead Weight

3. Life In Shambles

4. Begin Descension

5. Motions That Lie

6. Hounds

7. Damaged Goods

8. Heart Failure

9. No Known Graves

10. Prying Eyes

11. House Arrest

12. Wisdom Pain

Life In Shambles (2008)

1. Life In Shambles

2. House Arrest

Cruel Hand (2010)

1. Cruel Hand

2. Still

Lock & Key (2010)

1. Lock & Key

2. Cruel Hand

3. Day Or Darkness

4. Broken Glass

5. Labyrinth

6. One Cold Face

7. Rotations Of Hurt

8. Dismissed

9. Two Fold

10. The Bottom (Of Munjoy Hill)

America's Hardcore (2010)

9. Intro/Face To Face

Vigilant Citizen (2010)

1. Vigilant Citizen

2. Cheap Life

Born Into A Debt, We All Owe A Death (2013)

1. Heat

2. 3's

3. In Time We Strike

The Negatives (2014)

1. Pissing - Spitting

2. Battery Steele

3. Why Would I

4. The Negatives

5. Scars For The Well-Behaved

6. Heat

7. Unhinged - Unraveled

8. Monument Square People

9. Vigilant Citizen

10. Gasoline

11. Still

12. Cheap Life

Your World Won't Listen (2016)

1. Nowhere, Nothing, Never

2. Decompose

3. King

4. Dead Eyes Watching

5. Too Far From That

6. Your World Won't Listen

7. Through With You

8. Deep Six Hole

9. In This Alone

10. Buried Inside

11. Liquid Paper

12. Threes

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Verse

Verse are a five-piece hardcore band from Providence, Rhode Island that formed in 2003. They broke up in 2009, but reunited in 2011, and have been killing it since then. From Aggression onwards, they've been working with Bridge Nine Records. Verse play a style of melodic hardcore that hits new peaks of pissed-off passion, and have made them one of the most noteworthy bands within this genre in the past decade. Enjoy.

4 Songs (2003)

1. Everything You Were

2. Nothing More

3. Let It All Rust

4. Running Out

Rebuild (2004)

1. Rebuild

2. Tear Down These Walls

3. Painting Pictures

4. Let It All Rust

5. What This Means

6. Saying Goodbye

7. Searching

8. Road Less Traveled

9. We Must

10. Nothing More

11. Waiting On A Revolution

From Anger And Rage (2006)

1. Weather To A Stone

2. Hard To Breathe

3. Start A Fire

4. Standing In The Ashes

5. From Anger And Rage

6. We Were Here (39th And Glisan)

7. Consume

8. Lost

9. No Rest In Leavenworth

10. Stolen

11. Follow Conform Repeat

Story Of A Free Man (2008)

1. Story Of A Free Man - Chapter One: The End Of Innocence

2. Story Of A Free Man - Chapter Two: The Cold Return

3. Story Of A Free Man - Chapter Three: Serenity

Aggression (2008)

1. The New Fury

2. Old Guards, New Methods

3. Suffering To Live, Scared To Live

4. Signals

5. Scream

6. Story Of A Free Man - Chapter One: The End Of Innocence

7. Story Of A Free Man - Chapter Two: The Cold Return

8. Story Of A Free Man - Chapter Three: Serenity

9. Blind Salvation

10. Unlearn

11. Earth And Stone

12. Sons And Daughters

Bitter Clarity, Uncommon Grace (2012)

1. The Selfish Of The Earth

2. The Selfless Of The Earth

3. The Silver Spoon And The Empty Plate

4. Setting Fire To The Bridges We Cross

5. Segue One

6. You And I Are The Fortunate Ones

7. The End Of All Light

8. The Relevance Of Our Disconnect

9. Segue Two

10. Oceanic Tendencies

11. Finding A Way Out When There Is No Way

12. Segue Three

13. The End Of All Life

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Bridge Nine

Expire

Expire are a four-piece hardcore band from Milwaukee/the Midwest that formed in 2009. They've been keeping really busy since, constantly touring and putting out records. These guys are kind of like the descendants of Madball and Sick Of It All, or something like that, along with siblings Trapped Under Ice, Rotting Out, Backtrack, and Cruel Hand. Yeah. But really, Expire are an excellent band that fans of modern hardcore/punk must check out. Their live shit seems pretty sick too. They're also on Bridge Nine, and seem pretty proud of it (which is quite understandable, I'd imagine). Enjoy.

Demo '09 (2009)

1. Darker

2. Expired

3. Lately

4. Navy Blue or Black

5. Sold Short

Grim Rhythm (2010)

1. 3:56

2. Navy Blue or Black

3. Expired

4. Darker

5. Anchor

6. Sold Short

Suffer The Cycle (2011)

1. Sleep Lost

2. First Fall

3. Grip

4. Focus

Sink With Me (2012)

1. Abyss

2. The Pain Strikes (Sick Of It All cover)

Live At Sound And Fury 07-23-11 (2012)

1. Intro/Darker

2. Sleep Lost

3. Sold Short

Pendulum Swings (2012)

1. Just Fine

2. Reputation

3. Spit Out

4. Dig Deep

5. Anxiety

6. Abyss

7. Bark

8. Sleep Lost

9. Pills and A Promise

10. YDN

11. Focus

12. Pendulum Swings

America's Hardcore Volume 2 (2012)

2. Tucked Away

Pretty Low (2014)

1. Pretty Low

2. Just Don't

3. Fiction

4. Gravity

5. Nobody

6. Old Habits

7. Forgetting

8. Callous

9. Rejection

10. If It Were Up To Me

11. Second Face

Old Songs (2016)

1. 356

2. Navy Blue Or Black

3. Expired

4. Darker

5. Anchor

6. Sold Short

7. Sleep Lost

8. First Fall

9. Grip

10. Focus

11. Tucked Away

With Regret (2016)

1. Fighting The Slip

2. Divide And Conquer

3. Hidden Love

4. Regret

5. Medicine

6. Vultures

7. Live Or Die

8. Fair Weather Friend

9. Turned To Dust

10. Ghost

11. The Harsh Truth

12. Beyond My Reach

13. Fear In Control

Bridge Nine

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