Turn back the clock 20 years and you’ll see a Vegas that was vacant when it came to local Hardcore Music. Being so close to Los Angeles, it made sense to let them absorb us into their region with sounds like Terror, Strife, and Ignite locking in spots amongst the best.
Jump forward another 10 years to what I call “the second wind”, and the emergence of more melody brought bands like Stick To Your Guns and The Ghost Inside out of LA and around that time you started to see Hardcore find it’s way to Vegas. Venues would pop up and good bands would come and go, but what stayed constant was LA Hardcore making its stops to chant with the Vegas kids. Barricade or not!
To this day, there have only been a few Vegas Hardcore bands that made its way through the second wind, but LA still hasn’t forgotten to make their stop here. Last month saw veterans of the scene Terror and the unstoppable Stick to your Guns make their way to Vinyl at The Hard Rock on the Pure Noise Tour with the hard hitting Counterparts, Sanction, Year of the Knife, and locals Suffer the Loss to show just how alive the scene is.
Suffer the Loss
The local boys came out hard and you can tell the crowd was just as ready! The fist immediately started to fly for every breakdown Suffer the Loss let out like these kids had been waiting for years to let loose.
Suffer the Loss have been holding down stages since 2007, but are so under the radar that they’ve skipped my blips every time I scan the scene. Going in blind to their sound paid off, and they held it down for the city.
It’s hard to find anything on them but be sure to check out Blackpath Booking for their next show . You can also hear their track “Held Back” on their Bandcamp to see what Vegas Hardcore is putting down.
Gallery.
Year of the Knife
Pick it the fuck up! Welcome to the Hardcore Calendar where The Year of the Knife is upon us!
Just breaking out of Delaware with a triple-x stamp on their wrist, YotK have put out a freshman album, Ultimate Aggression, that is quickly going to run them up the ladder of main acts that tour every barricade-less venue in the country. Shit, even the world!
Their east coast-ness shows, and it’s fucking good. Think of Have Heart with Madball instrumentals, all with a straight edge mentality behind the lyrics like their Boston counterpart.
“Y.O.T.K” shows you a resume of the screams their vocals hold. “Ultimate Disease “ speaks something we can all relate to with the articulation “an eye for an eye will make the whole world blind”. Even their cry out of the mind in “Sick Statistic” off the Pure Noise promo puts them on level, if not further, with everyone else on the tour.
Want a new Hardcore act to follow? Look no further than Year of the Knife.
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Sanction
Holy mother of harmonics! I didn’t know you could go past the 7th fret for Hardcore, but Sanction proves it was meant to be there all along.
It’s great that the East Coast made its way on this tour. I’m sure coming all the way from the land of my people in Long Island was a long journey, but the fist flying for Sanction went harder than anyone else on the bill.
On the tip of your tongue they taste like a Hardcore Carnifex, but their catalog shows an independent sound that holds them up over any Metal act with their solid drops. Want a sample? “Radical Lacerations” will leave you wondering how the hell they haven’t been in your daily rotation for the past couple of years and “Paralysis” shows the poetry these guys have at hand in their lyrics.
In the land where Taking Back Sundays and Baysides have held the crown, be a Sanction that feeds the Hardcore peasants that pick change up off the ground for their dollar menu meals.
Gallery.
Terror
Underdogs!? Assemble at the barricade and tear this shit down! Terror is back in Vegas!
Whether it’s Warped Tour or opening up for Suicidal Tendencies, Terror has made it back to Vegas almost yearly, and the same Hardcore cats are still running the pit and trying to crash their way to the stage every time they show up.
Terror never misses a beat or leaves an album in their discography untouched. Starting off the set with their origins in “Lowest of the Low” then bringing us the sounds of the underworld in “Stick Tight”. Follow that up with a couple off of One With the Underdogs and you can set off the calmest mother fucker in the room.
“Spit My Rage” brought another classic and then the “25th Hour” rang into the anthem “Keepers of the Faith” to close it out. Classic set for a classic act.
It’s good to see Terror running around the country with this collective and holding down the true sounds that likely inspired everyone else on the stage that night. Nothing but respect all around when Terror comes to The City of Sin.
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Counterparts
“Put a fucking bullet in my head!” could not describe my feelings more after going through the first part of this show. The over thirty crowd stepped back after Terror and made room for Counterparts to rip the roof off of the Hard Rock before they close their doors for good.
If you’re new to these guys from The Great White North, then start acting like you know em’. Counterparts lay down some of the most serenading guitar melodies that play behind massive drops and constant energy from the microphone.
The kids crashed the stage for every second of “Swim Beneath My Skin” and never let up through their ender “The Disconnect”. I can’t wait to see them on their next round, and personally want the Canadian invasion to come with them. I’m hoping Comeback Kid will hop on and (fuck it, why not) Fucked Up.
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Stick To Your Guns
**Queues up Thin Lizzy- “The Boys are Back In Town”**
The drinks will flow and blood will spill. And if the boys wanna fight, you better let em’!
That’s right kiddos! The O.C .Hardcore gods Stick To Your Guns that have been making you move since For What It’s Worth are back after they dominated Brooklyn Bowl last year and released their groundbreaking True View to keep up the Pure Noise they broke open the second wind with.
What choice did we give them? Vegas holds it down for STYG in every set they bring, and it was no different after they’ve been around the country and and back again on The Pure Noise Tour.
Sure, you can call for the classics constantly, and they give you a taste, but STYG are a modern act that don’t need your criticism or approval. If you’ve missed out on Disobedient or True View, it’s time to catch up because the scene is leaving you in your dusty ass cloud of old ways.
Stick to Your Guns : The Set.
Exploding into the set with “Nobody” and then into Diamond’s ”Empty Hands” was The escalation the crowd needed. If your arms are folded and your standing still through their new single “Dove and Fist” that cries out “The kids will save themselves!”, get the fuck to the back because we’re here to lift these words up to the sky with push of a fist.
The inevitable “Amber” reins supreme as a Hardcore sing-a-long and classic “This Is More” has made it’s way to be their constant closers, and it’s no secret why. RIP barricade!
This isn’t the last we’re seeing of OC finest this year. Catch Stick To Your Guns with the heavy hitting Knocked Loose at Fremont Country Club October 12th if you want the Pure Noise to continue.
