Photo by Tyler Bradberry
Southern California has proven itself to be a modern chokepoint for pertinent hardcore, producing the genre’s modern stand outs like Nails, Xibalba, and Twitching Tongues. It’s a place that doesn’t want to give up that honor anytime soon, as seen with new bands like Los Angeles’ own NOMADS. For the past several years, the band has written music for the city, creating blistering anti-authoritarian hardcore with its sights aimed at police brutality and other power structures.
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Today they’re premiering their new record Love It or Leave It, featuring production from California hardcore vet Taylor Young (Nails, Xibalba) and Brad Boatright (Magrudergrind, Full Of Hell). It’s a record embodying the simultaneous pride and disgust from living in the city, creating teeth-knocking tracks like the opener “Falling Down” and the pipe-bomb of a song “Slaughterhouse.” The record also carries a sense of duty to show tribute to hardcore’s past, seeing influence from bands like Motorhead and Discharge through the music’s veins, and giving their own spin with covers of GG Allin and The Sisters of Mercy. It’s a record wholly embodying Los Angeles, capturing the anguish of the city’s drug abuse and injustice, turning it into a distorted, heavy chaos.
Listen to the record below in its entirety, and pick up your copy from Melotov.
