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‘Hardcore’ has become a dirty word to many over the last few years.

Matching outfits, ‘emotional’ vocals, corporate sponsors and absurd dancing have all taken the focus away from what used to be a vital and uncompromising style of music. So thank fuck that bands like My Fictions still exist. This is hardcore from another time: brutal, raw, blastbeat-fast and passionate without resorting to ‘woe is me’ melodic bleating. Stranger Songs owes a huge debt to Converge, Modern Life Is War and The Hope Conspiracy for creating the blueprint for the likes of Postcard and Airport Song to sound so utterly reckless and ferociously heavy. Although there isn’t anything especially original in the approach of My Fictions, they sound so delightfully out of step with the public idea of what hardcore is that it takes one listen before you’re swept up in their world and ready to replay the album immediately. To call something so ugly a breath of fresh air might seem bizarre, but that’s what My Fictions have delivered here. True hardcore lives.

Via Topshelf

Since blagging his way onto the Hammer team a decade ago, Stephen has written countless features and reviews for the magazine, usually specialising in punk, hardcore and 90s metal, and still holds out the faint hope of one day getting his beloved U2 into the pages of the mag. He also regularly spouts his opinions on the Metal Hammer Podcast.