Show Review: Drain, Terror, God's Hate, Angel Du$t, and More at the Metro in Chicago, IL

Drain’s Beach Party returns to Chicago almost exactly a year later delivering probably the shows of the year across not one, but two nights of chaos and mayhem with night two consisting of an utter onslaught of some of the biggest and best names out there right now.

Kickstarting the night was LA’s Cosmic Joke, riddled with old-school punk influences like Bad Religion, The Descendants, or even some more skate-punk influences like The Offspring. This hardcore punk style with a flair of melodic skate punk flair has tons of fast catchy moments that are perfect for just having fun time. It also makes Cosmic Joke stand out amongst the crowd being the odd guys out when all the other bands around you are playing fight riffs and breakdowns.

Seeing End It’s quick rise is still crazy to me, as it literally feels like yesterday I was seeing them play Gary, Indiana and now they’re one of the biggest rising stars in hardcore. One of the great many newer bands being passed the Baltimore torch, End It have that in-your-face style and sound that is uniquely Baltimore. A fast, abrasive, perfect to dance to sound, End It can flip it just as fast as they lay it down switching from quicker two-step moments to heavy as bricks breakdowns. The lyrics being at the forefront is even more important for a band, especially in hardcore. At the top of their game right now, End It have a lot to say on corruption, religion, racism, and more all with one-of-a-kind vocal style that makes you want to move up front as soon as the first note hits.

Coming off the back of their latest record, Brand New Soul, Angel Du$t continue to deliver their iconic fast-passed guitar riffs and grooving bass lines all with the sense of getting things upbeat and having a good time. Sharing a vocalist with modern hardcore titans Trapped Under Ice, Angel Du$t were a switch-up for singer Justice coming from a band that was known for being as hard and tough as they were good, a change was needed, or maybe rather a change of pace. In walk Angel Du$t, a band determined to craft songs that were simply upbeat as fuck, not beholden to being labeled a single genre, but instead being inspired by multiple sounds and genres.

The band I was most excited for the night, mostly because I haven’t seen them yet, God’s Hate delivered a truly crushing, brutalizing set like I’ve never seen before. A brutal, knuckle-dragging style of hardcore/metal fusion, God’s Hate leaves no witnesses behind in their conquest of being the heaviest band on any show bill. It does help level the playing field when your frontman is the enormous, tatted-up, real-life professional wrestler Brody King. Even if you took that out of the equation, God’s Hate would still be one of the heaviest and sickest bands out there. From the undead samurai with dueling submachine guns fighting demons and dragons on their latest album cover to relentless blastbeats and skin-peeling rhythms to badass dueling guitar and bass elements, God’s Hate create a tapestry or painting of pure, unfiltered mayhem and lawlessness.

In my opinion, one of the best (newer) live bands out there constantly crushing it right now, Mindforce know how to level a room with crushing riff and breakdown after crushing riff and breakdown … all with an immense level of style at the same time. Mindforce have managed to put out not one, but two classic modern hardcore records in the form of Excalibur and New Lords. These records are, without a doubt, the modern blueprint for being an incredible hardcore band building their songs around the two main takeaways of a great hardcore track, the breakdown and the lyrics.

What I also enjoy a ton about Mindforce is their ability to inject a good, healthy dose of thrash in their songs resulting in short, thrashy, and mosh-worthy New York hardcore tracks that don’t overstay their welcome, but rather make you wanting more. Even with all this, Mindforce manage to still have the one component that a lot of bands don’t have or think they do … style. From the stage banter between songs to the annunciation of the lyrics, Mindforce radiate style and swagger in a way that nobody else does.

The undisputed kings of hardcore, Terror live and breathe hardcore to the point where they could put out an acoustic song and it would still be hardcore, an honor not very many bands or people get to boast. A tried-and-true band that know how to stick to their guns, Terror deliver time and time again consistent kick-ass sets that make you want to jump off the stage or grab the mic. Not knowing what it means to slow down or take a break, Terror are still road dogs to a T, so much so that there’s a good probability you could say you’ve seen them multiple times within the span of a single year.

More important, though, Terror are so tried and true that they haven’t really put out a bad record or had a bad performance either. When you’ve been in the game for so long, people can only compare your latest record to other records you’ve put out (which is the ultimate sign of being da goats) or comparing times they’ve seen you rather than comparing to other bands. The point I’m trying to make here is that Terror are legends in the genre that consistently deliver every single time without fail.

One of the biggest names in hardcore right now, Drain rose to the top in seemingly a blink of an eye touring with big names and playing massive fests, Drain still loves going back to their roots putting together a tour for the ages filled with many of their closest friends and favorite bands all with the intent of bringing the show of the summer right to your city. Almost a year later at the same venue, Drain hosted the show of the summer for Chicago playing alongside Incendiary, Never Ending Game, and more for an absolutely killer night of hardcore. Now they get to repeat that across two nights in the windy city.

Having just seen them open up for Neck Deep earlier this year where I saw crowd surfers ignore security to scale the stage and jump off it and over the barricade, Drain continues to operate at a level that is miles above all others to the point where it’s almost inhumane. An energized bouncy sound filled with thrash-metal crunch and bite with a hint of melody paired perfectly with scream-able choruses and hard-hitting riffs, Drain figured out the formula for crafting heavy and bouncy hardcore music.

More importantly, Drain place fun at the center of not only their music, but also their live shows, encouraging people to dress up like sharks, bring boogie boards, throw around or hit each other with pool noodles, and overall have a memorable time, Drain continues to break down many of the cliches and stereotypes of hardcore one show at a time bringing in a new demographic of fans that probably wouldn’t be listening or coming out to shows otherwise. This mentality and approach to shows has landed Drain right at the center of hardcore’s current cultural zeitgeist as they’ve become one of the biggest figureheads for the genre leading the charge of what hardcore currently is like or can be in the future. By making it a central tenant to emphasize having a good time, Drain have quickly positioned themselves in the sphere of modern hardcore mainstays.

Drain