The sound of today’s hardcore is both evergreen and ever-changing. There are metallic hardcore bands out there who have given us some of the most memorably brutal records of the last decade-plus. I refer to modern classics by living greats like King Nine (“Scared to Death”) and Missing Link (“Watch Me Bleed”), both of whom tend to favor mosh parts, gang vocals, and a sneering air of fuck-around-and-find-out in their respective discographies. Then there are more the more accessible likes of Turnstile and Knocked Loose, who have taken a sound that was birthed in VFW halls and basements and translated it to tremendous crossover success without losing an ounce of their integrity in the process.
One could argue that what’s been missing in the scene is the old-school punk brio that H.C. pioneers like Black Flag and Agnostic Front once brought to their famously anything-goes live shows. Enter Boston’s Haywire 617, a fun-loving band of troublemakers who seem doggedly determined to put the punk back into what was originally called hardcore punk. To say they’re doing it with style would be an understatement.
Haywire have collaborated with everyone from the Dropkick Murphys to more contemporary acts like No Guard, with whom they released the 2025 split “SHIRTS VS. SKINS.” Still, it feels safe to say that it was “CONDITIONED FOR DEMOLITION,” the band’s superb breakthrough LP, that caught the attention of those in the know. Haywire are renowned for their spectacularly rowdy sets: the group has lit up stages far and wide, from Warped Tour to the recently relocated Midnight Hour record store in Los Angeles, the latter a kind of haven for SoCal hardcore kids. The songs on “CONDITIONED FOR DEMOLITION” moved at the speed of a locomotive train; the result was total immersion in Haywire’s unruly world, where fists tend to fly freely and attitude reigns supreme.
Haywire have been one of the most exciting bands in hardcore for a minute now. On their latest, the simultaneously raucous and introspective “I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE,” the band demonstrates an admirable willingness to branch out into a more melodic direction without abandoning the boisterous hooligan charm that their fans know and love them for.
“THAT’S LIFE” is the same old Haywire, but even more fearsomely assured than usual: it immediately establishes itself one of the most confident songs the band has ever written, and it’s a hell of a way to kick things off. Elsewhere, single “INTERSTATE LOVE AFFAIR” marries the group’s signature cheerful aggression with a quality that could almost be called wistful. The song, a headbanger’s ode to new beginnings, captures the sensation of traveling with a like-minded band of brothers, the open road beckoning beyond. It’s an unexpectedly evocative number about memories as a shared currency between friends. Since it’s a Haywire track, it also fucking rocks.
The title track finds the band in an unusually reflective mood. Frontman Austin Sparkman offhandedly cracks that he’s “sick in the head” while, just a few moments later, lamenting that “all good things must come to an end.” Sparkman recalls brawls and wasted nights the way some of us would reminisce about our high school years, with a bittersweet sense of remembrance. It’s a song about yearning for a carefree past while acknowledging the necessity of moving into the future: Boston H.C. by way of Thin Lizzy.
These shamelessly anthemic tunes are meant to be played loud, and loud they shall no doubt be played. “FOREVER ALONE” and the just-over-a-minute-long “FLEX YOUR HEAD” both sound like they could have stemmed from the “CONDITIONED FOR DEMOLITION” sessions, proving that few bands in hardcore can make sheer hostility sound as fun as these guys manage to. Yet, as sturdy as the Haywire sound has become, it’s the instances where Sparkman and his bandmates push beyond what they’ve already proven capable of that linger in the mind. “CONDITIONED FOR DEMOLITION” was great, but this is something else. To wit: “TROUBLE IN PARADISE,” with its soaring guitars and barroom sing-a-long vibe, is both celebratory (“We laugh/and we sing/and we fight/and we cry”) and stirringly reflective (“This whole town starts to feel like an armpit”), epitomizing a mesmerizing symbiosis that comes to define the overriding mood of the record itself.
The sequencing throughout “I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE” is damn near note-perfect. One song bleeds effortlessly into the next, sewn together in part by the samples that have been a staple of hardcore since its earliest days. The production, by Citizen’s Mat Kerekes, is harmonic and rich; Kerekes is one of a handful of guest features on the album, which also includes members of Nothing and The Aggrolites, among others. The mixing, by the great Taylor Young (God’s Hate, Twitching Tongues), proves that Haywire aren’t switching up their style so much as they’re entering a stage of necessary evolution. Haywire have long provided the soundtrack for a good time, but there’s an arresting sense of melancholy that runs through “I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE” that lends its darker moments a tangible sense of emotional weight.
Closer “SINCERELY YOURS” ends things on a note of rousing, hard-won defiance. Forever the underdogs, Haywire have found a way to incorporate strains of maturity and melody into their pugilistic template without relinquishing the qualities that make them one of hardcore’s most impressive groups. This is music to two-step to with your best friends: Haywire have never sounded more like themselves than they do here, and that, friends, is a beautiful thing indeed. This is one of 2026’s strongest hardcore records.
“I DON’T WANNA SAY GOODBYE” is available to listen to here or on your platform of choice.
