Sitting down to rank the best albums from one of the most iconic labels in hardcore sounded like a great idea. But wait! Wouldn’t it be HILARIOUS if we also spent our valuable time combing through the lesser-known Rev back catalog to find the absolute dregs of musical existence and rank those as well? The good news is there isn’t a shortage of material to work with, the bad news is we found the bad shit and had to listen to it all.
The Best
5. Into Another “Ignaurus” (1994)
When Into Another first arrived on the scene in 1991 with their self-titled album on Revelation most everyone took one look at their long hair and their shiny shirts and gave it a hearty “Nah, I’m good.” It wasn’t really until “Ignaurus” came out and their sound came together that people really started to take notice. If you can hear that opening chord ringing out in “Drowning” with the running bass and drum lines and you don’t want to do that hand-waiving, side-stutter mosh thing that all the kids were doing back then there is something wrong with you.
Play it again: “Drowning”
Skip it: “Two Snowflakes” Has there ever been a song with the word “séance” in it that is good?
4. Quicksand “Self-Titled” 7” (1990)
This supergroup of sorts formed from the fallout of several NYHC bands and released this 7” that seemingly invented a new genre. The slower, drop-D grooves must have ruffled some feathers when it first came out but goddamn does it still hold up to this day. And yes, you could probably draw a straight line from this to something like Breaking Benjamin or any of those early 2000’s Matrix-core bands but you can’t really blame Quicksand for letting that post-hardcore genie out of the bottle.
Play it again: “Clean Slate” The one song they didn’t re-record for “Slip”
Skip it: “Hypno Jam With Dan” Probably seemed like a good idea at the time
3. Judge “Bringin’ It Down” (1989)
At the height of posi “society is fucked because of drugs but let’s plaster on a fake smile and pretend we’re all friends” hardcore, these dudes came along to drop some hard truths. This was the soundtrack for a generation of straight edge kids who fantasized about smashing in the face of those partying popular kids in their high school and is really a precursor to the militant X DRUG FREE X chugga bands that would dominate the ‘90s.
Play it again: “Give It Up”
Skip it: Trying to pull off the construction-gloves-with-X’s-on-them look
2. Inside Out “No Spiritual Surrender” (1990)
Before Vic Dicara became the angriest Krishna alive and formed 108 and also before Zach de la Rocha started up some rap metal band, there was Inside Out. On their only official release, Dicara’s raw wailing guitar sound mixed with Zach’s pure fucking fury scratched a lot of itches. Out there on the world wide web you can find a live set of theirs with an unreleased song called “Rage Against The Machine” and frankly, we’re glad it went unreleased since anything after these six songs would’ve been a letdown.
Play it again: “Burning Fight”
Skip it: Trying to figure out if the opening lyric to “Bulls on Parade” is “Come wit’ it now” or “Ka-wit it now”
1. Gorilla Biscuits “Start Today” (1989)
Trumpets, whistling, harmonica – this album’s got it all! In fact, it’s so good that 34+ years later you can still find GB playing sold-out shows to venues full of both the young and old alike (assuming the olds have found a sitter for the night). It’s both fun and serious, melodic and moshy, and the perfect album to remind you stage dives make you feel alive (again, only if you can get a sitter).
Play it again: The whole thing start to finish
Skip it: Coded messages in slowed-down songs
These five records are classics, but we promised we would bring you the worst as well. Hop over to page two and read more.
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