If you don’t like MADBALL, you don’t like hardcore

For those who have been living under a rock (aka the Metal Archives forum), no band has made a bigger impact on the sound, aesthetic, and overall culture of hardcore than MADBALL. Without MADBALL there would be no TERROR, no HATEBREED, no THROWDOWN, no NAILS, or any of the other bands who influenced and defined hardcore as we know it today. Yes, obviously legendary bands like BLACK FLAG, CRO-MAGS, and AGNOSTIC FRONT paved the way for what MADBALL went on to do, but when you listen to a hardcore band in 2014, what you’re hearing is more than likely just a variation on the signature formula that MADBALL laid out on genre-defining records like Droppin Many Suckers and Demonstrate My Style. (in b4 hipster turds insist that Ball of Destruction is “the only good MADBALL record” but they’ve never even heard of NYC MAYHEM). What it comes down to is pretty simple: if you don’t like MADBALL, you don’t like hardcore, period.

“Born Strong” ft Candace from WALLS OF JERICHO

“Doc Marten Stomp” – dig the Oi vibe in the beginning of this one, cool to see them tip their hat to their roots

After a couple years off and some lineup changes, MADBALL are back with what’s IMO their best album since “Look My Way.” As a longtime SKARHEAD fan I was stoked to see that SKARHEAD guitarist Mitts has replaced Matt Henderson– one of the very, very few people who can fill Matt’s shoes (read more about Matt’s influence in this interview Gary Suarez did a few years back). It’s more overtly “metal” than most of their catalog but still 100% hardcore despite a little more double bass and a few “chopaholic” riffs here and there, and it sounds like, well, MADBALL. And I am completely OK with that.

Madball’s new album, Hardcore Lives, is out now on Nuclear Blast. You can purchase it here.