“You shake my hand! Say happy to satisfy you! Look my within the eye! I don’t consider you!” That’s the half. That’s the place I get caught each time. Can’t get previous it. I hear that, and I’m mentally headbutting a turret off a tank. For me, Trapped Beneath Ice’s “Happy To Meet You,” from the 2011 album Large Kiss Goodnight, is a fully excellent piece of music. Justice Tripp shouts about being nothing such as you, and you then need to yell alongside since you, too, are nothing such as you. When TUI play in an enormous room, everybody in that room, together with you, is nothing such as you. If I may shoot 10 songs up into area to show aliens that we’re nothing such as you, that might be one in all them. Final weekend, I noticed a pair dozen hardcore bands at Richmond’s United Blood fest, and I loved all of it. However behind my thoughts, I used to be actually simply ready for the second that Trapped Beneath Ice would play “Happy To Meet You.”
I had rather a lot using on that “Happy To Meet You” second. Earlier than final weekend, I’d by no means seen Trapped Beneath Ice. We’re from the identical place — Baltimore, Maryland, best metropolis in America — however I used to be fully disconnected from hardcore when TUI have been on their underground rise. I caught up on their music after their affect had grow to be this mythic factor and the opposite members of the band had gone on to begin different initiatives. Lately, TUI play occasionally, and so they haven’t launched an album in a decade. Each dwell set is an occasion. I’ve watched tons of dwell movies, and so they at all times look unimaginable. A couple of months in the past, I wrote a complete hardcore column about a kind of dwell movies, however I hadn’t been within the room for a kind of units. Once you mentally construct one thing up sufficient, the precise expertise can allow you to down. This expertise didn’t let me down. That “Happy To Meet You” riff hit early; it was the opening variety of TUI’s set. In that immediate, I had lightning in my blood.
United Blood wasn’t going to come back again. After I first began writing my month-to-month hardcore column at first of 2020, it was primarily as an excuse to pressure myself out of the home, to make the most of the legendary Richmond scene that’s solely an hour and alter away from the place I dwell. (I ended writing the column a few months in the past as a result of I used to be nervous that it was beginning to really feel compelled.) The primary night time I went out to a kind of exhibits for the column, going by means of the entire ritual of DM’ing the promoter so I may get the handle of the DIY venue that I by no means may’ve discovered alone, the lineup for the 2020 version of United Blood got here out. Converge and Chilly World have been headlining, and the lineup was stuffed with bands I’d been desirous to see: Mindforce, By no means Ending Recreation, Division Of Thoughts. I figured that UB could be the principle occasion, the second the place I lastly absolutely immersed myself on this tradition. Destiny had different plans.
Richmond’s United Blood music pageant made a triumphant return to Shockoe Backside this previous weekend after a five-year hiatus.
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— WTVR CBS 6 Richmond (@CBS6) April 14, 2025
That fest clearly by no means occurred, and the bookers determined to not carry it again when the COVID restrictions lifted. So it was a real shock when United Blood introduced its return just a few months in the past. Tickets bought out in minutes. I’ve been to a couple hardcore fests prior to now few years, however I’d been desirous to be at this one, and this one was lastly again. Within the ’10s, United Blood had a popularity as the toughest of the hardcore fests, and that’s the model that returned this yr. Even inside this world, different fests make makes an attempt to department out or to modify the kinds up. They’ll e-book shoegaze bands, or loss of life metallic bands, or rappers. That wasn’t what these guys did. As an alternative, it was a full weekend dedicated to a specific type of stomp-around music, particularly to the variations that flourished within the ’10s. From the surface, that slim focus would possibly look fairly boring, nevertheless it’s onerous to be bored when everybody aspires to that very same reckless physicality.
The identical weekend as United Blood, Richmond had one other, fully separate heavy music pageant. Thrash overlords Municipal Waste celebrated their twenty fifth anniversary with an enormous weekend of exhibits, and so they included Public Acid and Enforced, a few bands from the native hardcore scene, on their invoice. I don’t even suppose the battle bothered too many individuals. Richmond isn’t that massive of a metropolis, however for no matter cause, DIY music is entangled with on a regular basis life there. It could actually help two vaguely intersecting fests on the identical weekend. It could actually help different hyper-specific underground fests, too — like Darkish Days, Brilliant Nights, which facilities on screamo and noise-rock, or LTC Fest, which occurs in the identical room as United Blood and which books bands from the extra accessible hardcore-adjacent universe. (Fleshwater and Drug Church headlined the final one.)
At United Blood, there was no room for the adjoining. The most important outliers on the invoice have been those that have been primarily grandfathered in. New Jersey’s E-City Concrete, as soon as once more lively after their late-’90s heyday, have been by no means that distant from rap-metal. They make AJ Soprano music, principally. Their set was the one time I noticed anybody taking part in a seven-string bass with their fingers all weekend. Angel Du$t, in the meantime, stroll a loopy line between hardcore muscle and sugary power-pop headrush melody. They’re the band that Justice Tripp began across the time that Trapped Beneath Ice first wound down, and so they obtained the wild crowd response that they at all times get. However not less than a few of the folks on the fest weren’t on board for one thing as playful as that. I heard one man loudly announce that he was glad Angel Du$t have been taking part in as a result of that might give him an opportunity to go take a shit.
This yr’s United Blood wasn’t simply stuffed with bands who appeared like ’00s and ’10s hardcore. It was stuffed with bands who have been ’00s and ’10s hardcore. Headliners Trapped Beneath Ice and Chilly World principally simply play massive fests nowadays. Loads of others — Assume I Care, RZL DZL, the Wrongside — broke up a very long time in the past, and they won’t have any plans to play once more. They have been there as a result of they meant rather a lot to the bookers, or to the opposite bands on the invoice. Once you’re reserving a pageant like that, it’s much less about presenting a different however complementary musical expertise, extra about getting all of your folks again collectively. Should you have been solely hardcore by means of the lens of United Blood, you’d get a fairly restricted view of the style and the tradition. (There have been only a few bands that embody girls, as an example. I don’t suppose I noticed any, although I would’ve missed some.) You’d, nonetheless, get to see some sick shit, particularly for those who’re into the factor that aficionados have more and more been describing as “common hardcore.” That’s the stuff that isn’t actually punk or metallic or anything. It could actually have a few of that stuff, nevertheless it’s actually simply hardcore. You already know it once you hear it.
I appreciated watching the reunited bands, even once I had no historical past with these bands. It’s lovely to see previous mates reconnecting and doing this factor that, not less than once they have been doing it, had no alternatives for actual skilled development. A few of these bands have been tight and targeted. Wilkes-Barre’s Battle Hungry, as an example, have been an absolute fucking beast. All people in that band goes off extraordinarily onerous. They’ve obtained a thundering heavy-chug type, and their guitarist is Arthur Rizk, now an in-demand heavy-music producer and engineer, in addition to the mastermind behind metallic bands like Everlasting Champion and Sumerlands. (He’s in Chilly World, too.) He goes loopy onstage, and so does everyone else in Battle Hungry. A few of the different bands didn’t have that stage of precision. My favourite little bit of stage patter all weekend (not naming the band) was this: “Hit it, boys! [Nothing happens] I stated, hit it, boys!”
However I wasn’t essentially in it for the reactivated bands. On Friday, I couldn’t get to the Canal Membership, the cavernous venue that hosts United Blood, till halfway by means of the day, which meant that I missed all of the youthful bands. (I obtained there simply in time to catch the very finish of Boston’s Haywire, and the “get the fuck out of my method” breakdown on the finish of their set nearer “Like A Practice” hit extraordinarily onerous.) I ended up lacking some at present lively bands I actually would’ve appreciated to see: Scarab, Dynamite, Dangerous Beat, former Fact Cult singer Paris Roberts’ new group No Idols. The newer bands that I did see, a few of whom are already absolutely established, have been fucking superior. The expertise of a marathon pageant actually drives house how essential an awesome bandleader is in hardcore. Singers on this music don’t simply sing, or scream, or bark. They need to be the larger-than-life figures who can focus and channel the vitality within the room, and somebody like Combust’s Andrew Vacante does that with an unbelievable stage of vitality and swagger. It’s only a blast to see that in motion.
Saturday ended with a nine-band rock block of a few of the greatest issues occurring within the hardcore world proper now. The Jersey Shore’s Blind Justice have been simply uncontrolled. I noticed singer Mike Botti do a few issues I’d by no means seen anybody do earlier than. A few occasions, he did somersault-cannonball stagedives — not into the group, however into the lots of individuals watching on the facet of the stage. He additionally demanded that the band play the minute-long anthem “Shore Type” twice in a row, simply because he needed to listen to it once more. That man is unhinged, and it’s lovely. Gridiron’s instinctive rapcore has a few of the nü metallic vitality of E-City Concrete however extra of fully-internalized type of Chilly World. They arrive off like guys who take heed to nothing however rap and hardcore, not like skilled musicians making an attempt to fuse these two issues.
By no means Ending Recreation, who share members with Gridiron and who performed proper after them, push their bone-crunch riffage into guttural metallic toughness that remembers Detroit forebears like Chilly As Life. Richmond fixtures Division Of Thoughts have a ton of guttural gravitas, and so they by no means play a nasty set. They have been particularly amped-up on Saturday. Finish It by no means have a nasty set, both, and so they play Richmond on a regular basis. Akil Godsey is without doubt one of the most really entertaining bandleaders on the market in any style, and I really like the factor the place he sings some tune a cappella proper earlier than the riff kicks in. This time, we obtained “Items Of Me.” I get the sensation that Finish It may grow to be an enormous band exterior of hardcore in the event that they needed, however they appear to desire taking part in a particular kind of present to a particular kind of crowd, and they’re so good at it.
I’m working myself into an avalanche of superlatives, and at this level there’s no level in even holding myself again from gushing. I can’t identify a at present lively hardcore band extra excellent than Mindforce. They’re unimaginable. Their riffs crush ribcages. Their breakdowns hit on the actual proper second. Frontman Jay Peta bleats on the prime of his lungs, however you by no means have any hassle understanding what he’s yelling, which implies you by no means have any hassle yelling alongside. He’s at all times so enthusiastic about getting moshpits shifting and about dancing throughout the stage himself; I get fired up simply enthusiastic about it. Toronto’s No Warning are a reunited band, however they don’t play like one. I principally know Ben Cook dinner from his time in Fucked Up and, to a lesser extent from his indie-pop undertaking Younger Guv. However No Warning’s primal chug had a big impact inside hardcore, and that man carries himself like he belongs there. At United Blood, he made a backwards Kangol look cool, and I don’t keep in mind seeing anybody pull that off since, what, 1997?
It’s nearly boring to speak about how good Terror are. They’ve been going, with no break, for many years, and so they perceive every thing about getting a crowd shifting and forging an emotional connection. It’s simply superb to see them do what they do. Terror ended their set, as they finish in all probability all their units, with “Keepers Of The Religion.” That implies that I obtained to listen to that and “Happy To Meet You,” two no-shit hall-of-fame hardcore anthems, again to again, with possibly quarter-hour of setup time in between. And Trapped Beneath Ice have been precisely what I needed them to be. Should you get an opportunity to witness them, make the most of that.
A couple of days earlier than their set, Turnstile launched their new single “By no means Sufficient” and kicked off a contemporary spherical of hand-wringing about what’s occurring with the broader tradition’s embrace of hardcore. (One other spherical of hand-wringing broke out throughout United Blood weekend, when Velocity performed at Coachella and the pit appeared goofy.) However Turnstile frontman Brendan Yates nonetheless performs drums in TUI, and he was again there on Saturday, no one treating him like a rock star or something. Franz Lyons was side-stage for the TUI set, and he and Paris Roberts got here out to sing on on “Road Lights.” One of many cool issues about United Blood was seeing all of the members of various bands operating out to bark out visitor vocals throughout one another’s units. King 9 weren’t on the invoice, however their hulking frontman Dan Seely frolicked all weekend and he grabbed the mic just a few occasions throughout Terror’s set. Every time anybody guested with Terror, they might put every thing into it. Hardcore is likely to be a ritual, nevertheless it’s not a routine. These moments felt so pressing.
However the actual present at United Blood wasn’t essentially the bands. It was the group. Folks by no means stopped going off. Our bodies stored flying. I noticed a few of the coolest stagedives I’ve ever seen final weekend. The Canal Membership has two massive wood pillars on the sides of the stage, and other people vaulted off these issues in all kinds of acrobatic, inventive methods, simply doing Rey Mysterio shit. Even for those who’re not able to get into the warzone, it’s thrilling to see a complete ground erupt at a band’s first riff, or to see folks fast-marching side-to-side or hitting two-step formation. Should you’re shut sufficient to the stage, you actually can’t watch the bands, since you want to be prepared for somebody to take your head off. (I didn’t see any massive fights or unhealthy accidents all weekend, however Chilly World did need to cease late of their set when somebody obtained knocked crazy.) For the folks on the stage and on the ground, United Blood presents a possibility to point out out, to differentiate themselves. Folks took that severely. I heard plenty of nice music this weekend, however you don’t go to a pageant like that simply to listen to nice music. You need to really feel such as you’re in it. This weekend, all weekend, I felt it.
