The Destiny Program is a modern hardcore journey that while isn’t like their predecessors that paved the way for today’s hardcore bands, isn’t completely removed from the sound. Theirs is more of a Hatebreed sound with chugga-chugga guitars and a metalized core. Passionate songwriting amid sometimes catchy hooks and fast-paced double bass crushing, “Gathas” is a decent retreat into today’s hardcore sound without it being exhausted on some mall wastezoid group.

Norma Jean has gotten far more mature in their songwriting since their fourth album. “Meridional” is chaotic, unbridled and energetic, tackling topical concepts throughout. Spouting off huge amounts of aggression and anger, Norma Jean isn’t afraid to launch into chaotic noisy metalcore with math-y abrasions. Or you know settle back into a furious metallic hardcore scream-a-thon. Challenging from start to finish, “Meridional” never rests on its laurels. It sticks its tongue out to the MTV crowd who likes heavy music but doesn’t LIKE heavy music. As technical as one would expect from the Dillinger Escape Plan, “Meridional” only pulls a punch when it’s all over.

Ah politically and inspirationally virulent hardcore! “Wartime Citizens” by The Efforts is their painting of how The American Dream is a farce and that the mainstream media is conspiring to put us all into the zombie haze. “Dear Sarah,” is their statement to Sarah Palin and her parade of misleading and fame mongering. “Wartime Citizens” and its incredibly passionate and pissed lyrics makes me wish that The Effort would write a book – could you imagine their vitriol next to the false Tea Party and social conservatism “books” at Borders? And what they do with their words is matched nicely with their textured hardcore; crunchy guitars, sing-a-long anthems, and pounding percussion. This isn’t your papa’s chugga-chugga hardcore. Love it, buy it, spread the love, and memorize.

Southwestern German hardcore outfit Manifestation has been recording, touring, and creating mischief since the early 2000s. Their latest effort, “Burden of Mankind” stirs up memories of mid-career Sick of It All. These days it seems like everyone that is doing hardcore music has to do it more on the technical or metalcore side of things rather than embracing the earlier years of hardcore that influenced so many and made today’s diversified scene what it is. Manifestation tosses aside today’s clichés for old school hardcore with even a few Oi inspirations just to keep it even more real. For fans of Madball, Floorpunch, and Agnostic Front.

Young Livers evokes post-hardcore gritty dank guitars that drop bombs similar to seminal outfit Drive Like Jehu. “Of Misery and Toil” burns no bridges as they embark upon a steady diet of breakdowns, odd song structures, and tinkering with what we’ve all come to expect from post-indie rock outfits. Mid-range rhythms with some blasts of devastation that are few and far between remind me of a Far that doesn’t deploy a melodic singer (think Hot Water Music) and nods firmly in the direction of punk rock. Each song evokes an immediate attention span quadrant that scans the horizon looking for something better but comes up empty. I swear they are a few decades removed from the DC hardcore scene.

Yet another notch in the holy belt of engineer and musician Kurt Ballou (Converge), “The God Complex” was recorded in his den of awesome, God City Studios in Massachusetts and boasts annihilating aggressive hardcore that strays from conventions. Another Breath was formed in 2003 by a bunch of friends that grew up in “The City with a Future”, also known as Fulton, New York – yeah I know, that’s a misnomer, no one has heard of it…but maybe in the future? Anyway, this eleven-song masterpiece churns out perfected lyrical writing by singer Ted Winkworth (doesn’t his last name sound like some Golden Ticket winner from “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory”)? Okay I digress. The guitars are aggressive blending harmony with dissonance. Each song seems to build off the last and by the end of the LP, you feel like you just experience a 12-round slug fest with the best boxer in the sport. Isn’t it awesome that at this point in the realm of hardcore, there are still bands reinventing the genre?

Check them out on MySpace.

Plus peep some footage of their record release show:

Okay so I admit this review is well over due. But just because I’ve been slacking off, doesn’t deride any of the importance of how truly epic and essential Converge’s seventh record release is. Jacob Bannon (singer) and Kurt Ballou (guitarist) are two of the most influential people in metal/hardcore/heavy music today, with Kurt Ballou having established himself as one of music’s most revered producers/engineers with his God City Studio a well-sought after destination. Ballou’s resume in the production, recording, and engineering realm is as impressive as his own musical one with a long resume that includes The Hope Conspiracy, pg. 99, Cave In, Modern Life is War, Blacklisted, Champion, Scars of Tomorrow, Orchid, and Paint it Black among many others. Indeed the group as a whole is a visceral auteur of heavy music, paving the way for many other experimental and chaotic bands to land into a scene that is welcoming, always moving, and rarely if ever stagnant. On “Axe to Fall”, Converge yet again expands their horizons with wavering and sober moments like “Cruel Bloom” featuring bluesy gravelly vocals sung by Steve Von Till (Neurosis) amid moist piano and ambient acoustic guitars. “Wretched Bloom” also features a guest vocalist in Genghis Tron’s Mookie Singerman who smoothly pours out a velvet of clean vocals that oddly complement the typical raging storm of Bannon’s ferocity. The album pours out buckets of emotion into a room that was once soaked with blood but is now drying, peeling off red-flecked paint chips like a million past childhoods wrought with self-destructive actions, something a song like the punk-fueled “Cutter” seems to cry out on. Converge are champions of everything heavy and prove their worthiness of the crown by dipping their quill into an inkwell of heavy rock, visceral chaotic metal, churning hardcore, and melodic heavy alternative art. “Axe to Fall” will fell an entire forest before it’s through rockin’ you out.

Monotonous melodic metallic hardcore fear not, Germany’s Zero Mentality is on the case. “Black Rock” turns in a rousing and churning militant version of the over-hyped genre with smashing harmonies and crushing dynamics. Drumming is steady while the vocals sound like a blunt Blitzkrieg of tortured emotions and liberating lyrics. Steady guitars fuel the energy while the bass undercuts the rhythm with stabbing efficiency. This album has so many surprises in store for anyone willing to give it a good honest listen. Perfect soundtrack to a sweaty workout too by the way!

Boston’s hardcore outfit Lions Lions is a melodic strong band that doesn’t believe in just playing shows to play shows. Instead, the group dominates the stage, often expressing every single solitary emotion that they’ve felt since the last tour with dripping sweat authority. Smart harmonies dominate each song, vocally taking the band into the realm of visionary as well as visceral. Produced by Alan Day and Dan O’Connor of Four Year Strong, “From What We Believe” is the perfect album for big-time fans of Thursday and Therefore I Am – of course the band features ex-members of that group so that’s pretty understandable. Rangy guitars ruminate over vowels of melody while the drumming punctuates the sweet and salty posterior of a well-worked out body amid a grunge-filled universe. Niiice.

Despite the new singer Jason Woods, It Dies Today still sounds as tight as ever, as if this group who formed originally in 2001. Their hybrid brand of metalcore, screamo, and hardcore remains solid despite the over-arching clichés that blot the genre. After all, how many bands that brush their hair back the wrong way would still have the balls to cover Duran Duran’s classic “Come Undone” and actually make it sound pretty damn good. Mike Hatalak not only plays in the band but recorded and engineered “Lividity” and churned out a damn fine sound. While It Dies Today may not be a band that writes memorable or awe-inspiring classics, they do write energetic classic metallic-edged tunes. And hell that’s worth something these days.