When I suggest to Shane Merrill that the hardcore festival he founded might have some similarities with This Is Hardcore—the enormous three-day spectacular in Philadelphia booked by “Joe Hardcore” McKay—he gives me a wry laugh. The head honcho of Empire Productions, who started the Rumble in 2010, came up in the potent late-90s Chicago hardcore scene, and he’s founded several bands over the years, including the Killer (in 2001) and most recently Young & Dead (in 2013). But despite his long history in the community, he knows that This Is Hardcore is doing something above and beyond what he hopes to accomplish this weekend, when he brings the Rumble back for two days at Cobra Lounge.
The meat of the festival’s lineup, though, consists of present-day hardcore acts who are beholden to the bands Merrill knows from way back. Long Island’s Incendiary—probably the most popular band on the bill—released one of the best hardcore records of 2017, Thousand Mile Stare. “Ten or 15 years ago, Incendiary are Turmoil,” Merrill says, by way of historical analogy. The metal-tinged hardcore of fellow Long Islanders Sanction recalls the buzz-saw sound of the early-2000s Hydra Head catalog. Louisville’s Nine Eyes play old-school beatdown at its best. And Kansas City/Chicago behemoth Spine release a new full-length in June via hardcore mainstay Bridge Nine Records. Thousand Mile Stare by Incendiary “The Chicago hardcore scene right now is a younger person’s game,” Merrill says, without a shred of resentment. “Some might say I’m mellowing out in my old age. I’d probably never really say that, because sooner or later I’m going to be listening to a Suffocation record.”
