Hardcore continues to thrive in 2025. Drain just put out …Is Your Friend, where their metallic riffs collide against mosh pits filled with beach balls, inflatables, and pool noodles. Scowl keep on challenging the genre’s limits, weaving in tuneful alt-rock melodism without losing any of their edge on this year’s Are We All Angels. Turnstile have been inspiring countless debates about what is and isn’t hardcore since releasing NEVER ENOUGH in June, incorporating flute, saxophone, and club beats. However, none of these bands would have gotten here without their elders who threw down in the early ’80s, creating hotbeds of underground fury within New York City, Washington, D.C., and Southern California.
Read more: Fan poll: 5 best New York City hardcore bands
With the topic on our minds, we wanted to find out what our readers consider the best hardcore albums, regardless of era. Find the top fan picks ranked below.
5. Sick of It All – Scratch the Surface
If you know NYHC, then you won’t be surprised that Sick of It All’s 1994 major-label breakthrough made this list. Produced by Don Fury (a legendary figure within the scene), the band managed to sound bigger and bolder than 1989’s Blood, Sweat and No Tears, but still gritty enough to carry weight within their community. The songs were aggressive and streetwise with an undeniable tightness, communicating that just because they were signed to a major didn’t mean they had to drop the values that defined their music. As Lou Koller sings at the start of “Step Down,” In the underground, integrity lies within/In the underground, image doesn’t mean a thing.” Its conviction still rings out to this day.
4. Madball – Set It Off
Freddy Cricien was only 12 years old when he sang on Madball’s debut seven-inch single, “Ball of Destruction,” in 1989. Though they were conceived as a side project to his older brother’s band Agnostic Front, they quickly picked up the torch from hardcore’s first wave and brought it forward, helping to define the modern NYHC sound. Our readers rightfully pointed to their 1994 debut full-length, Set It Off, as one of hardcore’s greatest, becoming so influential that whole generations of fledgling bands used it as a blueprint. The songs were steeped in groove, introducing their beatdown style through a series of relentless anthems wrapped around survival, brotherhood, and home.
3. Hatebreed – Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire
Hatebreed’s Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire is just under a half-hour long, but it’s loaded with adrenaline. The songs fall between metallic aggression, razor-sharp musicianship, and clear-eyed intention, making them go from Bridgeport, Connecticut unknowns to one of the most influential groups in hardcore. However, Hatebreed knew better than to limit themselves. They found quick kinship with the metal community, touring with Slayer, Slipknot, and Entombed, which meant legions of fans got to experience hardcore for the first time. The crossover is exactly what made Satisfaction… a gateway album for entire generations — and created a fruitful career for the NYC crew, who inked a deal with Universal Records after its release.
2. Cro-Mags – The Age of Quarrel
Though Cro-Mags had been playing around NYC since 1980, they didn’t put out their debut album, The Age of Quarrel, until six years later. That’s for good reason. It became a landmark within punk, bridging hardcore tradition with tremendous riffing and violent energy that reflected what they saw on the streets of the Lower East Side. They’re also a product of their influences. “We Gotta Know” was written to be “as nasty and vicious” as Bad Brains while referencing Mahavishnu Orchestra’s jazz fusion, whereas “World Peace” was just a “Cro-Mags version of a Motörhead-type song,” enlivened by John Joseph’s raspy storytelling. Either way, The Age of Quarrel carries confidence and anger, and our readers love them for it.
1. Gorilla Biscuits – Start Today
Though Gorilla Biscuits didn’t last long, their influence is perennial. Unlike their peers in Agnostic Front and Cro-Mags, they played with a keen sense of melody that resulted in a batch of tight, catchy, and exceedingly uplifting songs. That’s best heard on 1989’s Start Today, rife with infectious choruses, agility, and explosive energy that owes a great deal to Minor Threat. GB ultimately established themselves as hardcore leaders, going on to influence bands en masse (Fall Out Boy covered “Start Today” for Tony Hawk, whereas Scowl’s Cole Gilbert called them one of his favorite hardcore bands of all time). Luckily for our readers, their many reunion shows have allowed younger fans to witness the magic that they poured into the scene all those years ago.
