Black Sheep
Drain
Drain play hardcore from Santa Cruz with a beach-town sunniness that shouldn't work with music this heavy and somehow makes it better. "Black Sheep" runs on the crossover thrash engine — a riff that's more Suicidal Tendencies than Youth of Today, the guitars bouncing rather than chugging, a drummer who treats the two-step like it's supposed to be fun. Sammy Ciaramitaro's vocal is a pure hardcore bark, no growl and no metalcore theatrics, delivered with an audible grin that's half the band's appeal. The lyric is outsider-as-identity, the standard hardcore turn where being the one who doesn't fit becomes the flag rather than the wound — but Drain's version is defiantly un-self-pitying, closer to a party invitation than a grievance. Cultural note: they arrived as the band that made hardcore feel like skating again after a decade of it feeling like homework, and the live shows are notorious for it. This wants a pit, or failing that, a car with the windows down and the speed slightly illegal. It's ninety seconds of joy shaped like aggression, and it does not overstay.
very fast
2020s
raw, punchy, sun-drenched
USA
hardcore. crossover thrash. exhilarated, defiant. ninety seconds of uncomplicated joy shaped like aggression — outsider identity reframed as a party invitation rather than a wound, arriving and departing without overstaying. energy 10. very fast. danceability 7. valence 7. vocals: pure hardcore bark, audible grin, no growl, energetic, un-self-pitying. production: crossover thrash riffs, Suicidal Tendencies-influenced bounce, raw drums. texture: raw, punchy, sun-drenched. acousticness 2. era: 2020s. USA. In a pit, or failing that a car with the windows down and the speed slightly illegal.