Music You Need In Your Playlist (aka most of the Bands That Are In Mine)

As I continually get asked what I listen to while training and for recommendations for new bands, I thought I’d stop what I was writing long enough to give you a bit of an idea of what’s going on musically in my life these days.  Basically, my musical interests in general don’t stray far from hardcore/deathcore/slam beatdown- I basically only add grime like Scrufizzer and some dubstep to the mix when I’m not in the gym.  That and the Last Podcast on the Left, which is a badass occult, serial killer, and general esoterica podcast you can find on Stitcher, Soundcloud, and iTunes.

Since I pretty much get constant requests for what is in my playlist, here we go.  I’m just giving you the band names because giving you the individual songs would be ridiculously long and overly arduous and there just seems to be little point to it.  I did link songs and albums for select artists, but I spent waaaaay more time on this than anticipated and didn’t have extra time to link more shit.  So what we’ve got here a rotating bunch of bands including, but not limited to:

25 ta Life – Strength Through Unity and Friendship, Loyalty, Commitment were fucking amazing brutal hardcore albums.  Back in the day, no one had shit on Rick ta Life’s vocals, though the man is now a parody of the scene king he once was.

45 Stainless – epic beatdown from Finland.  Don’t sleep on this band- they broke up, but both of their albums will have you spinkicking motherfuckers in the middle of Barnes and Noble if you’re not careful.

A Night in Texas – Crazy deathcore from down under.

Acacia Strain – the progenitors of downtempo.  There’s better downtempo these days, but they’re still worth a listen.

Acrania – the first deathcore band I can think of with truly shit-your-pants crazy vocals.

Agnostic Front – moshy 90s hardcore pioneers.

Altars – metallic hardcore

Angel Crew – moshy christian crewcore with crazy breaks

Angelmaker – dual vocalist deathcore that will melt your face

Annotations of an Autopsy – slam beatdown/deathcore.  Their last EP Dark Days has two epic bangers that must be included in your lifting mix- Buried in a Bad Rap and Stage Breaker.  If you dislike either of those song, you might as well just unfollow this fucking blog and go join Curves where you can rock out to Barry Manilow and suck on your own.

Attila – wignorant party deathcore

Backtrack – straight up hardcore with a super 90s feel.

Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza – hardest of the hardcore/bats are on the dancefloor.  If Last One Standing won’t get your dick hard, nothing will.

Battlecross – their covers of Hostile and War Ensemble are doooope, but they’re generally thrash

Beg for Death – brutal downtempo with pretty fucking depressing lyrics that still somehow manage to pump me the fuck up

Bill the Butcher – you’ve gotta love any band named after Daniel Day Lewis’s character in Gangs of New York.  This is one man band of brutal slam beatdown goodness.

Billy Club Sandwich – 90s toughguy hardcore- Slow With Your Hands needs to be in everyone’s lifting playlist.

Bitter Thoughts – toughguy hardcore that sounds like an updated Shutdown.  Old heads like me should get all nostalgic listening to this shit.

Blood for Blood – white trash hardcore you should already know about.

Blood Has Been Shed –  metalcore band with great breakdowns featuring Howard Jones of Killswitch (although BHBS was WAAAAAAY better) and pro mma fighter and 90s hardcore legend Rich Thurston.

Bodybag – Epic beatdown hardcore.  Must have shit for your playlist.

Bodysnatcher – brutal downtempo

Bound in Fear – absolutely fucking boneshaking downtempo

Brawl Between Enemies – super brutal beatdown from Germany with dual vocals.  Great shit.

Brick by Brick – old school hardcore

Broken Humanity – brutal deathcore / toughguy hardcore

Built Upon Frustration – same thing.  Pittsburgh hardcore has a definitive sound.

Built Upon Hatred – brutal slam beatdown with some of the best breakdowns I’ve ever heard.  Check out this one that starts with one of the best lines out of a movie in the last ten years- the “fuck that, it’s a promise” bit from Alpha Dog.

Bulldoze – the OG toughguy hardcore band, from which the term “beatdown” arose

Buried Alive – moshcore band that became Terror

Bury Your Dead – Yeah, I still rock shit from Cover Your Tracks and You Had me at hello.  They used to bring the fucking mosh.

Butcher – beatdown hardcore from Germany

Carbine – slam beatdown like a fucking boss

Clawhammer – even more like a boss than Carbine.  This video explains all you need to know- crowdkill cam for the fucking win.

Clench Your Fist – toughguy hardcore

Cold Blooded Murder – flat-brim slam beatdown from Mother Russia

Cold Hard Truth – badass UK toughguy/beatdown hardcore with a jacked singer

Cold Hearts – the name of their EP says it all- Violence is the Answer.  Deathcore/slam with a beatdown feel and some unique vocals

Colossal – Kublai Khan-esque brutal hardcore

Crowd Deterrent – old school tough guy hardcore

Cunthunt 777 – gang vocal beatdown from Germany- No Gods, No Masters is a fucking multi-lingual masterpiece.

DCA – French toughguy hardcore along the lines of Cold Hard Truth.

Dead By Wednesday – crazy fucking rapcore from the early oughts.

Deathsinger – beatdown/downtempo brutality

Denihilist – ultra-Satanic downtempo


Desolated – see above

Despised Icon – the OG flat-brim slam deathcore band, and blissfully employing everyone’s favorite- dual vocals.

Drowning – POSSIBLY THE BEST HARDCORE BAND IN HISTORY, and fuck you if you disagree.  Flat-brim beatdown you must have in your life.

E-Town Concrete – 90’s era rapcore with brutal growls added in for good measure

Earth Crisis – awesome 90’s ecoterrorist straightedge hardcore

Easy Money – sick toughguy beatdown from Arizona

Embraced by Hatred – awesome brutal german hardcore.  When I want everyone to back the fuck up in the gym, I open up the pit screaming along with None To like I’m at a show.

Emmure – if you’ve never heard for Emmure, I don’t know how you even found this blog.

Enemy Mind – 90’s era tough guy rapcore from Pittsburgh.  Fucking awesome.

Expire – moshcore done right

Fallbrawl – dancy German moshcore

Feign – downtempo / beatdown.  Brutal.  Their Mudvayne cover is fucking ridiculous- just listen through the breakdown and tell me I’m wrong.

Filth – s00per brutal downtempo.  If you listen to this while suicidal, you’ll off yourself with either a chainsaw or a broadsword.

First Blood – awesome hardcore featuring members of Sworn Vengeance and Terror.

First Degree – California beatdown.

Full Contact – UK beatdown hardcore

Gassed Up – sick UK grime toughguy rapcore.

Gat-Rot – completely unknown Tucson, AZ dual vocal rapcore band I still rep hard.  We used to go fucking BANANAS at shows when they’d play Where will you go.  I no longer have that EP “Us Versus Them” to my knowledge, but intend to hunt it down.  Their first album is fucking great and up on Bandcamp.

Get the Shot – creossover hardcore with a decidedly 90’s feel.  If you like Backtrack, Expire, and

Gift Giver – Badass numetalcore band.  If nothing else, you need these two songs on your playlist- Trendkill and Shitlife.  Seriously, don’t sleep on them just because the label makes you cringe- they’re the VOD of this era, and their breakdowns are fucking legit.

Goliath – brutal deathcore / downtempo

Hatebreed – you better know about them already. First three albums only for me.

Heavy Heavy Low Low – goofy but brutal I Don’t Know What-core.  You’ll either love them or hate the fuck out of them, and most of the hardcore scene claims to have beaten up the entire band.

Hed PE – I’ve had “Not Dead Yet” in my playlist since the song first dropped.  The band is widely variable in quality, so don’t go adding their entire discography.

Honest Crooks – brutal deathcore/downtempo

Hoods –  one of my all time favorite hardcore bands.  Tough as fuck, badass breakdowns, and dual vocals like a muhfucka (at least until their last album, which you can avoid).  MUST HAVE.

Horned – Mega-Satanic blackened beatdown out of France.  Another must have, in my opinion.

I Am – Crazy sick downtempo.  CRAZY SICK.

I, Valiance – If Methwitch had a second vocalist who sounded exactly like Starscream from the Transformers and the entire band loved the circus so much they employed a calliope in their music, I, Valiance is what you’d end up with.  Calling this shit insane is like saying that Tara Reid now looks a bit like Michael Jackson’s reanimated corpse, only with significantly less acting ability, and I say this under the impression they’re Christian and possibly straightedge.  Yeah, they’re that brutal.

In Cold Blood – No one has ever heard of this band, and I think they were a side project of Integrity.  Awesome shit, even if you only put one song on your playlist- Pain.  Gotta have that in the mix.

Indigestion – super awesome German slam beatdown band.  Another band that’ll have you spinkicking motherfuckers in the mall.  Must have.

Infant Annihilator – brutal technical deathcore with the craziest vocals ever

Ingested – slam beatdown pioneers.

Interrupting Cow – zany technical death metal with great breakdowns

Irate – super sick beatdown hardcore from the late 90s, when we were all wearing basketball jerseys and beating kids in skinny jeans half to death at shows.

Jerome – I never found out where this vocalist went, but the dude was jacked, had fucking amazing vocals, and even better lyrics.  Crazy sick deathcore.  I AM NOT THE ANTI-CHRIST.  I AM JUST A FUCKING KILLER.

Job for a Cowboy – Nothing yet has come along that blows JFAC’s first EP “Doom” out of the water.  Shit your pants brutal deathcore with enough BREEs to keep you cool while dying of heat exhaustion.  Rapist-like wit!  W00t!

Kharma – an updated version of Bitter Thoughts that I fucking LOVE.

Killwhitneydead – love em or hate em, this band is awesome and remains one of my favorite bands to gym mosh to.  Here’s to pretty girls and breaking the law.

King 810 – settle the fuck down- they have one good song and it’s Heavy Lies the Crown

Knocked Loose – Moshy as fuck hardcore.

Kinshasa –These motherfuckers are named after Nakamura’s finishing move because they’re that fucking brutal.  Here’s my review on Bandcamp: BITE THE FUCKING PAVEMENT. This is true beatdown. Whether you’re trying to blow out her back wall and need a steady beat to do it or you’re looking to curbstomp a yuppie at the mall, this is the shit to which you want to do it.
Favorite track: Pavement.

Kublai Khan – kind of the gold standard for moshy metalcore these days.

Laid 2 Rest – Ultraviolent beatdown hardcore for the type of person who wants songs about curbstomping motherfuckers.  BRINGING THE VIOLENCE BACK.

Last Ten Seconds of Life – Hit and miss for me, and they switched from deathcore to.. pop(?) recently, but I still rock their older shit.

Liferuiner – Their first album was a gold standard of moshy beatdown, then the band split into two competing versions of the same band and the one that survived fucking blows.  The rest went on to become Recognize, which was a fucking awesome toughguy band.

Limp Bizkit – yeah, motherfucker- I’ve had Leech in every playlist I’ve made since that album dropped.

Lionheart – if you don’t know, google them.  FTW has been on my playlist for a decade.

Livyah – fucking incredible downtempo.  So brutal.

Lose None – mid oughts beatdown from Cali

Machete 187 – super brutal slam beatdown.  If you want breakdowns, you came to the right place.

Machine Head – though I generally am bored off my tits by this band, Ten Ton Hammer and Blood for Blood never leave my lifting playlist.  Hard-ass numetal fo sho.

Mercy Blow – Machete 187 wasn’t brutal enough?  Well then, here’s Mercy Blow with guest vox from Charlie of Gunishment, a band so fucking brutal they can’t seem to record an album but have AK47 guitars.

Methwitch – brutal slam deathcore with lunatic vocals.  This is must have.

Monsters – moshy deathcore I can’t seem to get tired of.

Murder Death Kill – I’m not promising genius lyrics, but this is brutal as fuck beatdown hardcore and they do a mock gang beatdown of ADTR in my favorite of their vids.

Mushmouth – old school PA hardcore legends

Nails – YOU WILL NEVER BE ONE OF US.  Exactly.

Nasty – sick Belgian beatdown hardcore.  So many awesome songs it’s hard to pick their best.  Just grab their shit and put it in your mix.

NJ Bloodline – badass old school Jersey rapcore.  Epic, and great guys IRL.

No Altars – crazy brutal satanic beatdown hardcore.  Yeah, satanic beatdown motherfucker.

No Innocent Victim – great moshy 90’s Victory hardcore band.

No Second Chance – toughguy hardcore

No Zodiac – Beatdown toughguy hardcore.  Posi Holocaust might be the hardest fucking song of all time.

Omen – pure fucking brutality.  Sort of downtempo/beatdown crossover that makes Acacia Strain seem downright fucking cheerful.  Dem breakdowns doe.

One Life Crew – the least politically correct hardcore band in history.  Gang vocals and shit-talking abound.  Awesome.

Out to Win – the band Mushmouth became.  Also awesome metallic hardcore.

Pitboss 2000 – OLC became Pitboss when they decided to stop being political and just mock cripples and shit.  Hilarious.  E C DUB was a regular chant at their shows, and if you don’t know what the fuck
ECW is, your life sucks.

Plagued By Humanity – br00tal beatdown hardcore.  Shit is basically nothing but breaks.

Primer 55 – the heaviest of all of the numetal bands this side of Slipknot in the early oughts.  Their first album was fucking great, and it’ll get you fired the fuck up for a death set on deadlifts.

Pry –  badass downtempo with more varied vocals than most downtempo bands

Psycho Enhancer – there was a time when there were a bunch of beatdown bands that were also about partying.  This would be a prime example, though they’re still around.  You’ve never seen so many people smiling during a beatdown song, haha.

Recognize – I fucking miss this band.  Brutal as shit and bouncy as fuck.  If anyone of you has the album, hook a brother up, because I lost it when my old laptop got stepped on my some lumbering drunk guy weighing about 210 lbs at a height of 5’6″ (on a tall day).

Reduction – German moshcore along the lines of Kublai Khan.

Sever the Fallen – 90’s metalcore that has been in my playlists since the era of mix cds.

Shattered Realm – you’d be hard pressed to find a better beatdown band than the original lineup of this band (which is apparently back with their original singer).

Slamcoke – awesome German slam beatdown.  Their best song has practically every good European toughguy band from 5 years ago in it- Fick die bude kaputt, round 2.

Slaughter to Prevail – Deathcore in a demon mask.  What could be better?

Slipknot – Yeah, I put a few songs off their debut and Iowa on my lifting mix.  How could you not include a song in which the breakdown is ONLY ONE OF US WALKS AWAY?

Soulfly – Yeah, most of their music is derivative as fuck.  If you’ve not listened to their second album, Primitive, in awhile, give that motherfucker a spin.  You will not regret it- I guarantee you’ll find something on there worth adding to your playlist.

Spite –  IF YOU PUT NOTHING ELSE FROM THIS LIST IN YOUR LIFTING MIX, PUT THIS IN.  I don’t even know how to classify this band… maybe what Slipknot could have become if they kept getting more brutal after Iowa.  WELCOME TO HELL.

Stampin‘ Ground – I really only like one of this UK hardcore band’s songs, but it’s been in every mix for 15 years- Officer Down.  Unique vocals, but I can’t really explain why.

Stigmata – old school hardcore with a bit of a 90s beatdown feel.

Stone Cold Stunner – Kinsasha and Stone Cold Stunner are evil twins separated at birth.  Nakamura vs Stone Cold… to the fucking death.  FUCK YOU AND YOUR GO FUNDMES.  Put this in your fucking playlist immediately or you risk having me drop a fucking stunner on you at a fit expo.

Suicide Silence – deathcore band everyone on Earth knows about.  If you don’t, google is your friend.

Sworn Enemy – Metalcore/thrash cossover band you should already know about.  Awesome, and needs no explanation.


Sworn Vengeance – Little known but fucking amazing brutal metalcore band, and the guitarist owns 22nd Street Barbell in Des Moines.  Good people, and fucking sick band I started listening to in 2001 after discovering their CD in a little indie record store in San Diego.

Terror – if you’ve never heard of Terror, just google them for fuck’s sake.

The Browning – weird mix of EDM and deathcore that somehow works well.

The Hell – hardcore supergroup with one of the greatest YOLO anthems of all time, Everybody Dies.  MIGHT AS WELL FUCK SHIT UP WHILE WE’RE ALIVE, CAUSE EVERYBODY DIES, EVERYBODY FUCKING DIES.

The Last Charge – awesome toughguy hardcore

The Projects – YOU NEED THIS BAND IN YOUR LIFE.  Toughguy hardcore in a rap mixtape.  Fucking amazing.  This is a side project of Enemy Mind, with the insanity cranked up to 11.

The Red Chord – crazy awesome (especially their first album) deathcore

The Rest Will Fall – Cali moshcore similar to Recognize and Lose None.

Thick as Blood – moshcore done fucking right.  You won’t be disappointed if you put any song on your playlist at random.

Third Rail – Brutal PA beatdown hardly anyone knows about, but everyone should.

Those Who Fear – Yeah, they’re Christian, but they’re brutal fucking downtempo.

Throwdown – Before these guys became a Pantera cover band, they were one of the hardest moshcore bands ever.  If you listen to their first 4 albums and first 2 EPs, you’ll see what I’m mean.  Sickness.

Thy Art is Murder – If you don’t put Whore To A Chainsaw onto your playlist, then fuck you.

Tony Danza Tapdance Extravaganza – utterly insane technical metalcore.

Trash Talk – awesome powerviolence.  Shit like Walking Disease always makes it into the mix.

True Temper – beatdown brutality with 90’s era vocals and slam/downtempo breakdowns

Turmoil – 90’s metallic hardcore legends

Unite and Conquer – if you only add one of their songs, make it Go Fuck Yourself.

Until the End – awesome late 90s/early oughts dual vocal hardcore.

Upon a Burning Body – I only like their first album, but it’s great metallic hardcore in the vein of Kublai Khan.

Vampirecunt – amazing and hilarious slam beatdown out of what appears to be the most white trash people ever filmed.

Waking the Cadaver – greatest flat-brim slam band in the history of the genre, and they’ll never be beaten.

War from a Harlots Mouth – crazy technical German metalcore with brutal breaks.

Warhound – if nothing else, you need one song from this band in your playlist- Next Level 
Demonstration 2013.  “All you dumb motherfuckers can keep running your fucking mouths.  You’re only making us fucking stronger.  We live for this.  We do this fucking lifestyle.  When you’re gone, we’ll still be here till the death.  You wonder why none of you have allegiance either.  Everyone complains.  Everyone’s got something to say.  That doesn’t mean shit unless you do shit, so go do some fucking work.”

Wicked World – super brutal sort of numetalcore.  Good shit.

Within Destruction –  SLAM AS FUCK.  Women could miscarry listening to this shit.

Words of Concrete – brutal beatdown out of East Germany.  Their new shit is doooope.

World of Pain – FUCKING SICK beatdown hardcore.  Their entire s/t should be in your playlist, but if nothing else, you need Suffer in there.

World of Tomorrow – German fucking beatdown.  If this shit doesn’t do it for you, you might be dead.  Essential.

xDisciplex AD – badass Christian toughguy hardcore band from the late 90s.

xKingx – downtempo that got tuned to the lowest audible register.

xTexas Chainsaw Massacrex – Deathcore bordering on slam, xTCMx has the best of both worlds- badass breaks and actually intelligible vocals.  I love pig squeals far more than most, but whatever the nomenclature used for slamming death metal vocals is, I despise that shit.  These guys bring the fucking insanity with super downtempo breaks and basically sound like what you’d imagine Leatherface would listen to for lullabies.  Warning: Failure to appreciate the brutality of this band may result in a severe drop in free and serum testosterone.

xToiletFlushx – hilarious and insanely good slam beatdown.

Years Spent Cold – super toughguy beatdown

So there you go- that’s what essentially comprises my current lifting playlist.  Between that and Tumblr porn, you should have PRs flowing like cum in a gangbang.

Speak up the comments and tell me why I’m fucking wrong, who I forgot, etc.  Bring the hate, motherfuckers.