Excide don’t want to be Turnstile or Knocked Loose. They want to create something new: “Post-hardcore just meant trying new and different things.”
Excide, an American hardcore band, are pushing back against comparisons to genre leaders like Turnstile and Knocked Loose, aiming instead to carve out their own sound within the current wave of hardcore's mainstream resurgence. Frontman Tyler Washington argues that "post-hardcore" was always about established hardcore musicians experimenting with new and different ideas, a lineage he sees the band continuing rather than simply imitating their more famous peers. The distinction matters because hardcore's recent growth in popularity has been driven partly by younger bands willing to evolve the genre rather than replicate a formula.
This experimental approach is evident on Excide's second album, Bastard Hymns, which blends heavy, pounding hardcore with unusual, angular time signatures and thick layers of grungy alt-rock melody. Washington cites Snapcase as an influence who showed him hardcore could be "weird," underlining the band's intent to draw on unconventional sources rather than the current scene's biggest names.
- Hardcore band Excide want to sound distinct from Turnstile, Knocked Loose.
- New album Bastard Hymns mixes hardcore with odd time signatures, alt-rock melody.
- Frontman Tyler Washington cites Snapcase as a key influence.
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Excide are an American hardcore band who have become part of a wider surge of interest in the genre, alongside better-known acts such as Turnstile and Knocked Loose. Rather than following the sound that has made those bands popular, Excide say they are trying to do something different, drawing on hardcore's tradition of experimentation rather than imitating current trends.
Frontman Tyler Washington frames this through the term "post-hardcore", which he says has always described hardcore musicians pushing into new musical territory rather than a fixed style. He points to Snapcase, an earlier hardcore band known for unconventional ideas, as an inspiration for this approach, positioning Excide within an older lineage of genre experimentation rather than the current mainstream wave.
The band's second album, Bastard Hymns, is presented as evidence of this approach, mixing heavy hardcore with unusual rhythms and elements borrowed from alt-rock. The wider context is that hardcore's growing popularity has been shaped by younger bands choosing to evolve the genre rather than repeat an established formula.