Tickets are still available for next Wednesday’s showcase at Theatre Fairmount, where prices start around $60 for what might be the most significant hardcore package to hit Montreal this year. Doors open at 7:00 p.m. for a four-band bill that reads like a masterclass in American hardcore history.
Madball, the New York institution fronted by Freddy Cricien since he was barely a teenager, headlines the evening. Cleveland’s Integrity, pioneers of the metalcore genre who formed in 1988 and whose fusion of hardcore punk with heavy metal, gothic rock, and apocalyptic themes influenced countless bands including Converge and Hatebreed, brings their “holy terror” sound north. California’s Strife, the Thousand Oaks band whose 1994 debut One Truth and 1997’s In This Defiance became touchstones of ’90s hardcore, rounds out the upper tier, with Combust and Montreal’s Iron Crusaders opening.
The timing isn’t accidental. Madball recently wrapped vocal tracking for their upcoming record, with mixing now underway. This five-date run through Canada and the Midwest serves as both a victory lap and a warm-up, hitting Toronto’s Lee’s Palace the following night before crossing back into the States.
What makes this particular lineup compelling isn’t nostalgia; it’s continuity. These aren’t bands trading on past glories. Integrity’s merger of hardcore with metal and darker elements proved widely influential on the subsequent development of both genres. Madball’s connection to Agnostic Front and their role in defining New York hardcore speaks for itself. Strife’s willingness to incorporate guest appearances from Chino Moreno of Deftones, Dino Cazares of Fear Factory, and Igor Cavalera of Sepultura on In This Defiance demonstrated how hardcore could evolve without losing its edge.
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