Age Of Apocalypse come from the busy hardcore scene in New York’s Hudson Valley, and they made a name for themselves during the pandemic. They released their debut EP The Way last year, and they followed it with a split with Long Island’s Pain Of Truth. Age Of Apocalypse’s sound is based in hardcore, but it’s usually closer to ’80s underground metal, with huge, heavy mid-tempo riffage and triumphantly howled sung-not-streamed vocals. The band’s debut album Grim Wisdom has been eagerly anticipated in hardcore circles. It’s here now, and it rules.

Age Of Apocalypse recorded Grim Wisdom with the great heavy-music producer Taylor Young, who’s been in bands like Nails, Twitching Tongues, and God’s Hate and who seems to work on every great heavy hardcore album these days. The album is full of lumbering, monstrous guitars. It’s not what you’d call melodic hardcore, but it’s got hooks, and it’s also got a serious sense of atmosphere working for it. If I were making a sequel to The Crow in 2022, I would absolutely want this band on the soundtrack, and I consider that a huge compliment. We’ve already posted the early singles “The Patriot” and “Ghost (Hart Island),” and now you can hear the whole album for yourself below.

Grim Wisdom is out now on Closed Casket Activities.