Here’s what you need to know about hardcore: For many bands in the genre, the most important thing in the world is to make crowds of people act wildly ignorant. It’s the only goal. Everything else is secondary. In their worthy pursuit of that goal, some hardcore bands even find their way to late-’90s rap-metal, a genre that was already heavily influenced by metallic hardcore bruisers like Biohazard. On “Talk Real,” Gridiron give us one of the hardest late-’90s rap-metal head-splitters since the actual late ’90. The riffs crush. The vocals snap. The climactic moments seem precision-designed to cause maximum violence. There are no DJ scratches on the chorus, but you might hallucinate them anyway, especially if someone just elbowed you in the side of the head. —Tom

“Pause At You” is a hell of a lead single. Courting have always been a good time, but now the Liverpool crew is bursting with dance-punk energy and a catchy atmosphere that sounds like the Strokes on steroids. It’s an intoxicating mix of hedonism and paranoia as Sean Murphy-O’Neill sings of a special night out, throwing in a reference to Bright Eyes in the chorus while he’s at it. He’s chainsmoking, he can feel the blood in his arms, he sees God in the city — and the listener is there with him, getting swept up into the exuberant mayhem. —Danielle

Though all its members were born after 2000, Horsegirl’s 2022 debut LP Versions Of Modern Performance solidified them as true students of ’80s and ’90s indie rock, repackaging what made bands like Pavement and Sonic Youth so great into a sound that felt referential and familiar, but never too derivative. Since then, the Chicago trio relocated to New York, where they wrote the majority of their upcoming sophomore album Phonetics On And On.

Lead single “2468,” however, was written in the Loft in Chicago, where producer Cate Le Bon pushed Horsegirl to think more outside the lines. In lieu of feedback-heavy guitars are pared-down, more minimalistic instrumentals that put a violin at the forefront. Combined with the group’s deadpan vocals, it’s something more akin to the Raincoats or the Slits — spunky and freewheeling, a quiet rebellious attitude bubbling underneath. —Abby

“Just for once I couldn’t give a damn what you’re thinking,” goes one of the many memorable lines on “Chill Out,” the debut single from the new duo Witch Post. Together, Scottish musician Dylan Fraser and LA singer-songwriter Alaska Reid make gritty indie rock that comes in swinging, hooks and riffs aplenty. “Chill Out” is a delightfully messy recollection of, in their words, a “relationship breaking down,” underscored by drunken barbs and muddled stutters. Like an on-again, off-again fling fueled by one too many drinks, “Chill Out” is addictive. —Abby

Historically, we do not include new Friday releases in The 5 Best Songs Of The Week. It says right up there that the eligibility period ends Thursday night. But we’re not going to have a 5 Best Songs feature on Black Friday next week, and waiting two weeks to enthuse about GNX in this column feels weird and wrong. So here you go. Let’s enthuse.

After only a couple hours with the album, it seems apparent that many, many of its tracks could top this list. Like, my pick for the best song tends to be whichever one is currently playing. But at this moment, we’re going with “squabble up,” one of the hardest and most electrifying of the bunch.

Like the Mustard-produced “tv off,” there’s a bit of “Not Like Us” redux here — the “thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk, thunk”; the exuberant call and response — but “squabble up” more than holds its own as a new iteration of take-no-prisoners 2024 Kendrick. That burbling future-funk beat from Sounwave and Jack Antonoff(!) has the money and the power both gyrating, especially when the Debbie Deb sample hits. Our guy compares his gun to Kamasi Washington, once again shushes Drake with the utmost condescension, laces in abundant references to his own discography, and builds up the tension with bar after bruising bar until lines like “Ace boon coon from the Westside to Senegal/ It’s a full moon, let the wolves out, I been a dog” land like a knockout punch.

The in-the-moment holy-shit euphoria is still going strong, and other contenders for the GNX throne may yet emerge. We may someday kick ourselves for passing over one of the more melodic offerings, like “luther” and “dodger blue.” In time, any track here might be looked back on as The One. But for now, I feel good. Get the fuck out my face. —Chris