LOS ANGELES, CA-
“…I hadn’t planned to go see Zulu. Yet, as I meandered around the festival, I found myself inexplicably drawn to the hardcore chainmail sound of power violence catharsis striking out from the Greens Stage. I watched a dust devil rise from the mosh pit as fans circled round and round and round, wrenching into violent thrashing in the moments of Zulu’s hyper-short blasts of songs. Fans seemed to be in some kind of modern, hardcore trance, moving in a way that superficially implied violence, but spoke to a level of deep actualization upon a second look.
Zulu’s music is as innovative as Death’s was in the 1970s as they pull from R&B, reggae, hardcore, and Hello Kitty to make a sound and create a look all their own. Like most hardcore metal bands, the intensity of their sound belies the impressive talent that it takes to make it. Just like Dolly Parton famously said, “It takes a lot of money to look this cheap.” For the hardest of the hardcore bands, it takes a lot of talent, to be this difficult to listen to (for the everyday Joe, at least).
It is at this point in the festival that I start to revisit my relationship with hardcore music. My brief youthful inclination towards the genre had waned in recent years in favor of something a bit more chill. But there is something to be said for the movement, the blood, and the catharsis of hardcore. Maybe I am missing out on something transcendental soaked in blood that will give me a glimpse of some lost answer to a question I forgot I’d asked….”
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