Jivebomb lead singer Kat Madeira stalked and stomped the stage, mixing in chin-level high kicks and far-reaching back contortions as her bandmates stormed through their 18-minute set filled with chugging guitar riffs, thundering bass and pounding drums.
“Baltimore, you know what to do! Side to f——ing side!” Madeira shouted, whipping the rapt Baltimore Soundstage audience into a moshing frenzy. The stage divers got to work, launching themselves headfirst back into the crowd after two-stepping between the band members.
The smiles at Baltimore’s annual Disturbin’ the Peace festival were contagious. The February performance was an emblematic snapshot of Baltimore’s boundless hardcore scene in 2025. The city’s latest crop of rising bands is having a moment — one that’s making fans of the hard-hitting, us-against-everybody genre take notice around the world.
“You have a new band popping up every week. I can’t keep up,” said Flatspot Records’ Che Figueroa.
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Baltimore’s hardcore music scene is thriving
Figueroa would know. The Virginia native has been attending hardcore shows in Baltimore for nearly 25 years, first seeing bands like 25 Ta Life and Backhand at Hal Daddy’s in Highlandtown. Now, he’s the founder and co-owner of the acclaimed hardcore label based in Brooklyn, New York, and Baltimore, where he lives now.
Figueroa is amazed at the scene’s progress. “This is definitely the biggest that it’s been,” he said.
Baltimore hardcore has come in waves, led by bands like Next Step Up in the ‘90s, Stout in the 2000s and Trapped Under Ice, the influential act fronted by the magnetic Justice Tripp, in the early 2010s.
A new height was then reached by Turnstile, whose genre-bending, critically acclaimed album, 2021’s “Glow On,” took them to stages around the world and earned them four Grammy nominations, most in the rock and metal categories.
Now, bands like Jivebomb, End It and Gasket are the latest torchbearers of Baltimore’s tough, blue-collar brand of hardcore.
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Late last month, Flatspot released Jivebomb’s debut album, “Ethereal,” an efficient 10-track onslaught where no song hits the 2-minute mark. On it, the band, which began out of boredom when the pandemic shut down live performances, shows it can play furiously and deliriously heavy but also flexes its own style to push beyond hardcore’s traditional parameters, like the rap-sampling outro to “Survival Ain’t Taught.”
“We took a lot of creative liberties on the record,” said Madeira, a tattoo artist at Brightside Tattoo Shop in Federal Hill.
Now comes the fun part: taking the record on the road. Jivebomb just finished a short tour run with stops in Richmond, Virginia, Nashville and Atlanta, with more shows to come — including a headlining set at the Ottobar (2549 N. Howard St.) on April 26 to celebrate “Ethereal’s” release.
“I’m really proud of what we’ve done,” Madeira said. “I love every song, and I just want everyone to hear it.”
End It’s Patrick Martin understands the feeling. After a handful of EPs, including 2022’s standout “Unpleasant Living,” and building a word-of-mouth reputation as one of hardcore’s must-see live acts, End It is set to release their debut LP for Flatspot in the coming months.
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Their strain of infectious hardcore is led by singer Akil Godsey, whose on-stage charisma expertly juxtaposes his suffer-no-fools lyrics. One moment, he’s opening their set with a tuneful a capella rendition of Billy Joel’s “Big Shot.” The next, he’s yelling at full throttle: “I never asked for your opinions or permission!”
The band’s path to this moment has been filled with unexpected turns — surreal signs that more listeners are catching on.
Blink-182 drummer Travis Barker booked End It, who wears its Baltimore pride on its sleeve, as the lone band to perform at his 5K charity run in New Orleans in February. Most hardcore acts don’t expect to see Barker and his wife, Kourtney Kardashian, jamming out to their band on a Friday morning at a public park.
“That’s certainly not the norm for us,” said Martin, who plays bass and co-owns the Station North venue Metro Baltimore.
Then came the bucket-list item. Alongside Turnstile, End It made it onto the soundtrack for the latest “Tony Hawk Pro Skater” video game, due out in July. Martin grew up playing the series and can still vividly recall learning new songs and bands from it. Now, his band’s “New Wage Slavery” joins the hallowed ranks.
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“Our minds are still blown. It’s so, so cool,” he said.
The anticipation for End It’s first proper album is reaching a fever pitch in hardcore circles. They wrote it off and on for over a year and recorded it at Salad Days Studio in Mount Washington. Martin said the songs are “very chaotic” but also more catchy. He knows they’re primed to attract even more ears with it.
“They’re probably the most involved songs we’ve written to this point. They’re not easy to play,” Martin said with a laugh. “At the same time, they’re very easy to digest, and I think that’s going to be something good for everyone, hopefully.”
As Jivebomb and End It earn national attention, there’s no shortage of acts from the area coming up behind them. Take Gasket, a quartet formed in 2022 that’s turning heads with their muscular and punishing blend of metal and hardcore.
The members, who are all either 21 or 22, are navigating the demands of touring with finishing school. It’s even harder with guitarist Calvin Mumma attending Drexel University in Philadelphia and drummer Austin Jenkins at the University of Maryland, College Park.
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“It’s very tough but … we’ve just been trying to keep grinding lately,” said singer Flynn Zimmer, a Parkville native.
It’s no exaggeration: Just weeks ago, Gasket drove to Indianapolis to open for Pat and the Pissers, played their set and immediately made the 10-hour trek back to Maryland.
Zimmer is blown away by the current state of Baltimore hardcore and is thrilled that Gasket, who recently recorded their debut album at Baltimore’s Magpie Cage studio, gets to wave the flag for Charm City. He can recall when the momentum wasn’t always evident.
“When I started going to shows, it would be 20 people in a room on a Saturday night with two touring bands that have a following,” he said. “It’s like, ‘Damn, how do people not know about this?’ ”
As more fans fill up spots like Hampden’s Holy Frijoles and House of Chiefs, the York Road venue where Gasket will perform on April 25, that’s clearly no longer a problem.
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“Baltimore is one of the best cities for hardcore,” he said. “It’s been snowballing since COVID ended, and that’s really awesome to see.”
More bands to check out
Baltimore’s well of punishing hardcore bands isn’t running dry anytime soon. Here are more acts to dive into:
And here’s a Spotify playlist for a sampling of what the city’s scene has to offer:
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