Way back in the early 2010s was when I first got into post-hardcore, and more importantly when I first started listening to screaming music, and back then there were a ton of cool bands making this music. Maybe I’m just getting old now, but it seems like the post-hardcore of that time period has died and in its place, we have swancore and metalcore that all sounds the same and is over-produced. That being said, there are plenty of great bands still making music, and swancore isn’t all that bad (Eidola is a really insane band, for instance).
But enough of me complaining. Truth is, we’re always looking to the past because it reminds us of a “simpler” time, a time when we had less worries and problems. Realistically I think in another decade I could just as easily be writing another article like this one about the music that’s been coming out now (Still Stayer I’m looking at you). In fact, this is the very reason music is so fucking cool. We associate music with memories of a certain time or place. I still have a ton of different songs that I can listen to and remember the exact place I was when I first heard it. One of those songs, for instance, is Abdomen Bay by Haunted Shores. The guitar section right around 1:30 is so great, and I remember the exact place I was when my brother first showed me that song in his old Jeep Liberty.
This article is about the bands that I listened to with my brother during my early post-hardcore days. This one is specifically for those bands that didn’t achieve some sort of popularity, or make an album that solidified them as legendary (for post-hardcore standards, anyway). Some of these bands and members of them went on to do other things, and some didn’t. So let’s get into it.
Horizons
This band was very dear to me, as well as formative to my music taste back in 2011. When I think about the pinnacle of melody writing in post-hardcore, this is it. They too only had one EP release titled It’s All Worth Reaching For, followed by three singles that never made their way on to a full album. Horizons was a band from Ontario, Canada, formed by guitarists Doug Meadows and Ben Zemora, as well as drummer Cameron Ridgeway. Later they were joined by vocalist Chris Cosentino and bassist Boris Petriczko. Chris was the harsh vocalist, while Ben did all of the clean vocals.
I actually discovered more recently that there were a few more singles they had made, but they never got official releases like the other ones. The two unreleased songs that I know of are called “Lost in the Silence” and “Fearless,” which I discovered from this reddit post. I actually commented on it 2 years ago but another user more recently commented last year sharing that they had copies of the unreleased songs that they could share with anyone interested. I reached out to the user on reddit and he sent me the files! So if anyone is reading this and wants copies, leave me a comment below or email me and we can work something out. The previously mentioned EP and three singles are still up on Spotify, so no need to do any sleuthing for those.
Unfortunately I never got to see Horizons perform because they broke up shortly after their first US tour. I never saw any explanation of why, but I assume that touring life wasn’t really what they thought it would be, and it was really hard on them. I’ve seen other bands go through the same thing, and few make it out. It’s tough putting your entire self out there and getting nothing in return. That’s why I try to support any smaller bands as best as I can that come through on tour, and I hope if you’re is reading this, that you’ll do the same. Although, I assume the type of person to read this article is the same type of person that’s already supporting as best as they can.
These days I’m not sure what most of the members of Horizons are doing, but I do know that Ben and Doug went a different direction with music and started making EDM as a duo under the name Highcard. The most recent release was in 2021, though, and they’ve otherwise been silent on that front, and the Highcard website is no longer up. Ben also still makes music as a solo EDM artist, and he has some more recent releases on Soundcloud. Somewhere in the depths of my memory I also remember some solo pop music that Ben released, but I can’t find it now. Wherever they are and whatever they’re doing, I hope they’re having a good time and feeling fulfilled.
“You’re all I know,
There is a place for us to go,
I would never find a way down without you”
Let me leave this with a metal cover of Double Rainbow that I found from them here (yes, a super touching thing to end with).
East of Eden
This next one is a pretty interesting one. East of Eden was a Christian post-hardcore band from New Zealand. Their music shows they were pretty ahead of their time, as they wrote some really insane syncopated rhythms and off-time riffs. This band also had only one EP released when they broke up, with at least one single as well, but I can’t remember if it was only one or two. Only the EP remains available now: The Petitioner. I’m sure with some skilled digging one could find the extra single (or two), but I’m so fond of the EP alone that I don’t feel the need to go looking for it.
I actually was unable to listen to this band for a long time because I lost my only copy of the files when my PC broke a few years ago. There used to be a way to upload your own local files to Spotify and download them to a playlist on your phone so you could listen to stuff not uploaded to Spotify by the artist. Unfortunately though, the playlists would eventually break and force you to reupload files on your desktop and go through the process again. It was always a pain in the ass. That was all fixed when someone from East of Eden put the EP up on Spotify and posted about it on facebook. I think I listened to the whole thing 3 times that day, maybe more.
One of the things I really love about this band is their passion. I’ll admit that while I was raised catholic, I am no longer religious due to personal reasons. That’s not the point of this post, but the reason I bring it up is that throughout my years of listening to music, my opinion about religious music has drastically changed. I used to think that religious music was embarrassing to listen to, and the overly religious lyrics were almost cringeworthy. But now I realize that passion is the most important thing (to me, at least) in music. The amazing people in East of Eden get their passion from their religion, and I am here for it 100%. Another amazing band that draws their passion from religion is Eonia (actually just one dude), and he writes some of the most moving melodic hardcore/metalcore that I’ve heard in a long time.
The main guitarist of East of Eden, April Haines, went on to be a member of a few other bands in the New Zealand metal scene (Auckland, to be specific). I actually found these other two bands after starting the writing of this article, which is kinda lame. I probably should have known that a guitarist as talented as her would have other projects. The first band she made after EoE was called Patriot, and they went on to release two EPs, one self-titled and one called Family. The latter of those is still on spotify today, but it’s honestly quite difficult to find, took me at least a few minutes of searching and I knew exactly what I was looking for. After Patriot stopped playing together, April started the band Amanaki, who has three albums out at this point, and also just released a new single called “Money Man” back in January. It’s good to see sick musicians continuing to make music, and I hope April continues to be an amazing writer and guitar player.
Now here is a bit of a unique story; Hugh Ozumba. Hugh is Nigerian, but was born in England and has lived most of his life in Auckland, New Zealand. He was the harsh vocalist for East of Eden, but his story didn’t end with them. Shortly after EoE stopped performing, Hugh started his rap career as Unchained XL, and released several singles. He went on to even play a festival or two and tour through the UK under this act, but he ended up changing his stage name a few years later. Mazbou Q was the name he chose, which he said was “encoded from his birth name.” Along with all the music he’s released under his current name, he also has done a lot for the Black African community in New Zealand, and was invited to speak at schools after speaking out against white supremacy during the George Floyd protests. Hugh even has a TikTok account where he does in-depth analysis on rap music, under the name The Rap Scientist. He’s truly a talented and influential individual.
Side Note: April’s current band Amanaki just released an EP with Mazbou Q featured on a song. The track was nice to listen to, and it’s pretty cool to see that they still keep in touch, but I’ll admit I was a bit disappointed we didn’t get any screaming from Hugh in the feature!
East of Eden may have been around for a short time, but they made their mark on the world, and put out some killer music. I’ll be jamming The Petitioner until the day I die. Here’s a sick cover they did of Desolate, by Hundredth (which is hands-down my favorite song by them).
I, The Skyline
Back in the 2010s post-hardcore scene, there was some crazy fixation on the word skyline for some reason. I swear there were a ton of skyline bands: At The Skylines, Design The Skyline, Pacific Skyline, (just) Skyline… you get the point. When I think of a band with “skyline” in the name, I’m gonna be honest and say I think of electronic post-hardcore bands filled with dudes wearing eyeliner. Which is even more hilarious because I was super into it. Now, so many years later, I have a sort of distaste for these bands, but I, The Skyline was one of the good ones. They were mostly just another phc band of the time, but they had some great riffs that were a step above the other bands around them.
Their song names were also pretty insane. For instance, one of their most popular songs is called MuhammedAliSeriousAsCancerMan. I always think about how the hell these crazy song names came to be, especially the crazy post-hardcore bands of the time, like Attack! Attack! or I Set My Friends On Fire. Both of those bands had characteristically insane song names, but I guess it was just a thing lots of those bands were doing at the time. Dance Gavin Dance probably did it best honestly, and now they’re still the ones being crazy now.
I actually don’t have much info on these guys, as their socials are pretty dry, but if anyone knows any info feel free to reach out, I’m super interested. I just felt like they deserved a spot in this list because I really enjoyed their album. I do know that they were from California, and that one of their songs actually had Aaron Pauley on it, who’s currently in Of Mice and Men, but back then was probably still in Jamie’s Elsewhere. Anyway, check out their album, As We Are, on Spotify if you haven’t heard of them before.
Atlas
I saved this one for last because I have a lot of nostalgia surrounding this band, and I also felt like I was able to really relate with the music they were making. Atlas only had one album, called The Lost Boys, and it was really wonderful. The title is obviously in reference to Peter Pan, which I feel is a perfect conduit to communicate emotional themes like loneliness, love, and of course, growing up. Not all of the songs on the album refer to Peter Pan, though. Many of the songs seem to refer to other pop culture that share similar “lost boy” themes: Monstro for Pinocchio, Sucklepuff and Mudblood for Harry Potter, Who Rules? Hyrule for Zelda, and Chestah Coppah Paht for The Goonies. All of these are pretty good examples of Lost Boys to me.
The first song I ever heard from this band was Mudblood, and it’s a pretty classic post-hardcore song that encapsulates the scene right around 2012. There’s a fun music video they put out for it that’s set in a roller skating rink, probably somewhere in Massachusetts. Watching it now feels very reminiscent of the goofy music videos of the early 2010s time, like the one for I’m Made of Wax Larry, What Are You Made of? by A Day to Remember, or Hey Baby, Here’s That Song You Wanted by Blessthefall. I think it was actually removed from youtube for awhile, but it seems like the video’s producer reuploaded it sometime last year, so I’ll link it below!
I’m not sure how much I’ve elaborated before on why exactly I love the kind of guitar writing style that I often talk about. I think I’ve mentioned that there’s a lot of emotion conveyed in the music and that some bands just feel different than others. However, I think back in the 2010-2013 time, most bands were using what I (and my brother) call “The Riff,” though that’s probably not the most accurate way to describe it, since everyone could interpret that differently. When I talk about “The Riff,” I’m referring to the arpeggiating of really melodic chords in a particular way that just really strikes something within me. A perfect example of it would probably be the end of The Sanctuary by Counterparts. I do have to give credit to my brother, though, because he is the one who coined this term for this particular type of riff back when we were first getting into hardcore music.
Anyway, the whole point of the previous paragraph was to say that Atlas‘ music was absolutely riddled with The Riff™, which really made that album something special. Atlas didn’t actually stay Atlas for long, though. That band (mostly) is known today as Wind Walkers, who actually gained a lot of popularity in recent years because of their cover of the Halsey song Without Me. They made the change over to Wind Walkers because they felt like Atlas was “overly-used and unoriginal” (I like it). Under the newer name, they released an acoustic EP, then a normal EP, and eventually sort of “re-did” The Lost Boys. The newer rendition of The Lost Boys had a few songs missing and a few new additions, and they songs that were the same were all re-recorded and done differently. Personally, I felt like the redone songs were mixed in a way that covered up all of the amazing guitar writing that made me fall in love with them in the first place. Alas, I think many bands go for this kind of recording now.
Unfortunately, the original vocalist left or was kicked out of the band over some sensitive stuff that happened in his personal life. I don’t really remember what the subject matter was but it definitely was not flattering for him. It’s unfortunate when someone you look up to musically shows a different side of themselves and it leaves a bad mark on the music when you listen to it in the future (I’m looking at you, I The Mighty). Now Wind Walkers is relatively big for a post-hardcore/metalcore band, but they seem pretty boring and generic to me these days. I guess that’s the problem with amazing bands. You either die with a legendary record or two, or you keep putting out material until you’re no longer the same.
Thanks for reading my pure nostalgia post, it was mostly just a way for me to memorialize these bands and maybe provide somewhat of an explanation about some of them for people who go google searching for them years from now. drop a comment if you knew and loved any of these bands, It’s always fun to reminisce.
