As the smoke clears from the pandemic's boom of kids learning about hardcore music and culture through social media, bands who have spent the greater part of the last 15 years planting their flag firmly in concrete as mainstays of the scene like Have Heart or Ceremony have come back to play shows bigger than ever, selling thousands of tickets in places like Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and New York City. A band you will notice billed as support at a lot of these shows are Southern California's Initiate - Crystal Pak(vocals), Michael Morales(bass) and Draven Carter(drums). While some of these bands, part of the new wave of hardcore happening, struggle to find their footing in this strange new landscape of people moshing in their bedrooms, it’s obvious to anyone paying attention - Initiate stand-out.

With their start in 2016, Initiate's music draws from the melody of bands like Turning Point and the aggression of bands like Uniform Choice. Their latest studio album(named in Brooklyn Vegan’s Top 55 Albums of 2023), Cerebral Circus, recorded with producer Zach Tuch, combines elements of the genre in a way that feels fresh. The same can be said with their newest single, Too Much. The guitars are dynamic, while the drums and bass provide a grounded base, respecting the foundational sounds of their predecessors.

“Too Much touches the dark and the light,” Pak explains. “How the constant exposure to death makes me feel like living to see the next day is incredibly bleak, but when you do find the light in that dark place, it permeates through.” Pak’s intense and thoughtful performance stands above the noise, conveying a message of importance for anyone searching for something to connect with, proving to the listener that there are in fact bands out there that truly do give a shit.

While style in any subculture is paramount - hardcore is special. Bands like Youth Of Today showed up in letterman jackets and brought things like college crewneck sweaters into the fashion conversation. Hardcore made it palpable for its listeners to wear Levi’s 501’s and buttoned up collared shirts while front flipping into a crowd or screaming words of discontent. It let everyone know everywhere that while The Sex Pistols were great, you could still create your own version of defiance. Initiate embodies the above ethos. If you look up the average Initiate listener picture in Webster's dictionary, you might have a hard time figuring out if the picture is in fact a student at Stanford University or someone screaming lyrics about the duality of man - but that's kind of the point.