A debut EP of gloriously unorthodox hardcore from Atlanta!
Hard times create great hardcore music, and Atlanta quintet Muelas are a fine example. This debut EP is described by guitarist Kaemon Maggard as harnessing “the rage and despair as we see our neighbors and democratic institutions suffer blow after blow to the rise of fascism, but also, the catharsis of using art we’ve made with friends to embody joy as an act of resistance”.
Vocalist/violinist Susy Reyes has greater justification for her anger than most; as a queer first generation Mexican-American, these are scary times for many of her loved ones, and she doesn’t hold back on the ICE-skewering ‘Melt’. One and a half minutes of pure punk rock rage spliced with gloriously discordant post-hardcore bounce, it’s hardcore built to shake folks out of their state of complacency, and makes for a superb follow-up to excoriating opener ‘F.Y.J.J.’
It’s on the nearly five-minute centrepiece of ‘Amor Moribundo’, though, that the band truly spread their wings. Reyes is also a long-time mariachi performer, and it’s barely a minute into the track that the distorted fury gives way to her haunting Spanish-language vocals, with little more than a plaintive guitar and violin backing. It’s wonderfully unsettling – probably just as the band intended – and shows that Muelas don’t always need to dial up the hardcore bludgeon to connect emotionally.
The instrumental ‘Xiii’ continues in a similar vein; with mournful violin dominating until monolithic guitars cut in towards the end. It all comes to a close on ‘Switchback’, with Reyes’ voice building gradually to a scream over some muscular post-hardcore backing. She sounds like she’s scraping her violin ragged over the equally abrasive guitar-led outro, and it makes for a thrilling finale.
If you miss the raw, hardcore-for-outsiders sounds of GEL and also seek out a band that tears up the genre’s rule book as spectacularly as scene veterans Converge, then you could do a lot worse than pledge your allegiance to Muelas. One of the most unorthodox yet compelling releases of 2026, no less, and we can’t wait to see what they’ll do next.
‘Bellow’ is released on 17th July via Second Engine/Best Life – order the vinyl HERE.
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I spend my days teaching English to foreign students, and my evenings attending as many gigs as possible. Raised mainly on a diet of 90s third-wave punk, my tastes have grown to include just about anything from trad ska to thrash metal. The Ramones are my musical gods.
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