Of all the killer emo, pop-punk, hardcore, and metalcore dropped in 2017 (thus far), it’s a no-brainer as to what the very best song is: Paramore’s “Hard Times,” of course. Injected with Daft Punk’s robotic vocoders and boasting a vocal from Hayley Williams that leaps from playful to frayed to resilient at the drop of a dime, it’s a tension-racked marriage between New Wave, discoid joy, and downer mediations on strife.But Paramore certainly have had plenty of competition. Motionless In White—a.k.a. the second coming of Marilyn Manson, albeit with way more breakdowns—unleashed the industrialized, metalcore rager “LOUD (Fuck It),” one of the rudest odes to ear-bleeding volume and teenage rebellion of the past few years. Another stand out is Rise Against’s “The Violence, a searing and earnest punk anthem railing against the man in an age when railing against the man has taken on awful urgency.But wait! There’s even more 2017 goodness: Pvris finally returned and delivered the goth-kissed torch song “Heaven,” Of Mice & Men dished out a sonic knuckle sandwich in the form of “Unbreakable,” and The Word Alive mashed post-hardcore and art rock together with the spacey “Misery.” Whether you prefer the pop or the metal end of the Warped punk spectrum, this playlist offers plenty for you.
