Para No Olvidarte by Clamor

Before Mom Jeans and Algernon Cadwallader, before Taking Back Sunday and My Chemical Romance, before Cap’n Jazz and Sunny Day Real Estate, and even before Moss Icon and Indian Summer, the genre we would one day call emo began in the DC hardcore scene. Previously shelved as a historical relic, this sound reemerges in absolutely beautiful form on the new album Para No Olvidarte by Clamor, an ode to those early pioneers of what was then called “emocore” such as Rites of Spring, Embrace, and Dag Nasty. Clamor’s sung vocals immediately set this sound apart from other heavy, traditional styles of hardcore, along with some crunchier, more complicated chords that sneak in some influence from later forms of emo. Endlessly replayable, undeniably authentic, and unbelievably catchy, the emocore sound in the hands of Clamor reverses all of hardcore punk’s machismo in one swoop, inviting vulnerability and introspection while giving the typical worldly angst a turn in the back seat.