Ryan O'Connor

Back in 2024, I interviewed In Contempt at one of their shows at O'Brien's shortly after their first demo dropped. I think the interview only took about 20 minutes, but we spent the next hour or so shooting the shit and missing several sets because that's what hardcore is really about, isn't it? Since then, they've been playing shows all around New England, each one an assured pile of medical bills.

In the summer of 2020, as the country shut down due to COVID-19, the largest wave of protests in years erupted in the aftermath of George Floyd's murder. We all saw it on the news, and some of you may have taken part in the demonstrations that spread across the country. While many people eventually moved on and politicians' promises rang hollow, others never gave up the fight. The hardcore scene, in particular, has continued to stand behind those causes.

Interviews If there’s one band in the last decade that has stood by Boston Hardcore, championed everyone who has come through it, and played a hand in building it into what it is today, it’s RISK from Merrimack Valley. Even after breaking up a decade prior, they’ve played with nearly every band, toured almost every state, completed runs in Europe, and appeared at festivals like This Is Hardcore, The Rumble, and For the Children since returning in 2020.