Masked Intruder is everything that’s wrong with 2013’s punkscene

Complain all you want about how boring and stagnant the current hardcore scene is, but at least there’s one genre even more conservative: punkrock.

When a pretty generic band gets a decent amount of hype based on the fact that they’re performing in masks on stage, that’s when you know when things have gone stale. Therefore Masked Intruder is everything that’s wrong with the current punk scene. Just look at the facts, most punk bands able to fill a decent club are bands that once were on Epitaph of Fat Wreck. Name one punk band that managed to hit it big like Lagwagon, Rise Against, Pennywise and the likes. I can’t.

Sure enough there are some pretty decent newer punk bands. Nothington, Banner Pilot to name a few but none of them has managed to really create a name for themselves. Hey I’m the last too complain about bands not getting successful. The biggest problem of today’s punkscene isn’t record sales (those are decreasing in every genre), no, it’s the total lack of innovation. The few pretty successful new punk bands all sounds like rehashes of the nineties or even worse The Ramones.

Masked Intruder. I had the ‘pleasure’ of seeing them on stage. And yes, they’re capable musicians but they do exactly the same stuff as The Ramones with the addition of a pretty cheap gimmick. Do I have to remind you all of the decline of the Dutch straight edge scene which started at the same time as Rotterdam’s X-men released an EP? Or the decline of the world wide vegan metalcore scene which was dated around the time Path Of Resistance released a record? There’s only one band capable of pulling of gimmicks like that: KISS.

At least the current hardcore scene does show some evolution, some incorporating of new ideas. Touche Amore sounds nothing like Down To Nothing or Nails. Yet all three bands do share stage or could share stages every now and then. Today’s hardcore mixes up indierock with blast beats and creates sounds that are not like those of the 90’s. The last big wave of something different in punk was probably the orgcore thing. After that? Nothing. Everyone went back to skatepunk, skapunk etc.

Hardcore musically is far from dead. Punk however is starting to become that grayish old guy who slowly makes his way through the supermarket, picking up the same products as years ago and indifferent to try new stuff.

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