‘Sunshower’ by Turnstile: The best hardcore track of 2025
Hardcore has always been alive and well, but over the last few years, the genre has been shocked back to life.
Bands like Knocked Loose and Scowl have brought surprise mainstream success to the genre, dominating the rock charts and pushing the boundaries of rock performance in a pop-dominated landscape, including memorable appearances on late-night television (much to the average viewer’s disdain).
The conversation of where hardcore persists in 2025 cannot be had without Baltimore-based legends Turnstile. Rooted in the city’s hardcore scene, the band has always been sort of an outlier among its peers. They assemble influences like they would Frankenstein’s monster, sewing together the juxtaposing aggression and brevity of punk with synthesisers, vocal melodies, and pop tunes and structure to create their own beautiful creatures. A Turnstile record can just as easily be heard on a dancefloor as it would in a grimy basement club.
Since their debut EP, Pressure to Succeed, in 2011, Turnstile – currently comprised of vocalist Brendan Yates, guitarists Pat McCrory and Meg Mills, bassist Franz Lyons and drummer Daniel Fang – have gone beyond the often rigid conventions of hardcore punk, not to move beyond the genre, but to revitalise it.
They found mainstream success with 2021’s Glow On, an album that fearlessly melded punk with dream pop, synthwave and psychedelia. Earning them two Grammy nominations and slots on tours with blink-182 and My Chemical Romance, the album also saw Turnstile’s first inclusion of a featured artist: none other than Blood Orange. Dev Hynes’ influence is heard across three tracks and, with his own roots in hardcore, amplified the multifaceted future of the genre.
In March 2025, a billboard on Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles announced Turnstile’s return. The lead single, ‘Never Enough’, bore similarities to their previous album; expansive in scope, it is a hardcore ballad. The dual single, ‘Seein’ Stars / Birds’ followed: the former features backing vocals from Paramore’s Hayley Williams and Blood Orange, more groove-focused instead of mosh-inducing, whereas the latter is armed with a riff straight from No Doubt’s ‘Hella Good’, hearing a return to Turnstile’s classic hardcore sound. The final single, ‘Look Out for Me’, is a near-seven-minute track that fluctuates from adrenaline-inducing riffs to thumping basslines.
Never Enough debuted on June 6th, 2025, with a total of 14 songs that each harness a miniature world. Far Out said of the album: “Much like the mosh pits these songs will undoubtedly incite, there’s necessary time to regather, draw a new circle and prepare for more. There’s an important emphasis on expanse that takes place throughout this entire record, and without it, the most beautiful moments wouldn’t have been achieved.”
Yet, one track in particular proves to be one of the most innovative of this year: ‘Sunshower’. Opening with the speed riffs of a skatepark anthem and driven by Fang’s unrestrained drumming, Yates howls about the split in his mental state, grappling with the duelling emotions of euphoria and apathy. “My head is overjoyed / And this is where I want to be / But I can’t feel a fuckin’ thing,” he yells in his signature echo.
The contrast of the slam-inducing melody with the heaviness of the lyrics is one often found in Turnstile’s music; ‘Sunshower’, however, stands out in its call-and-response structure. The repetition of “And this is where I wanna be” reminds us of the emphasis on community that Turnstile — and hardcore, at large — have made their foundation. Following is the repeated, stop-and-go chant of “Rain!”, shouted by Yates with such emotion that you can practically hear the strain in his vocal chords.
And then, the song quiets. Static fills the space before a soaring melody slowly grows, introducing a flute medley that possesses a spirit entirely its own. Played by British jazz musician Shabaka Hutchings, the flute represents the peace found after the storm. Jarring in any other context, the shift feels perfectly at home here. We can imagine that when Yates yells, “Just when I thought that I couldn’t get it right / Now I’m taking flight,” this second half of the song is the take-off. Yes, Turnstile can produce some of the most neck-breaking headbangers, but they find equal strength in their slower moments.
‘Sunshower’ represents what hardcore can become: a blend of softness and aggression that does not shy away from sensitivity. An attentiveness to emotion is at the root of hardcore’s staying power, and Turnstile have mastered channelling such awareness into a unique catharsis found in their songs.
