Turnstile - Time & Space

By 2018, Turnstile had already turned heads with their 2015 breakthrough Nonstop Feeling, but Time & Space is where the Baltimore band blew the doors off what a hardcore record could sound like. Marking their debut for Roadrunner Records, the album was recorded with producer Will Yip at Studio 4 in Conshohocken, Pennsylvania, and it captures a band actively rewriting the rules of the genre rather than working within them.

The songs move fast and hit hard, but they're laced with melody, groove, and genuine hooks that pull listeners in well beyond the pit. Sheer Mag's Tina Halladay adds guest vocals to "Moon," while Diplo lends additional production to "Right to Be," two left-field pairings that only underscore how far Turnstile was willing to stretch the boundaries of hardcore without losing its physical intensity. The band, Brendan Yates on vocals, Franz Lyons on bass and vocals, Brady Ebert and Pat McCrory on guitars, and Daniel Fang on drums, sound locked in and fearless throughout, unafraid to chase a riff into funk or pop territory and bring it back to something that still slams live.

Critics took notice immediately, praising the record's melodic riffs and bright-eyed spirit alongside its riotous live energy, calling it freewheeling and heavy with shout-along choruses and grooves that go well beyond the mosh call, and pointing to the album's unabashed funkiness as genuinely invigorating. Turnstile went from an exciting prospect to one of the most talked about names in hardcore almost overnight, with plenty calling them the biggest band the genre had going. Time & Space is the record where that reputation was earned.

This pressing comes on vinyl LP with a digital download included, making it an essential pickup for anyone tracking one of hardcore's most important recent turning points.