CONTENTION GO FOR THE THROAT ON BRUTAL NEW EP NUCLEAR SUMMER
The Florida hardcore bruisers in Contention have just dropped a stunning new EP titled Nuclear Summer via DAZE, and it’s easily one of the gnarliest records we’ve heard in 2026.
“Second Sun” kicks Nuclear Summer off in pulverizing fashion. There are roughly 30 seconds of slow-burning, tension-building menace before the band’s razor-sharp breakdowns slice through like a sonic guillotine. This mid-paced rager feels meticulously designed to make large swathes of hardcore fans lose their collective minds on the floor. Contention’s rhythm section is beyond locked in, maintaining the bounce needed to propel “Second Sun” forward while the guitars smash through everything in their path like a steamroller.
“Blank Stare” picks up the pace with a speedy ’80s-style crossover thrash opening. Vocalist Cosmo Vidussi’s throat-shredding screams somehow feel even more manic here, fighting against the frantic pace and dense instrumentation surrounding them. It’s fast, abrasive, and downright nasty in all the right ways.
That abrasiveness is a huge part of what makes Nuclear Summer hit so damn hard. Contention’s performance harkens back to the unhinged ferocity of late ’90s and early 2000s metallic hardcore. Honestly, even the term “metalcore” feels a little too polished for what Contention is doing here. Nuclear Summer sounds like a musical freight train that may or may not fly off the rails at any second, carrying shades of bands like Deadguy and The Swarm without simply rehashing what came before.
That aggression isn’t there simply for the sake of sounding heavy, either. Nuclear Summer comes from a much darker place, with Contention taking aim at modern society, war, political power, and the increasingly bleak reality surrounding all of it. Vocalist Cosmo Vidussi states:
“Modernity brings no enlightenment, only more refined methods of annihilation. Annihilation of the enemy. Annihilation of the self. Our leaders have shed their increasingly thin facades of humanity. The masses shamble through life in a drug and media fueled haze. They worship a machine that grinds them to dust and uses them for fuel. Cities are leveled in our name. Bombs are assembled with our tax dollars. We’re held hostage by a small group of deranged degenerates with nuclear arsenals and a lust for ruin.”
With that statement in mind, the title Nuclear Summer suddenly feels a hell of a lot heavier. The record’s hostility isn’t just an aesthetic choice; there’s genuine disgust and frustration fueling these songs, and Contention make sure you feel every bit of it.
And as fate would have it, Contention wraps things up by going directly to the source, delivering blistering covers of The Swarm’s “X On Our Knees X” and “Upside Your Head.” It’s a fitting tribute to one of the influences you can hear running through the EP and a vicious way to bring the whole thing home.
Nuclear Summer is short, mean, and completely uninterested in cleaning itself up for anybody. Contention has delivered one of the nastiest hardcore releases of the year, and we wouldn’t want it any other way.
Listen to Nuclear Summer below:
