Sound And Fury's afterglow is producing some genuinely quality hardware, and Contention's surprise EP Nuclear Summer might be the sharpest thing to come out of it.
The Tampa straight-edge crew gave people barely a night's notice — announcing Nuclear Summer would drop at midnight before releasing it. No lengthy rollout. No teaser campaign. Just music, on time, for people who needed it.
What's On It
Nuclear Summer runs four tracks. Two are originals — "Second Sun" and "Blank Stare" — and two are covers: the Swarm's 1999 straight-edge anthem "Upside Your Head" and its intro "X On Our Knees." The Swarm have been an acknowledged influence on Contention since their first band practice in 2019, so this isn't a random cover pick. It's a debt being paid properly.
The two originals are exactly what you'd expect from the band that made Artillery From Heaven one of the standout hardcore albums of 2024 — wild-eyed, heavy, rooted in the '90s template but with enough urgency to feel entirely present-tense. This is not heritage act nostalgia. It's the real thing.
What It's Actually About
Vocalist Cosmo Vidussi didn't dress it up. His statement accompanying Nuclear Summer is worth reading in full, but the core of it is this: modernity isn't delivering enlightenment. The leaders have dropped any pretence of humanity. The public is sedated. Cities are being levelled in our names. Bombs built with our tax money. A small group of people with nuclear weapons and no coherent reason to use restraint are making decisions for all of us.
He closes with a question that doesn't have a comfortable answer: "Are these the final days? Or is the suffering of modernity only a single day swallowed by a quarter eon of unchecked brutality?"
"Hardcore for the end times" is how they're billing it, and honestly, it lands. This isn't the kind of vague angst you get from bands gesturing at darkness for aesthetic effect. Contention are saying something specific. The music matches the weight of it.
[Jane Remover's Nowhere EP](/getohedz/music/jane-remover-shares-new-venturing-ep-nowhere) proved earlier this year that the surprise EP format can hit harder than a laboured album campaign, and Nuclear Summer makes the same case from a completely different corner of the underground.
Tour Dates and the Verdict
Contention have a run of Florida dates at the end of September — Gainesville and Daytona Beach — followed by a November run through Nashville, Atlanta, Tampa, and Miami with Pain Of Truth, Madball, Rotting Out, and xforever warx. The autumn run in particular is a proper bill.
Nuclear Summer is out now on DAZE.
We're not going to tell you this EP is going to change your life. What we will say is that Contention are one of the few bands in this space who mean it — every word, every riff, every cover choice — and that matters. The Sound And Fury season has thrown up a few new releases worth paying attention to, and this sits near the top of that list. Haywire and God's Hate are good company to be in. Put the EP on loud.