At The Drive-In

At The Drive-In detonated out of El Paso, Texas in 1993, transforming post-hardcore into something feral and art-damaged. Fronted by Cedric Bixler-Zavala's banshee wail and guitarist Omar Rodríguez-López's angular riffs, the quintet channeled punk fury through prog-rock complexity, creating what critics termed "emo violence" before that phrase became meaningless. Their third album Relationship of Command (2000) remains canonical, produced by Ross Robinson and yielding the spasmodic single "One Armed Scissor". The record captured millennial anxiety through Bixler-Zavala's surrealist lyrics and the band's explosive live performances, where physical catharsis bordered on self-destruction.

They imploded in 2001 at their commercial peak, with Bixler-Zavala and Rodríguez-López forming the even more experimental The Mars Volta. Brief reunions in 2012 and 2016 yielded in•ter a•li•a (2017), though the magic felt archaeological rather than urgent. Their legacy endures in every band attempting to marry intellectual rigour with visceral chaos. They proved hardcore could think without losing its teeth.