Photo by Dan Dunn

Haywire are a hardcore band, but you probably don’t want to hold them to sticking in their lane. At year’s start, the Boston sextet led by Austin Sparkman — who in the past spent time in Conservative Military Image, the Chisel and Buried Dreams — release the album Conditioned for Demolition. If you haven’t heard it, you can safely assume the whole thing runs on righteous aggression. They’ve just released their latest EP, For Better Or For Worse, and what’s a swerve on this one is that it’s a listen that doesn’t settle into one mode or another while making you tilt your head as they jump aggressively from the pit into an acoustic punk ballad like “LOVE SONG” featuring Citizen’s Mat Kerekes and Fleshwater’s Mirsy. However, the track that really made me do a hard double take on what they’re on to here is “Clocktower Place”. Joined by Fizzy of Loosey, Criminal and New York Hounds on the mic, it’s obsessive romance in melodic hardcore fun form that sounds like you’re seeing double of Lemmy from Motörhead on the mean streets of Boston, and he’s pissed about it all. Its sunglass joyride music video is corny schlock as all hell. Are they being serious? They can’t honestly be — but it all sticks to the ear all too well, so maybe? And now you’re pissed about it all, too.

Directed by: Austin Lee

Haywire’s For Better Or For Worse is available now on DAZE.