Recourse

Recourse, a Maryland quartet, fused hardcore and metal to produce a fiercely volatile strain of metalcore amid the mid-2000s wave of similar acts. Their version, however, drew its primary force from hardcore’s working-class values instead of metal’s more underground yet ornate and conceptual tendencies. The band formed in 1999 and steadily built an audience by refining songs and playing shows across the Eastern Seaboard, leading to the 2002 release of a self-titled EP on their own Skinlifter Records. After three additional years of intensive touring and a handful of compilation spots, vocalist Troy Norwood, guitarist Bill Hawthorne, bassist Jason Stallings, and drummer Rich Schaefer issued their debut full-length album, Weakening the Structure, on This Dark Reign Records.