Though a Skynet-style rise of the machines still seems aways off, it’s looking like AI is here to stay, whether we like it or not. And it’s already infecting the hardcore scene.
You see, over the past few weeks in particular, a significant wave of new singles hit streamers at a rapid clip — including tracks released under the names of veteran forces like Sick of It All, Madball and Earth Crisis, as well as a younger generation of rising groups. Fans who pressed play, though, quickly learned that these weren’t new tunes from their favorite bands, but rather a bizarre bunch of unsanctioned, AI-generated instrumental tracks that were sneaked onto Spotify and Apple Music en masse.
Despite showing up through official streaming profiles, these songs rarely sounded anything like the bands they were purporting to be — hitting more of a jubilantly-shredded, DragonForce-like style of power metal than a grittier, chug-forward hardcore feel of affected outfits like Judiciary and No Warning. It likewise seemed somewhat suspicious that a mega-bruising straight-edge metalcore outfit like Year of the Knife would actually write, record and upload an original song called, of all things, “Makin’ Love.”
While the fraudulent songs all seemed to get pulled offline this past weekend, it was a confusing moment for music fans and bands alike, and even jammed up a few legitimate new music drops.
Oxnard, California, quartet Torena were all set to promote their new song “No Mercy” when it hit streaming platforms last Thursday (September 5th), but they soon found that the single — from their forthcoming No Control LP for DAZE Records — wasn’t showing up on their Spotify front page. Instead, the streamer was juicing an also just-uploaded Torena track titled “Anonimus,” even listing the latter as their most popular release. Trouble is, “Anonimus” isn’t actually a Torena song.
“I thought it was another band that had the same name as us, and just happened to put it out the same day,” drummer David Stalsworth tells Revolver. “But then I started seeing other people [posting about other AI tracks] and I was like, OK, so this is a problem happening with a lot of bands.”
The regrettable consequence of “Anonimus” being promoted so heavily was that it actually temporarily shadow-banned the group’s “No Mercy” from searches on Spotify, in essence kneecapping potential streaming revenue for a smaller band straight out the gate.
“People with a brain can piece it together which one is ours and which isn’t, but seeing that it is dipping our streams is a bit of a bummer,” Stalsworth continued, alluding to first-day numbers being off by thousands compared to their earlier summer single, “False Compassion.” “It completely sucks the fun out of releasing music. Like, Oh, its going to get blocked over by an AI track anyways.”
It wasn’t only up-and-coming bands affected by the phony uploads, most of which having arrived through mysterious publishers Planet Musik Indonesia and TechVision Musica. With Sick of It All, the NYHC icons haven’t issued new music since 2018’s Wake the Sleeping Dragon album. Despite last week’s arrival of an instrumental called “Negative Pride” credited to SOIA, this is actually still the case.
Guitarist Pete Koller said a bunch of friends sent him the song as soon as it went up. He listened to a few seconds of the song — a low-rent, NWOBHM-styled piece he dubs “soulless, awful garbage” — and then hit his band’s group chat to figure out what the hell was going on. “We just wanted to make sure it got taken down,” he tells Revolver. “All of our friends and fans jumped on it as quickly as possible [to report the song].”
Koller expressed concern over what the wave of fake hardcore uploads could mean for the broader streaming model, contemplating whether AI publishers will target mainstream artists next. “Maybe this company is just testing the waters to see what they could get going?”
He adds more lightheartedly: “The other thing is, hasn’t anyone seen The Terminator? Can’t you see where we’re going? You know, they have AI writing code and all sorts of things now. What if it becomes self-aware and writes in the end of us?”
The fake Mortality Rate x Xibalba collaboration, “Biggest War”
Courtesy of Spotify
Calgary, Alberta, Canada, metalcore act Mortality Rate were likewise affected by the recent round of fake uploads, oddly enough with “Biggest War” being credited as a collaborative track between them and Pomona, California, beatdown crew Xibalba. Mortality Rate’s Colter is critical of artificial intelligence, but also calls out the human opportunists exploiting his and other bands’ names through AI engines and shady streaming-service loopholes.
“It’s a capitalistic world,” he says. “You’ve got to work really hard to get any semblance of getting ahead, so having that taken away from people who have dedicated themselves [to the arts] because someone found a shortcut with AI? It stinks. I don’t like it.”
While the recent Mortality Rate upload was a fake, Colter has just dropped a seven-song debut project from his new extreme deathcore band, Killing of a Sacred Deer, and notes that Mortality Rate are putting the “finishing touches” on a larger project for release at a later date. And while the AI-generated “Biggest War” was an unwelcomed annoyance for Mortality Rate, when Revolver asks the musician if a collaboration with Xibalba could ever occur IRL, he doesn’t table the idea.
“Xibalba’s awesome! I love them,” he enthuses. “Have I ever considered [a collaborative track]? No. But would I be opposed to it? No, of course not. Legendary band!”
Prior to this past weekend’s removal of dozens of AI-generated hardcore tracks, Revolver reached out to Spotify to ask how publishers like Planet Musik Indonesia and TechVision Musica were able to upload songs directly to bands’ official streaming pages. As of press time, the streaming giant has yet to reply.