Best Local Hardcore/Rapcore Act

Seven Hill Psychos

Seven Hill Psychos have been the Worm's leading practitioners of the rapcore sound ever since they changed their name and swore off dance grooves. From the get-go, the fivesome were ahead of the national curve (granted, Worcester didn't invent rapcore, but it certainly embraced it years before either commercial radio or spring-break, beer-funnel frat boys did) by laying out slash-and-burn guitar, hardcore rhymes, turntable scratching, and muscular low end. They've turned it into a forum to debate societal ills, to toss out sharp political jabs, and to harness inner rage; they mix it with venom, acid, and barbed wire, and send it hurling out like a musical projectile vomit. The Psychos were always intent on not only rocking the house, but also making sure you got their message by delivering it sledgehammer-style. Nineteen-ninety-eight saw the release of their disc Innerpsycho (winner of the 1999 Best Local Recording), and last year found the boys gigging at a furious pace. Then, just as that shithead Fred Durst managed to wreck the genre forever at Woodstock, 7HP stalled out when guitarist Mike Moroney flew the coop. The band you could find out any weekend suddenly stopped coming around. Luckily, double-zero finds the crew rejuvenated and back in serious action with new ax grinder Dave Capelle. In the studio working on a follow-up disc, the band -- so proud of their hometown they took its name -- have reclaimed Worcester. If anybody can re-inject a little integrity back into the numerous embarrassments that fly under the rapcore flag, it's the boys from Seven Hills.

-- John O'Neill