10 New Bands That Prove Rock Isn't Dead

Given vocalist Thom Debaere's rather unceremonious departure from dynamic hardcore mob Heights in 2012, the vocals in Counting Days' debut EP The War of the Wolf are charged with enough venom to take out an entire council estate. The barrage of metallic hardcore blended with thrash and death metal produced a sonic wall of sound that earned them support slots with Your Demise, Feed the Rhino, Architects and Eighteen Visions.

This aggression followed into the debut album Liberated Sounds which saw the band collaborate with famed producer Fredrik Nordstrom of Arch Enemy, In Flames and Opeth fame. The album garnered attention from fans, critics, festival organisers, and tour mates alike, and even fashioned themselves a new guitarist in ex-Bring Me the Horizon axeman Curtis Ward who commented "The band mixes my favourite parts of metal and hardcore and use them to create an awesome sound... so when Charlie asked me if I'd like to try out for Counting Days I jumped at the chance."

If aggression was a genre, Counting Days would be the flag-bearers. A bitterness-fueled rage that has huge promise for the future.