15 Greatest Emo Albums Of All Time

One of if not the first emo album, Rites Of Spring’s self titled debut is not for the faint of heart. There’s no sign of the glam and self pity prevalent later on in the scene; instead, frontman Guy Picciotto stomps and snarls over 12 gnarly, soul baring tracks, kickstarting a genre in the process.

A devotee of fellow Washington D.C punk band Minor Threat, Picciotto took the hardcore scene as a starting point and infused it with a greater sense of melody, as well as a focus on self examination in his lyrics, eschewing the political rage of his contemporaries.

The songs are made for the mosh pit, but for close listening, too: the likes of “Deeper Than Inside” and “Hain’s Point” bury tightly crafted guitar lines behind walls of distortion, waiting to be found. “Nudes” pulls things back even further, a relatively stripped down lurcher, Picciotto’s voice far back in the mix, shouting to make himself heard.

Rites Of Spring was a favourite of Kurt Cobain, who went on to influence much of the ‘90s emo revival - directly and indirectly, few albums can have done so much for a single scene as this.