It starts close to dawn, the moment when the body shuts down and the mind refuses to settle. That same tension runs through MODERN GUILT’s new single “No Peace,” a track that pulls straight from the core of the band’s message—no comfort, no quiet, no easy way out when your demons start pacing inside your chest.
Coming out of Gothenburg’s hardcore scene, they tap into a feeling that’s older than the band itself, tied to decades of Swedish youth crew history and the restless energy that shaped them.
“No Peace” is their heaviest and most spiritually loaded track so far, sharpening the direct, punch-first approach they’ve carried since the start. The band sounds more surefooted, more in sync, and more willing to let the weight sit where it falls.
“The sound & the songwriting on the new recordings is harder and more on the wild side compared to earlier releases. I think we really grew into our sound after we started playing more live shows and writing songs all together,” says vocalist Peter Bader, who fronts the band and leads their writing. He adds, “Especially the vocals—when we started out as a band I didn’t really know where I wanted to go, but I think now I’ve come a bit closer to finding my voice.”
Recorded and mixed at Welfare Sounds by guitarist Per Stålberg, the track is the first preview of their upcoming debut LP, arriving Q1 2026 through Quarantined Records. It lands on Bandcamp today, December 3, 2025, supported by Kalle Garmark’s artwork (featuring Kristofer Pasanen’s live shot of the band), available as a digital single or as part of MODERN GUILT’s full discography bundle—four releases in total (“No Peace,” “Do Not Panic,” “Född För Att Dö,” “1000 Miles Demo”), available in high-quality formats (16-bit/44.1kHz).
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The lyrics cut straight: hanging on by a thread, faith wearing thin, stripping layers with nowhere left to hide, asking who’s in control when silence becomes the loudest noise in the room. It stays in the tradition the band has always leaned into—topics rooted in straight edge values, personal discipline, global injustices, the darker spaces where hardcore usually begins.
MODERN GUILT carries this from a real lineage.
Their members have shaped the Swedish scene for decades through SUBJECT TO CHANGE, DIVISION OF LAURA LEE, ANCHOR, PABLO MATISSE, OUT OF VOGUE, and more.
They stand on top of the youth crew and straight edge foundation they helped build, and that history is long, messy, and very alive.
To frame it, Marcus Källman (7-Tum Podcast, Law & Order fanzine, Fuse) breaks down the full story of Swedish youth crew—how it almost never existed, yet somehow keeps echoing 35 years later.
He traces the beginning back to STEP FORWARD in Umeå, the earliest steps of Dennis Lyxzén before REFUSED, influenced by YOUTH OF TODAY and early Revelation Records, dropping a 1989 demo that nodded toward MINOR THREAT.
Scenes then bloomed across rural Sweden—Vänersborg, Gislaved, Linköping—where OUTLAST built a melodic, fast hardcore identity that became synonymous with Sweden.
SECTION 8 followed, while in Umeå, FINAL EXIT exploded with a raw, crucial side project from REFUSED members. RAISED FIST started as old-school hardcore before evolving into something harder. INTENSITY shifted from skate punk to youth-crew-ish territory before ending up closer to crust.
But the actual Swedish youth crew wave peaked between 1998–2004. EYES SHUT from Trollhättan hit every hallmark of the genre—demos, a 7” on Dead Serious Records—while Europe was deep in revival mode with SPORTSWEAR and MAINSTRIKE.
That spark spread fast: TRUNCHBULL, CONVICTED TRUTH, BETWEEN US, ANOTHER REASON, LAST HOPE, SUBJECT TO CHANGE.
It was a smaller, tighter scene than the REFUSED era, often clashing internally between political dogma and what some dismissed as a “jock” mentality. Still, it was new, exciting, and for a lot of people, the most vital version of Swedish hardcore.
After the peak, more names came and went—AWARD, THE CHANGE, BALANCE, THE CUTTING EDGE, later TIME TO HEAL and NEIGHBORHOOD—but the flame stayed lit.
In 2025, people are looking to Sweden again, with SPEEDWAY pushing European hardcore forward through releases on Revelation Records, and their related project UNIT COLLAPSE continuing the charge.
And in the middle of all of this—three decades deep—members of EYES SHUT are still shaping the sound through MODERN GUILT.
They’re more melodic than their earlier bands, but the youth crew heart is the same. Last year’s EP Do Not Panic planted the flag.
The upcoming Mind The Trap LP pushes into heavier, angrier, more developed territory, nodding toward INSIDE OUT and SICK OF IT ALL without losing the backbone.
“No Peace” is the start of that next step—louder, clearer, and more aware of what silence can do.
