This past March, I made it a point to attend Word of Mouth 2026, a yearly hardcore festival held in Örebro, Sweden—mostly because a new (and now good) friend was putting it on, so I thought, “Why not?”
If you know me, you wouldn’t be surprised that I map out everything when traveling. So you’d probably be surprised if I told you I fucked up, missed my train connection on the way to the fest, and ended up in some place called Katrineholm. No ICA or Pressbyrån in sight, let alone a MAX. All hands on deck—I bought a new train ticket, hoping to get to the fest as early as I could.
I was obviously late. However, I managed to walk in while a young band called Blinded by Hatred was playing. I was blown away by how good they were, despite looking like they had math homework due the next day, and by the crowd response they were getting at 2:30 p.m.
Fast-forward a few months, and they’ve just put out their new EP, No Mercy for the Weak, a follow-up to last year’s The Coldest Winter. With five songs clocking in at under 10 minutes, the band has put together a mix of heavy beatdown in the vein of Bulldoze, sprinkled with metalcore dust mostly in the vocals. Pretty much mixing what all the new jacks are into. And guess what? They know what they’re doing.
I reached out to Mya, the vocalist for Blinded by Hatred, to learn more about their background, No Mercy for the Weak, and Örebro Hardcore.
First off, introduce yourselves to No Echo readers. Who is Blinded by Hatred?
Blinded by Hatred is Mya, Felix, Ozzy, John, and Ian. We’re a metallic hardcore band from Örebro, Sweden. We first formed in 2024, but with this lineup, we’ve been a band for a year.
How did the band form?
We started in 2024 with a different lineup. We had one rehearsal, and then we basically forgot about it. But then, like a year later, all the other bands we had split up, so I asked Ozzy if he was still down to do a beatdown band. Then we asked John if he was down to play guitar and Felix if he wanted to play bass. Ian didn’t join until later.
Ozzy, John, Felix, and I wrote the demo in our school’s rehearsal room, and then we recorded it in Ozzy’s cabin in Dalarna. We played a few shows, and then Ian joined to play bass so we could have two guitars.
Tell me about No Mercy for the Weak. What was the recording process like? What were you listening to while writing the EP?
Yeah, man! The new release was super fun to write and record. We wrote it over the span of a year and started pretty soon after releasing the demo. The biggest inspirations for this EP are definitely Irate, Shattered Realm, Bun Dem Out, Kickback, and, as always, Black Sabbath.
We recorded drums and vocals at our school with the help of our classmate, and then we recorded guitars and bass in our rehearsal space in Kumla. So, recording-wise, we did a lot of it ourselves.
I see you’ve got two features on the EP. How did those come to be?
Montus from Godless booked our first gig outside of Örebro, and we became friends with him! So he was our first thought when we started thinking about features. I wrote to him and asked if he was down, and then a week later he sent us his feature.
Keijo is the GOAT, man! (Author’s note: He is.) He is the most hardcore dude in Örebro. He has been there and supported this band from the start, drove us to different cities when we’ve played shows, helped us with shows, always put in a good word for us, and pushed us to keep going. He is the realest.
So he was an obvious choice for a feature on “Örebro Hatecrew”—a song about our scene.
What’s next for the band?
We just want to get out there and play more shows! Not really any plans except for a few cool things next year...
What’s Örebro Hardcore like? What’s the current state of the scene?
It’s a small scene with not a lot of bands and not a lot of people. But that just makes us closer. Everyone’s friends with everyone, and most of the people play in each other’s bands. It’s an amazing scene, and we love it for what it is.
For people new to modern Swedish hardcore, what are some bands to check out?
The Swedish hardcore scene is one of the best in the world, no doubt. So many young people and so many scenes in different cities. It’s not like other scenes with just a bunch of old people in every band, and it’s mostly young people putting on the shows. The youth keeps it going, as it should be.
And being a fairly small country really makes it so much more connected. It’s a big family.
Check out Godless, xSerenityx, Master Killer, Blood Will Tell, Devil’s Exchange, Feels Like Heaven, and so many more.
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No Mercy for the Weak is available on CD via user one.
Blinded by Hatred on social media: Instagram
Tagged: blinded by hatred
