Porcelain

“Everything has changed,” sings frontman Steve Pike on “Apocalypse”, a track from Austin post-hardcore band Porcelain’s sophomore LP, Today’s Minor Victories; “Not for better but for worse.” On Today’s Minor Victories, apocalypse both personal and literal is the backdrop, and Porcelain’s churning, roiling, snarling post-hardcore is the tool of choice with which to hack through the weeds. The members of Porcelain — Pike, guitarist/vocalist Ryan Fitzgibbon, bassist Jordan Emmert and drummer Eli Deitz — are all Austin scene veterans, having played in locally beloved bands such as Exhalants, Super Thief, Votive and US Weekly. When they came together as Porcelain in 2022, it was with the benefit of more than a decade of orbiting each other and building mutual admiration; they went on to hit the road prolifically, honing their fierce live chemistry across the country and sharing bills at home with such legends as Unwound, The Blood Brothers and Touché Amoré. The band worked with Scott Evans at Estuary Recording in Austin, with the intention of capturing the electric energy of their live sound. They explore the demoralizing, debilitating experience of life in the USA in 2026, alongside the personal tectonic shifts that mark life in your mid-to-late thirties. Today’s Minor Victories suggests that it’s only by feeling the rage and the pain — igniting it and letting it burn its way through the bullshit — that we find true connection, and maybe forge a path through.