The far-from-fragile Glassjaw

No, Glassjaw didn’t invent post-hardcore, but neither did they damage it any during the two decades they’ve been around. If anything, the band’s impact has been dazzling but infrequent, due for the most part to lead singer Daryl Palumbo’s medical disorder. He’s not in the best shape, but when he and cofounder Justin Beck are able to tour, the shows are unadulterated hardcore melt-downs. Glassjaw is essentially those two members — Palumbo and Beck, from Long Island — supported by a host of side men. The band started in the early ’90s and began releasing albums by 1997; the duo’s best work may be their 1999 full-length Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence, which is really all about Palumbo’s Crohn’s disease.

Glassjaw’s roots lie in the Jewish straight-edge metalcore band Sons of Abraham, the designation “straight edge” meaning no booze, no dope, and so on. They appeared on the radar about the same time as did Korn, Limp Bizkit, Linkin Park, and Incubus, each band slightly different but with all the post hardcore/metalcore trademarks: giant sound, power chords without much guitar soloing, and melodic vocals that transform into guttural screaming. Daryl Palumbo’s own voice is not unlike that of Faith No More’s Mike Patton’s; possibly that’s what Warner Brothers executives heard when they signed Glassjaw in 2001. By 2004, they had dissolved, only to return again in 2006, harder than ever.

There’s a local connection: San Diego has launched a couple of Glassjaw-inspired acts that went all the way to the top, including Mission Bay’s borderline-screamo band Pierce the Veil, and North County’s As I Lay Dying (now Wovenwar and Oh, Sleeper). If anything, hardcore is not a young man’s game and as such has got to be detrimental to Palumbo, considering his fitness. You always have to wonder if the Glassjaw show you’re at is going to be their finale.