On January 10th-11th, 38 hardcore bands from all across the United States and abroad came together in Orlando, Florida for the 12th annual FYA Festival, but one definitively stole the show — although I may be biased, since that band was Charlotte, North Carolina’s very own Magnitude. Carrying the banner for southeast straight edge hardcore since 2017, Magnitude has played FYA every year since 2018. Before they began their set in the late afternoon of the first day of this year’s festival, a small crowd stood at the front of the stage waiting to get “X’ed up” — that is, have their hands crossed with big Xs to show that they are straight edge — by frontman Russell Bussey.

Energy was high and only got higher as Magnitude launched into their set, playing a blend of music from all three of their LPs and transitioning seamlessly from song to song, as stage divers leapt into the crowd singing along at the front of the stage, piling on top of each other to grab the mic offered by Russell. Magnitude’s riffs were energetic and emotional, with positive lyrics about overcoming addiction, refusing to become numb to the world through alcoholism and drug use, and standing against societal injustices. It’s not hard to see why they’re a band that have had such a profound impact on the hardcore scene, both back home in North Carolina and abroad. For their last song, “To Whatever Fateful End,” in which Russell swears to be loyal until death — to hardcore, to straight edge, to his friends — he tells the crowd that the stage and the microphone are ours, and we know what to do: the song ends with a mountain of people on stage singing at the top of their lungs, X’d fists in the air. North Carolina forever. Straight edge forever. Magnitude forever.

Cover photo courtesy of @satanstrapqueen on Instragram.