Edmonton, AB

With vocal cord-shredding shouts, relentless and tightly-wound post-hardcore riffs and a dizzying rhythm section that seems like it's perpetually walking upside-down on an M.C. Escher staircase towards chaos, EXITS are a narrow escape of a band. They manage to retain the white-knuckled intensity of hardcore punk without ever once losing grip and falling towards the more macho or self-important tropes of the genre.