(Andy Synn highlights his history with Hardcore, along with three recently-released gems)
I’ve mentioned it in passing before, I’m sure, but I don’t think I’ve ever really gone into how important Hardcore was as part of my formative years as a music fan (and still is to this day).
Like most of us, I’d imagine, my early forays into forming my own music taste were somewhat scattered and inconsistent, and it wasn’t until a school friend of mine (whose name I’ve song since forgotten) lent me a CD of various Metal and Hardcore acts, introducing me to bands like Earth Crisis, Zao, and Vision of Disorder – then a little later the likes of Shai Hulud, Ringworm, All Out War (all three of which I was lucky enough to get to see live again last year) – that I truly began to develop a sense of what I really liked (and didn’t).
It wasn’t just that these bands were loud, aggressive, and filled with the sort of energy that I needed back then (and still do now) it was the way they weren’t afraid to wear their ideals and beliefs loudly and proudly… standing for something as part of an actual counter-culture that prioritised things like collective resistance and communal action, rather than simply being against whatever the current “thing” was… that made me feel like this was music with more substance, more meaning, than what the mainstream charts at the time were full of.
And while my personal experiences with the wider “scene” weren’t quite so positive -the increasing presence of insular cliques and “crews” (with their mean-girls style “you’re not tough/cool enough to sit with us” vibes) and the growing emphasis on “conformity” over “community” (especially when it came down to judging the worthiness of someone’s “mosh style”) meant I once again found myself as an outsider amongst outsiders – I’m happy to see that there are still bands (and fans) out there fighting the good fight and standing up for what they believe in (and making some kick-ass music at the same time).
The reason I’m saying all this is because while I still love Hardcore, I don’t necessarily live Hardcore (and if you don’t know what that’s a reference to feel free to ask your parents), and for some people that’s enough to disqualify me from having an opinion on it… but that’s not going to stop me from highlighting as many bands as possible from across the ‘core spectrum (whether that’s Hardcore, Metalcore, Post-Hardcore, Screamo, Mathcore, etc) that I think our readers need to hear.