CAPTAIN CAVEMAN

"Hardcore" is a term applied to a vast array of bands who share a common ancestor: punk rock. Some people make distinctions between "hardcore" and "hardcore punk", but the sorts of bands in these two groups of music are closely tied - "hardcore punk" generally is applied to early bands such as Black Flag, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys and sometimes Misfits - whereas "hardcore" is attributed to later bands with a more developed sound, bands such as Comeback Kid, Refused, and Converge. All of these bands can be called either "hardcore" or "hardcore punk", though, really.

Among hardcore, many subgenres have taken wing. Some of the most important are emo & screamo, grindcore, and metalcore. Although all of these genres are very different they all (usually) have a few things in common: fast, aggressive music and a DIY attitude. I say "usually" though because many bands do not adhere to an independent attitude (and while some do, they have less aggressive music), but still create music in the vein of hardcore. This is most often observed in the metalcore genre. In recent years, many mainstream metalcore bands have been labelled as screamo bands, though this assertion is incorrect. Likewise, many bands from metalcore to pop to just plain rock have been labelled emo, incorrectly.

As hardcore music developed, the term "post-hardcore" inevitably became widely used. However it can be vague, being used to describe bands such as The Blood Brothers and The Fall of Troy (who have roots in the hardcore genre, but experiment widely with elements such as electronics and musical structures uncommon to normal hardcore bands) - as well as bands such as Fugazi and At the Drive-In, who, like the aforementioned have roots in hardcore, but experiment with elements outside typical hardcore. Yet they do not sound like those bands. Issues such as this make labelling certain bands in the hardcore scene difficult, and therefore the term "post-hardcore" has grown to be applied to a wide variety of bands.

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The Must-Haves:
Check out these great hardcore albums. The first four are well known early hardcore albums (you've probably heard of some of them) that laid the groundwork for the sorts of bands who created the next five albums on the list. Together these albums should give you a pretty good idea of what hardcore music sounds like and is about.

Black Flag - "Damaged"
Minor Threat - "Minor Threat: Complete Discography"
Bad Brains - "Bad Brains"
Dead Kennedys - "Fresh Fruit for Rotten Vegetables"
Comeback Kid - "Wake the Dead"
Refused - "The Shape of Punk to Come"
Converge - "Jane Doe" (a highly influential metalcore album)
Propagandhi - "Potemkin City Limits"
Dangers - "Anger"


Emo:
Around the early and mid nineties, the first bands in this subgenre moved away from the political themes and pure aggression of hardcore bands and created a more introspective & artful take on hardcore. Musically, emo bands focus on going between loud & soft - vocals and instruments often going from quiet to cathartic build-ups. A prime example of this is "Angry Son" by Indian Summer. Read the Emo Education Thread for more information about emo music.

Indian Summer - "Science 1994"
Cap'n Jazz - "Analphabetapolothology" (highly influential to "post" or "indie" emo - emo music with elements similar to the wide "indie" genre)
Moss Icon - "Lyburnum"
Rites of Spring - "End on End"


Screamo:
Like it's sister, emo, screamo music focused on taking the elements of hardcore and expanded on them, in the mid-late nineties. Many of the bands took hardcore's aggressive vocal style to the extreme - the vocalist screaming and shrieking their lyrics well past the point of intelligibility, hence the name - screamo. Also like emo, many screamo bands implement contrasting loud & soft elements in their music. Many modern bands have taken this even further, with some screamo songs going on for over ten minutes with long instrumental breaks - City of Caterpillar being a major influence on this development. Many recent & current screamo bands experiment with a wide range of outside influences, such as electronics (similarily to bands labelled "post-hardcore"). Read the Screamo Education Thread for more information on screamo.

Orchid - "Chaos is Me"
Ampere - "All Our Tomorrows End Today"
Daïtro - "Laissez Vivre Des Squelettes"
Envy - "A Dead Sinking Story"


Grindcore:
A fusion of hardcore punk, death metal, noise, and sometimes other genres, grindcore presents a violent extreme to the hardcore spectrum. Grindcore first reared its ugly head around the 80's with Napalm Death - an outfit who meshed death metal and hardcore punk together with scathing results. Since then, grindcore bands have come to add elements of electronic music & noise rock to their sound. Good examples of this being Genghis Tron and Agoraphobic Nosebleed, both using synth & drum machines to achieve violent sounds & inhuman speeds - many grind bands use a drumming technique called the "blast beat" - which is similar to the hardcore punk d-beat, but much, much faster. Oftentimes, grind songs will be extremely short - sometimes a matter of seconds. Some grindcore bands lean towards death metal while others lean towards hardcore punk, though after listening to the genre the similiarities become apparent and a somewhat cohesive sound becomes apparent.

Naplam Death - "Scum"
Discordance Axis - "The Inalienable Dreamless"
Pig Destroyer - "Terrifyer"
Insect Warfare - "World Extermination"

Compilations:
none yet.

(written for http://www.musicbanter.com/announcem...y-threads.html)