Alright people of Gaming World, I know that this is not your favorite genre, but it is in fact mine, and possibly tomohawkjoe's, so we are going to drop some knowledge, and shed some light on this subject.
The genre in question is Hardcore, and it's many sisters. First off, tomohawkjoe will shed some light on the original Hardcore bands, and the sound that started everything.
HardcoreBasically, this is a much more faster and aggressive form of punk. In fact, it was often referred to as Hardcore Punk. The overall sound is just fast and aggressive. Because of this, songs were often short in length and sometimes didn't even make it over a minute. Everything from the vocals to the drums was just fast and in your face. Some bands also threw in some Breakdowns to get the crowd moving. Solos, when used, were often sporadic and atonal in nature. Subjects for lyrics were usually about the whole DIY (do it yourself) ethics and just overcoming obstacles. Everything from alcohol to violence to abuse and even procrastination. They were very straight forward and some time considered cheesy. In my opinion, that was what made hardcore, it was to the point and that was that. Live shows were RI DI CU LOUS. Crowd involvement was nuts. Shows were filled with Stagedives, moshing, and sing alongs. I think the my favorite quote (even though I forget who says it all the time) was "You don't need a mike, when you got 200 kids singing along with you" and I honestly feel that describe a majority of hardcore shows. Especially during gang sing-alongs. Four bands that are often credited as the "major" bands in hardcore were
Black Flag,
Bad Brains,
Minor Threat, and
Gorilla Biscuits (although not considered "as important" as the previous three). Black Flag, Minor Threat, and Gorilla Biscuits I could describe as more straight forward hardcore. Bad Brains differs because they could be playing
hardcore one minute and
reggae/jazz the next. They ware also followers of the Rastafari movement. I know what your thinking "but what about today? Are there any hardcore bands today?" Why yes fellow GWer. And imo they still hold the same sound as early hardcore.
Modern Life Is War Pretty intense band. Unfortunately they just broke up not to long ago, but alot of their music is still loved by the hardcore scene. Great band still worth checking out.
The Carrier A bit more melodic in certain parts, but still great hardcore. Although in all honesty, I like the fact that there seems to be more melodic passages in some points. Don't let that fool you though, its still pretty straight forward hardcore for the most part.
Pulling Teeth video quality aint to good. A bit more metal in some parts. Normally anything metal thrown in to hardcore is referred to as metalcore, but I honestly feel they have way to much hardcore elements and slight metal elements. I really wish the singer could be heard better in this vid, I think he has a pretty intense voice for the scene.
Los Crudos I once heard someone jokingly call them spikcore...
Limp Wrist I once heard someone jokingly call the queercore...
The next form of Hardcore to begin to rise is a little known style called
Emo-Violence or,
ScreamoNow, a lot of people too often label a band that screams as SCREAMO, but this is wrong, most of todays bands are
Metalcore (which we will get to later on in this topic).
Emo-violence began in the mid to late 90's. It had the same intensity, and energy as Hardcore, but the bands were rather unknown, and only played shows for about 30 to 40 people in little clubs. This is the evolution of the now popular screaming vocals.
Saetia was one of the first bands to play this new style of music. Singer Greg Drudy of Saetia founded the original screamo record label, Level-Plane Records, and still today is releasing records from screamo, post-hardcore, and whatever bands. There really is not much more to say about this genre, it was screamo at it's finest, and that's all there is to say.
I Have Dreams – These guys are probably the funniest screamo band to ever come out, but their career was very short lived.
City of Caterpillar – One of the most influential screamo bands to ever come around.
Envy – This Japanese band is probably the most well known screamo band, and probably had the longest career haha.
Now for tomohawkjoe's input on
Metalcore:
MetalcoreWhat is there to say about metalcore? Well, for one, it fused elements of metal and hardcore. Pretty simple right? Well, this is one genre that has seen many arguments and debates. Why? Because unlike hardcore, were the band's sound was easily recognizable, metalcore has become somewhat deluded and often contains bands that some (like myself) would consider metal. So what exactly does metalcore sound like anyways? Well, to me its a clear fusion of metal and hardcore. Bands were you can clearly hear elements of hardcore and metal. I think this can easily be seen in bands like
Integrity and
Converge. However, alot of the genre started to lean more towards the metal side and became largely influenced by melo-death bands like At The Gates and In Flames. This resulted in bands having a more melodic death metal sound and less hardcore elements. To be honest, some of the metalcore bands today consider themselves that because they have breakdowns. I know, its stupid. Aside from that, as stated before, you got bands with a more melo-death sound such as
Prayer for Cleasing,
Darkest Hour and
Dead To Fall. This is the more popularized metalcore that you see today. But, it really has almost become a different entity than its predecessors. Theres a lengthy list both Smoothy and I posted
hereAnd, I will discuss one of Metalcore's sister sub-genre's
Christian MetalcoreThere is no really notable difference in the two, other than Christian Metalcore is more focused towards the faith of Jesus Christ, and obviously Christianity. Practically all of the bands in this genre do not curse in any of their lyrics, their songs are more focused on life values and Christian morals.
For example, August Burns Red's song Composure:
Shake it off.
Pick yourself up, they say.
Your life fell apart in your hands, and you've got the scars to prove it.
It's not the first time, and they're getting deeper.
Pull it together.
Button up your shirt.
Roll down those sleeves.
Don't let them see how you've coped.
More and more your demeanor looks like quicksand.
It seems like your giving up on everything you worked for.
It's pulling you under.
It's gripping around your throat.
Life can be overwhelming,
But don't turn your back on the strongest crutch you've ever.
They have always been there to brace your fall.
Wave goodbye to the past.
You've got your whole life to lead.
It's time to gain some ground.
And, for the fun of it, here is the video to
ComposureThe most notable band of the genre would definitely have to be
UnderOath, they sold huge as being a Christian band. Their sound may have changed drastically today, with the replacement of Dallas Taylor for Spencer Chamberlain, but they remain faithful till' the end.
The Devil Wears Prada – These guys are definitely my favorite Christian band ever, their music is so unlike all the other bands that label themselves as Christian, and nobody would expect them to have an extreme faith. These fellows are also coined for their intense breakdowns, just take a listen to any song.
I guess instead of listing a bunch of bands, I will just name some record labels, and you guys can pick any band from there to listen to!
Rise RecordsTooth and Nail RecordsSolid State RecordsYet again, it is tomohawkjoe, and he is going to tell us about
Deathcore this time.
DeathcoreFirst, I'd like to acknowledge the ridiculous title of this genre and I'd also like to state that I feel many of the bands in this category should be called death metal instead, but do to some genre elitist and Metal Nazis who want all their death metal to be from Sweden, this term was created, honestly to slam certain American death metal bands. Second thing I'd like to point out is that if you don't like death metal, just skip this right now. However, some bands really do fit in this category. So what is deathcore? Well its suppose to be a fusion of hardcore and death metal, but its really a fusion of death metal and metalcore, or in most cases, death metal with gratuitous use of break downs, which is stupid because death metal has used breakdowns way before deathcore was created. I'm not going to go to into this genre because honestly, its become so vague and deluded it becomes a tad difficult to differentiate death metal from deathcore. But here are some bands that are "big" in the whole scene. Don't ask me about the lyrics, because I doubt any of you want to know about such "amazing" lyrics as "she bled from every fucking hole".
Suicide Silence This band really bores me. Hey guys lets play really low shit and throw some growls and breakdowns over them. Yeah, that will make us brutal as fuck guys. ugh...
Job For A Cowboy Honestly, I would consider there new record a death metal recored, but again, those genre nazis don't want anything to do with these guys, so guess what, there deathcore. Pretty boring, their demo was the only thing worth listening to, and even then, its not something amazing.
The Faceless Okay, I like this band. One of the few deathcore bands I can actually listen to. The keys seem cheesy at times, but they make pretty awesome music. This is another band I would label as deathmetal. Good songs, nothing flat out amazing or anything, but still worth a listen.
Beneath The Massacre Hey, another band I consider death metal, whaddaya know? In all honesty, I know 90% of GW will hate this band, because there one of those "super uber technical bands" that really get very samey very quick. But fuck man, I don't know why, but I really dig this band. I mean, there something I would 99.9% of time disregard because they really are just "hey look, were technical" but sonofabitch, I really like them. Quick heads up, there drummer sounds like a metronome half the time.
Born Of Osiris these guys are getting alot of praise right now. The band members in this band are pretty much teens straight out of highschool. While I don't think they are even close to the hype they get, they're alright. I like the groovy meshuggah-ish parts, but thats about it. Who knows, maybe they'll get better, they haven't been around for that long. Their synth tone is really cheesy, in a bad way.
One more genre, and this topic is open for discussion.
Southern Hardcore.
This genre is my absolute favorite Hardcore-based style EVER. It is pretty much a bunch of guys with beards and flannel shirts playing ZZ Top influenced music haha. Well, that's not exactly it. This is a fairly new genre, and is highly influenced by the Southern lifestyle and music.
Every Time I Die are one of the first bands to do this style of music, and have mastered it since their start in 2000. Bands that play this music are not xStraightxEdgex like a lot of hardcore bands tend to be, these boys love their beers, sex, and drugs. Another thing that these bands implement a lot of is the use of the COWBELL, it can be heard in practically every song by Every Time I Die,
Tough As John Jacobs by Maylene and the Sons of Disaster, and many others.
And, now a few bands to check out:
Memphis May Fire - These guys are the new age of Southern, and are definitely going places. They also implement their Christian beliefs into their music, which makes them even greater in my book.
Once Nothing - This is like brutal Southern Hardcore, but still awesome nonetheless.
The Hottness Just like Memphis May Fire, these guys are also the new age of Southern, and are very very awesome. (couldn't find youtubes of them)
Alright, that is our introduction to our Hardcore TOTW, I guess now it is open to discussion.
We do not want hardcore bashing, and whatever here, nobody cares about your opinion.