This Is Hardcore

What is hardcore? In this instance, it's not horrible techno music with some German bloke saying "let's pahhhhty" over the top of it.
It's also not a type of pornography, despite what comes up when you Google the word. Hardcore actually began as punk in the 1980s when a guy in an American (or possibly Canadian - there's some dispute over who said this) punk band said that what they were playing "isn't punk, it's hardcore punk." So bands like Black Flag and Minor Threat played hardcore. Simple. No, not really. The scene reportedly died in the mid 80s (not true) and many of the original hardcore bands changed direction. New hardcore bands started with a much heavier sound than the first wave of bands and a new definition for the term 'hardcore' was born.
To describe modern hardcore to someone who has never heard it, I would say it falls in between punk and metal in terms of sound. Just think of Green Day and System Of A Down and try to imagine what the midway point between the two would sound like (if I've made myself understood, you're now thinking of Madball. If not, you're thinking of the Everly Brothers).
When I became disillusioned with thrash metal in the 90s (see previous blog posting), I began looking for different types of aggressive music to listen to. One band I really got into was Biohazard. I would have described them as rap metal, but officially they were a metal/hip hop/hardcore hybrid. I had never heard of hardcore at the time, so I chose to ignore that part of their label. One day while reading album reviews in Kerrang! magazine, I read a review for a band named Madball's new record and again the word hardcore was used. I read on and was talked into buying it when I read "for fans of Biohazard." I soon discovered that hardcore was aggressive, fast music with angry vocals and summed up how I felt at the time. Crucially, the songs were all under the 3 minute mark, as opposed to thrash metal which seemed to be heading in the opposite direction with some bands recording 12 or 13 minute songs.
Hardcore is another genre of music which has stayed with me since those days and there are literally hundreds of bands who play it (some good, some bad). One of the most important things it taught me, as a wannabe guitarist who had spent thousands of hours attempting to play Stairway To Heaven, was that songs didn't have to be complicated to be brilliant.

Timcore recommends:
Madball: Set It Off
Biohazard: Urban Discipline
Sick Of It All: Built To Last
H2O: FTTW
Agnostic Front: Riot, Riot, Upstart
Skarhead: Kings At Crime