One of my favorite kinds of music is (UK influenced) hardcore punk (also reffered to as d-beat). Some years ago a friend let me listen to the classic Discharge album Hear Nothing See Nothing Say Nothing. I really liked it and from then on I downloaded a lot of this kind of music.
The reason I like this music is mainly because of the aesthetics. Uncomplicated drum patterns, plodding basslines, repetive guitar riffs and angrily shouted lyrics about the possibility of a nuclear war or some other kind of apocalypse.
One particular Discharge song sums up this genre perfectly in my opinion, The Possibility Of Life’s Destruction:
When you listen to a song like this and read the lyrics it should be no surprise that this kind of music was first created in the late 70’s and 80’s, during the height of the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union.
The artwork of bands was also very typical. Most designs were black and white and were high in contrast. Quite often pictures of an dark nature were used, like bombed cities or innocent people killed in a war. Below is an example of a typical hardcore punk cover.
One funny thing is that a lot of bands weren’t that original and had names that started with Dis- and had logo’s that closely resembled the Discharge band logo. One could also interpret this as a way of paying tribute to their main source of inspiration.
In Europe hardcore punk originated from the UK with notable bands like The Exploited, Charged GBH, The Varukers and of course Discharge. Soon, bands from other countries followed. In Scandinavia and especially Finland a lot of bands came into existence. For example Anti-Cimex from Sweden, and Terveet Kädet, Kaaos, Riistetyt, Mellakka from Finland.
This music had quite some influence on artists that are now famous. For example Metallica covered Free Speech For The Dumb from Discharge, Machine Head covered The Possibility of Life’s Destruction also from Discharge and Max Cavalera from Sepultura/Soulfy said that Terveet Kädet is one of his favorite bands.
In the US there were also a lot of hardcore punk bands, but they were different in style. Still, there are some bands that I like, for example Death Kennedy’s, Black Flag and Bad Brains.
Anyway, to conclude this post, some of my favorite hardcore punk bands and records:
Discharge – You know wich record..
Varukers – Still Bollox But Still Here
The Exploited – Troops of Tomorrow
Anti-Cimex – Raped Ass
Riistetyt – Skitsofrenia (clean mix, quite catchy) or Valtion Vankina (extremely messy and gritty production, recommended to torment your neighbours..)
Mellakka – Ei… (This band has clearly heard of Slayer judging from certain songs)
Kuolleet Kukat – Kansamurha (catchy, clean but still very good)
Kaaos: – Total Chaos (messy, sometimes clearly inspired by puberty, warning, treble turned all the way up)
Terveet Kädet – Aareton Propaganda (lots of songs from this original band, quite technical for hardcore punk)
Have fun and try not to damage your ears, hehe…
