Thrashcore

Infobox Music genre
name = Thrashcore
bgcolor = crimson
color = white
stylistic_origins = Hardcore punk, D-beat
cultural_origins = Early 1980s, United States
instruments = Vocals - Electric guitar - Bass guitar - Drums
popularity = Underground
derivatives = Crossover thrash Grindcore Powerviolence
subgenres =
fusiongenres =
other_topics = Skate punk

Thrashcore (also known as fastcoreInterview with Max Ward, "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" [http://www.625thrash.com/interviews.shtml] Access date: June 19, 2008] ) is a fast tempo subgenre of hardcore punk that emerged in the early 1980s.Felix von Havoc, "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" #219 [http://www.havocrex.com/press/article/1/52] Access date: June 19, 2008] Thrashcore is essentially sped-up hardcore punk, with bands often using blast beats.Interview with Max Ward, "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" [http://www.625thrash.com/interviews.shtml] Access date: June 19, 2008] Songs can be very brief, and thrashcore is in many ways a less dissonant, less metallic forerunner of grindcore. Like hardcore groups, thrashcore lyrics typically emphasize youthful rebellion or antimilitarism. The genre is in some ways aligned with skateboarder culture.Interview with Max Ward, "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" [http://www.625thrash.com/interviews.shtml] Access date: June 19, 2008]

Terminological ambiguity

Thrashcore is often confused with crossover thrash and sometimes thrash metal.Felix von Havoc, "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" #198 [http://www.havocrex.com/press/article/1/20] Access date: June 20, 2008] "Powerviolence: The Dysfunctional Family of Bllleeeeaaauuurrrgghhh!!". "Terrorizer" no. 172. July 2008. p. 36-37.] Further confusion is added by the fact that many crossover bands, such as D.R.I., began as influential thrashcore bands.Felix von Havoc, "Maximum Rock'n'Roll" #198 [http://www.havocrex.com/press/article/1/20] Access date: June 20, 2008] The term thrashcore is of recent vintage but dates from at least 1993. [As Max Ward writes, "625 started in 1993 in order to help out the local Bay Area thrashcore scene." cite web | author=Ward, Max | year= 2000| title="About 625" | work=625 Thrashcore | url=http://www.625thrash.com/about.shtml | accessdate=June 5| accessyear=2008 ] Throughout the '80s, the term "thrash" was in use as a synonym for hardcore punk (as in the "New York Thrash" compilation of 1982). It eventually came to be used for the faster, more intense style pioneered by D.R.I., just before their crossover period. [D.R.I. Fan Page, http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendID=110060206 Access Date: June 13, 2008] The "-core" suffix is necessary to distinguish it from the thrash metal scene, which is also referred to as "thrash" by fans. Still more confusingly, the term "thrashcore" is occasionally used by the music press to refer to thrash metal-inflected metalcore. [Stewart Voegtlin, "Soulfly Cranks Up the Thrash and Triggers a Debacle", Village Voice, July 29, 2008. [http://www.villagevoice.com/2008-07-29/music/soulfly-cranks-up-the-thrash-and-triggers-a-debacle/] Access date: July 31, 2008.]

History

Origins

Just as hardcore punk groups distinguished themselves from their punk rock predecessors by their greater intensity and aggression, thrashcore groups (often identified simply as "thrash") sought to play at breakneck tempos that would radicalize the innovations of hardcore. Thrash groups evolved in parallel with, and sometimes borrowed from, developments in British street punk, particularly D-beat. Early American thrashcore groups included Cryptic Slaughter (Santa Monica), Dirty Rotten Imbeciles (D.R.I.) (Houston), Septic Death (Boise) and Siege (Weymouth, Massachusetts). The British Electro Hippies, Dutch Lärm, Italian Raw Power, and Japanese S.O.B. also practiced important examples of the style. Some of Negative Approach's later work was influential on the scene.

Powerviolence

The powerviolence scene grew out of thrashcore as an American (Bay Area, California) counterpart to the British grindcore scene, which had emerged from crust punk. Powerviolence groups saw themselves as distinct from grindcore because of the increasing proximity of grindcore groups to the death metal being performed in Florida, Sweden, and Brazil. [Bartkewicz, Anthony (July 2007). [http://www.decibelmagazine.com/features/jul2007/powerviolence.aspx Screwdriver in the Urethra of Hardcore] ". "Decibel Magazine". Retrieved on July 29 2007.] Powerviolence groups wished to avoid the association with heavy metal music and culture that crossover thrash, thrash metal, and grindcore had made. As well as from thrashcore, powerviolence groups also took inspiration from crust punk, from some aspects of early youth crew, and eventually from noise music.

Thrashcore revival

The '90s saw a revival of the thrashcore style, as groups that had previously been associated with power violence or grindcore began to explore their debt to this earlier form of extreme rock music. This was sometimes referred to as "bandanna thrash", in reference to the headgear preferred by many of the performers. Prominent '90s thrashcore groups included Code 13, Guyana Punch Line, R.A.M.B.O., Vitamin X, Vivisick, Voorhees, and What Happens Next?. These groups sometimes felt a greater association with other elements of '80s hardcore punk, such as straight edge, anarcho-punk, youth crew, or crust punk, than the initial thrashcore groups did.

Contemporary thrashcore

Prominent thrashcore groups of the 21st century include Limp Wrist, who are associated with queercore; Birmingham, Alabama's Korova (who coined the term "generic anti core" to describe themselves); and the Dutch-American group Das Oath.

Record Labels

*Slap-a-Ham Records
*Sound Pollution
*625 Thrashcore
*Havoc Records
*Ebullition Records

Notes

Bibliography

*Blush, Steven (2001). "American Hardcore: A Tribal History". Feral House. ISBN-10: 0922915717