Canadian hardcore punk
Canadian hardcore punk originated in the early 1980s. It was harder, faster, and heavier than the Canadian punk rock that preceded it. Hardcore punk is a punk rock music genre and subculture that originated in the late 1970s. The origin of the term "hardcore punk" is uncertain. The Vancouver-based band D.O.A. may have helped to popularize the term with the title of their 1981 album, Hardcore '81. Hardcore historian Steven Blush said that the term "hardcore" is also a reference to the sense of being "fed up" with the existing punk and new wave music. Blush also states that the term refers to "an extreme: the absolute most Punk." An article in Drowned in Sound argues that 1980s-era "hardcore is the true spirit of punk", because "after all the poseurs and fashionistas fucked off to the next trend of skinny pink ties with New Romantic haircuts, singing wimpy lyrics", the punk scene consisted only of people "completely dedicated to the DIY ethics". One definition of the genre is "a form of exceptionally harsh punk rock."
Influential early bands that formed in the Vancouver area included D.O.A., the Subhumans and The Skulls and from Vancouver Island the Dayglo Abortions. Other well-known groups that moved to the Vancouver scene include Nomeansno and SNFU. Canada has several Christian hardcore groups, including Grace like Winter and Means. An influential Toronto band was Bunchofuckingoofs. Canada also has straight edge groups, such as Chokehold and an all-female band, Pantychrist.
History
Vancouver
The Skulls were an early Vancouver punk rock/hardcore band, whose members would later found two of the area's notable hardcore bands: D.O.A. and The Subhumans. They toured heavily and issued a demo, but never released any albums. Joey Keithley, a.k.a. Joey Shithead, was the singer, Brian Roy Goble, a.k.a. Wimpy Roy, the bass player, Simon Werner the guitar player and Ken Montgomery, a.k.a. Dimwit, the drummer. The Skulls played the club circuit in Vancouver and recorded a few songs at Psi-chords Studios, including "Fucked Up Baby", which would later become a D.O.A. song. After the Subhumans broke up in 1982, Wimpy joined DOA, which now featured Dimwit on drums, who had just been in the Pointed Sticks. For the next several years DOA's lineup was a virtual copy of the Skulls lineup, but with Dave Gregg instead of Simon Werner.D.O.A. formed in Vancouver, British Columbia in 1978 and were one of the first bands to refer to its style as "hardcore", with the release of their album Hardcore '81. Other early hardcore bands from British Columbia included Dayglo Abortions, the Subhumans and The Skulls. In 1988, the Dayglo Abortions became the center of national media attention when a police officer instigated a criminal investigation of the band after his daughter brought home a copy of Here Today, Guano Tomorrow. Obscenity charges were laid against the Dayglo Abortions' record label, Fringe Product, and the label's record store, Record Peddler, but those charges were cleared in 1990.
The Subhumans are a punk band formed in Vancouver in 1978. Known by pejorative, punk rock nicknames, original members were known simply as "Useless", "Dimwit", "Wimpy" and "Normal". Dimwit quit the band shortly after their first 7-inch was released to join the Pointed Sticks and was replaced by Koichi Imagawa, also known as Jim Imagawa, on drums. In 1981, Hannah left the band and gradually became involved with a small group of underground activists which were responsible for a number of actions, including the October 14, 1982, bombing of the Litton Industries plant in Ontario which made guidance systems for cruise missiles. The Subhumans finally broke up, with the singer joining D.O.A. on bass.
Nomeansno is a hardcore band originally from Victoria, British Columbia and now located in Vancouver. SNFU formed in Edmonton in 1981 and also later relocated to Vancouver. SNFU has released ten full-length albums and are cited as a formative influence on the skate punk subgenre. The band came to fruition amid the inchoate Canadian hardcore punk scene of the early 1980s. Coupling horrific and occasionally humorous lyrical imagery with a dynamic punk sound, their 1985 debut album ...And No One Else Wanted to Play has remained influential in underground circuits. Brand New Unit was a Canadian hardcore punk band from Vancouver. The band formed in 1991 near Surrey, and were widely known as the acronym B.N.U. in the early years, as a band name logo was needed to post on a playbill. They were featured on Thrasher Skate Rock Vol. 11 and in 1992 they were winners of CITR-FM's SHiNDiG live performance contest, which awarded them some studio time.
Stress Factor 9 is a hardcore punk band from Vancouver, formed in 2004. SF9s members include frontman Randy Rampage and last played in January 2007.
Manitoba and Saskatchewan
is a Canadian hardcore band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Formed in 2000, the band is signed to Victory Records. Their name comes from a headline in a newspaper about hockey player, Mario Lemieux coming back to the NHL. The band was formed in 2002 by Andrew Neufeld and Jeremy Hiebert who were both members of the band Figure Four, which is currently on hiatus. They were joined by their friends Scott Wade and Kyle Profeta, but CBK was originally intended only to be a side project. Their initial popularity was mainly due to word of mouth within the hardcore scene.Grace like Winter was a Christian progressive metal/hardcore punk band from Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. They were formed in November 1998, and disbanded for the last time in September 2002. They released records independently, and with the Raising The Roof record label. They were notable for having two singers, both of whom were female, as this is a rarity in the hardcore punk community. I Spy was a hardcore punk band founded in Regina, Saskatchewan in 1991. They relocated to Winnipeg, Manitoba in 1994, and disbanded in 1996. Combining childish humour and politically-oriented emotive hardcore, the group released several records on Recess Records and toured internationally. Front man Todd Kowalski later joined Propagandhi.The true hardcore scene however dates back much further than the 2000s or even the 90s.
Means was a Christian Post-hardcore/Melodic hardcore band from Regina, Saskatchewan. The band was formed in 2001 under the name of Means 2 An End as a 3-piece by main-songwriter/lyricist Matt Goud. They were originally from the small city of Dauphin, Manitoba. In 2003, they relocated to Regina, SK. They eventually integrated more and more elements of hardcore into their sound and dropped "2 An End" from their name. After many years of touring, the band began to accumulate a fanbase. It was around this time, in 2005, that original bassist Blair Roberts quit to pstart a family. He was replaced by Dylan Johnstone. They remained a three-piece until mid-2006 when Todd joined so Dylan could switch to lead vocals. Painted Thin was a Canadian hardcore punk band, formed in Winnipeg, and active from 1994 to 1999. The core of the band consisted of vocalist and guitarist Stephen Carroll and bassist and vocalist Paul Furgale, with a variety of guest musicians, including James Ash, Dan McCafferty and Jason Tait, on individual recordings. The first CD was Small Acts of Love and Rebellion, a split CD with John K. Samson, in 1995 on G7 Welcoming Committee Records, and the albums Still They Die of Heartbreak in 1997 and Clear, Plausible Stories in 1999 before breaking up. Carroll and Tait went on to join Samson's indie rock band, The Weakerthans, while Furgale started the band Sixty Stories.
Since 2020 a reemergent Hardcore and DBeat scene as developed both within the city of Saskatoon and Regina represented by bands such as Reject, Krash, Asspatch, Old Tolerated, Cambodian Death Camp and Repair from Saskatoon and Fistfight, GROND and Modern Decay in Regina. Venues include the Black Cat Tavern, The Capital, RCAF Hall and the Elks Hall located in Saskatoon with The Exchange and The Mercury based in Regina.
Toronto
The Young Lions, Chronic Submission, Afhakken, Youth Youth Youth, Direct Action, APB, Creative Zero are all hardcore bands from Toronto that appeared on the cassette TO Hardcore 83. The second wave of hardcore bands curated the largest punk scene in Canada from 1984 to 1989 and included bands like HYPE, Sudden Impact, Negative Gain, Problem Children, No Mind, Son's of Ishmael, Social Suicide, Missing Link, Circus Lupus, Brontocrushrock, MSI, Social Suicide, Verbal Assassination, Decimation among many others including Bunchofuckingoofs, from the Kensington Market neighbourhood of Toronto, Ontario, formed in November 1983 as a response to "a local war with glue huffing Nazi skinheads."Armed and Hammered was a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, spawned from the Kensington Market, BFG scene. They played their first show June 7, 1989, and their final show on April 19, 2003. Cancer Bats are a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. They have released four studio albums and six extended plays. The band is composed of vocalist Liam Cormier, guitarist Scott Middleton, drummer Mike Peters and bassist Jaye R. Schwarzer. Cancer Bats take a wide variety of influences from heavy metal subgenres and fuse them into hardcore punk and punk rock, and include elements of sludge metal, and southern rock.Image:Fucked up at the polaris music prize gala 2009 by dustin rabin.jpg|thumb|left|200px|Fucked Up receiving the 2009 Polaris Music Prize
Career Suicide is a Canadian hardcore punk band formed in 2001 in Toronto. The band's first live performance took place in January 2002. The band has recorded several albums and singles on international labels. The band has completed multiple tours of North America, Europe and Japan. Fucked Up is a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band won the 2009 Polaris Music Prize for the album The Chemistry of Common Life. Liferuiner is a hardcore/metalcore group from Greater Toronto Area, formed in 2004. The band was originally created to make a sort of joke against mainstream straight edge bands by writing lyrics about hate and death rather than preaching their lifestyle. In early 2010 Liferuiner, fronted by original member and vocalist Jonny O'Callaghan, announced a return. Since that time the band has released the Sons of Straight Edge EP and 2013's Future Revisionists under InVogue Records.
No Warning was a hardcore punk band from Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The band was founded in 1998 under the name As We Once Were by singer Ben Cook and guitarists Matt Delong and Alan "Yeti" Riches. They released two demos, both in 1998, as As We Once Were. The band subsequently renamed itself No Warning. They released their 7-inch on New York label Martyr Records in 2001. Later that year, Boston based Bridge 9 Records re-released the 7-inch on CD with different artwork and the demo tape as bonus tracks. The band continued to play shows across the east coast of the United States and Canada with hardcore punk bands such as Hatebreed, Cro-Mags, Sick of It All, Terror and Bane. Through more touring, the band came in contact with Sum 41 manager/producer Greig Nori, and signed with his management/production company. While working with Nori, the band developed a more radio-friendly edge to their sound and signed to Machine Shop Records, a label founded by Linkin Park, and distributed through Warner Bros. Records. Suffer, Survive was released in late 2004. The band continued to tour with more bands such as Linkin Park, Sum 41, Papa Roach, The Used, Fear Factory, as well as older punk band SNFU, and up and coming bands such as Funeral for a Friend and Saosin. After a lot of time spent on tour and different directions the band wanted to take, No Warning broke up in late 2005.