Hardcore punk in the United Kingdom
Hardcore punk in the United Kingdom began in the late 1970s and early 1980s with the second wave of punk rock in the country. The scene produced many successful and influential hardcore punk bands throughout the 1980s such as Discharge, GBH and the Exploited and led to the pioneering of genres such as grindcore, street punk, crust punk and D-beat.
In the 2000s, the genre saw a revived interest, leading to the success of hardcore groups including Gallows, Send More Paramedics and Dead Swans, metalcore groups like Bring Me the Horizon, Architects and Bullet for My Valentine and post-hardcore groups such as Fightstar, ¡Forward, Russia! and Funeral for a Friend. This interested carried on into the 2010s, when Malevolence, Frank Carter & the Rattlesnakes and Higher Power gained prominence.
1980s
The first wave of UK hardcore punk is often referred to as "UK 82" or simply "second wave punk". The sound of the groups from this era is called street punk through its building upon the previous punk sound and added the heavy drumbeats and distorted guitar sound of new wave of British heavy metal bands and Motörhead. The term "UK 82" was taken from Edinburgh band the Exploited's song of the same name. They contrasted with early American hardcore bands by placing an emphasis on appearance. Frontman Walter "Wattie" Buchan had a giant red mohawk and the band continued to wear swastikas, an approach influenced by the wearing of this symbol by 1970s punks such as Sid Vicious. Because of this, the Exploited were labeled by others in the scene as "cartoon punks".Formed in 1977 in Stoke-on-Trent, Discharge were of the most prominent bands in UK 82. AllMusic calls the band's sound a "high-speed noise overload" characterized by "ferocious noise blasts." The sound of their many imitators was dubbed as D-beat, referring to the band's distinctive drum beat. According to writer Ian Glasper, the Varukers from Leamington Spa, are often cited as the original D-beat band, due to their close sonic proximity to Discharge. Bands from this era, particularly Discharge and GBH were influential upon the development of multiple heavy metal styles, such as thrash metal and black metal, being cited as an influence by bands including Slayer, Anthrax, Sepultura and Metallica. Other prominent groups from this era include Broken Bones, Chaos UK, English Dogs.
In the second half of the 1980s, it became increasingly normalised for UK hardcore bands to be influenced by heavy metal styles. At this same time, a sect of bands began making music with more elements in common with U.S. groups than their UK contemporaries. The most notable of these included Heresy, the Stupids and Filler.
Crust punk
Crust punk is a form of music influenced by punk rock and extreme metal. Founded by the English bands Amebix and Antisect, taking its name from Newcastle band Hellbastard's 1986 Ripper Crust demo. Deviated Instinct, Concrete Sox and Electro Hippies were also important crust punk bands from the time. Crust punk bands were a part of the hardcore scene of the time, despite not taking influence from the genre themselves. From this, crustcore developed when some crust punk bands began taking influence from hardcore and sometimes thrashcore. Felix Havok described Extreme Noise Terror's segment of the "Earslaughter" split album with Chaos UK as the first album in the genre, with Doom also being prominent in the style.Crust punk influenced further developments into UK hardcore, specifically in its contribution to the creation of grindcore. It also made a significant impact on metal, with the high influential black metal band Bathory citing a number of crust bands as influences. Additionally, metal bands Sacrilege and Bolt Thrower began their careers involved in the West Midlands crust punk scene.
Grindcore
Grindcore, developed during the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom by Napalm Death, a group who emerged from the anarcho-punk scene in Birmingham, England. Whilst their first recordings were in the vein of Crass, they eventually became associated with crust punk, The group began to take on increasing elements of thrashcore, post-punk, and power electronics, and began describing their sound as "Siege with Celtic Frost riffs". The group also went through many changes in personnel. A major shift in style took place after Mick Harris became the group's drummer. Punk historian Ian Glasper indicates that "For several months gob-smacked audiences weren't sure whether Napalm Death were actually a serious band any longer, such was the undeniable novelty of their hyper-speed new drummer."Earache was founded in 1985 by Digby Pearson, and would go on to help the further development of grindcore, hardcore and crust punk, by putting out releases from artists like Concrete Sox and Heresy. The label's first major release of note was MOSH 3, Napalm Death's Scum, which went on to reach number 7 in the UK indie chart.
Napalm Death's seismic impact inspired other British grindcore groups in the 1980s, among them Carcass and Sore Throat. Extreme Noise Terror, from Ipswich, formed in 1984. With the goal of becoming "the most extreme hardcore punk band of all time," the group took Mick Harris from Napalm Death in 1987. Ian Glasper describes the group as "pissed-off hateful noise with its roots somewhere between early Discharge and Disorder, with Dean and Phil pushing their trademark vocal extremity to its absolute limit." In 1991, the group collaborated with the acid house group The KLF, appearing onstage with the group at the Brit Awards in 1992. Carcass released Reek of Putrefaction in 1988, which John Peel declared his favorite album of the year despite its very poor production. The band's focus on gore and anatomical decay, lyrically and in sleeve artwork, inspired the goregrind subgenre. Sore Throat, said by Ian Glasper to have taken "perhaps the most uncompromisingly anti-music stance" were inspired by crust punk as well as industrial music. Some listeners, such as Digby Pearson, considered them to be simply an in-joke or parody of grindcore.
Straight edge
According to NoEcho writer Ethan Stewart "the closest thing to a straight edge band for much of the was Statement", a solo-project by the Apostles drummer Patrick "Rat" Poole. However, despite Poole being drug-free, vegan and having a massive influence on the development of hardline, he didn't identify with the straight edge label at the time. Additionally, many groups from the UK punk and hardcore scene did include straight edge members, namely Napalm Death, Blitz and Heresy.The first entirely straight edge band in the country was Steadfast, who formed in Durham, England, in 1988. Despite originally being formed as a vehicle to annoy the members of the anarcho punk scene, the band eventually grew into a serious band. Following this, a number of additional straight edge bands began to form including XdisciplineX, False Face, Headstong, Step One and Kickback. Nicolas Royles, drummer for Sore Throat, formed In Touch and Withstand around this time, which both morphed into No Way Out by 1990. This scene was based mostly based in North East of England and Yorkshire, and made up of musicians who became involved in the hardcore scene through skateboarding and the popularity of thrash metal. The bands were predominantly influenced by U.S. youth crew acts like Youth of Today and Gorilla Biscuits. Members of the existing punk and hardcore scenes in the country often reacted negatively to the straight edge bands, to the extent that on multiple occasions fights broke out between the musicians and fans.
1990s
were a prominent hardcore band in 1990s hardcore. Formed in 1991 by members of UK straight edge bands Steadfast and False Face, they released three full-length albums, recorded a Peel session for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel and would go on to be cited as an influence by bands and musicians such as Kill Your Idols and Chubby Charles.The largest sect of UK hardcore in the 1990s was emotional hardcore. According to a 1994 article by Vice, "the main group" in the scene was Fabric. Formed in London in 1992 by former members of Long Cold Stare and Ordinary Eye, the band released two albums before their breakup. Other groups from this period included Understand, Dead Wrong and Bob Tilton.
A second wave of UK straight edge began in the mid-1990s. Mostly based around Subjugation and Sure Hand Records, this wave saw members of many of the first wave bands form new bands and begin to embrace influences from heavy metal. The main location for this scene was the 1 in 12 Club, an anarchist club in Bradford, West Yorkshire, as groups like Unborn, Slavearc, Vengeance of Gaia and Withdrawn performed there frequently.
In 1996, a hardcore scene in London began around the informal collective "London Black-Up", which include bands like Knuckledust, Ninebar and Bun Dem Out. Bands in this scene often incorporated elements of grime, hip hip and metal into their sounds and was based around venues such as the Camden Underworld, New Cross Inn and the Dome in Tufnell Park.
2000s
The 2000s saw the rise in prominent of a number of UK post-hardcore bands, the most prominent of which was Bridgend's Funeral for a Friend, whose 2003 debut album Casually Dressed & Deep in Conversation peaked at number 12 on the UK singles chart. London's Fightstar released their debut studio album, Grand Unification, in 2006, which Kerrang! editor Paul Brannigan called "one of the best British rock albums of the last decade". They then received a nomination for Best British Band at the 2006 Kerrang! Awards Leeds band ¡Forward, Russia!'s, merger of post-hardcore and dance-punk led to them gaining significant attention as a part of the New Yorkshire movement in indie rock. And None of Them Knew They Were Robots were also influential within the Leeds post-hardcore scene, in addition to spawning crossover thrash band Send More Paramedics in 2001, who won Zane Lowe's the 'fresh meat' competition on BBC Radio 1 show, leading to a "Guerilla Gig Live" performance on BBC Three. Other notable bands from this era include Jarcrew, Hell Is for Heroes, Yourcodenameis:milo, Hundred Reasons and Million Dead.Watford hardcore band Gallows released their debut album Orchestra of Wolves on 25 September 2006 through In at the Deep End Records in the U.K. and Epitaph Records in the U.S. The album peaked at number 57 on the U.K. charts. In March 2007, Gallows signed a deal with Warner Bros Records, making them the first British hardcore punk band to sign to a major label. On 2 May 2009, Gallows released their sophomore album Grey Britain, which was a concept album based on Britain after the 2008 financial crisis, which was "centered on a world of emboldened racism, xenophobia, knife crime and inescapable mental illness". It peaked at number 20 on the U.K. charts. The album led to Warner Bros dropping the group due to them believing it to be too confrontational politically. The album debuted at number 20 in the UK album chart, leading to Ben Myers of Mojo commented "Not since the Pistols and the Specials has a pissed off provincial band so clearly meant it" Kerrang! listed Grey Britain as the best album of 2009. NME listed the album among the 15 greatest hardcore punk albums of all time. The success of Gallows led to other British hardcore acts of the time gain notability like the Ghost of a Thousand.