Records For Jake.
My friend Jake doesn’t really like hardcore. Which is odd because he helped me start Grudgeholder and played drums on our demo. Then our vocalist, Derrick, kicked him out because Jake’s other band Bad Luck was getting too famous. And we can’t have anyone successful around us making us feel inadequate. But back when we started the band Jake asked me for some musical recommendations. So I assembled a list for him. It consists of mostly my favorite heavy bands that we try to emulate, but also some other decent stuff just so he could get a broader picture of what I meant when I said “hardcore.” What follows is that list, descriptions and all.
Now, before you read on, just know that No Warning is on this list. Black Flag is not. I said heavy hardcore. I like Black Flag, but I was thinking about the metallic bands I like while making it. So get all your tears out now. You finished? Okay.
Strife – In This DefianceThe heaviest band to ever play in standard tuning. Rick Rodney’s voice sounds like a chainsaw punching through a side of beef.
No Warning – Ill BloodThese Canadian dickheads made the best NYHC record since Set It Off and then played grabass with Chester from Linkin Park until they turned themselves into scarf-wearing clowns.
Terror – One With the Underdogs“Put this record on and drive your car into a fucking wall.” – Scott Vogel.
Madball – Hold It DownFor me, this was their perfect record. Unprecedented hardness and Freddy hadn’t even gone to jail yet.
Carnivore – RetaliationBlood feast crossover war metal for dickheads and anti-vegans.
Sick of It All – Blood, Sweat, and No Tears / Scratch the SurfaceThis shit will get your parents wind milling at Christmas dinner. Kings of the live show: they make bands half their age look like Alzheimer’s patients.
Cro Mags – Age of QuarrelBehold, the pit bible. Everyone playing hardcore owes these savage bastards a check, or a couple of appendages.
Integrity – Systems Overload / Humanity Is the DevilAny hardcore band trying to be “evil” is really just pretending to be Integrity. Beyond time and space and meaning. Aliens will hear “Hollow” and erect monuments of bones in unspeakable veneration of these witchy bastards.
Ringworm – Birth Is PainThrash punk blasphemy for bald men who punch holes in their families. You cannot handle this.
Blacklisted – Our Youth Is WastedBlacklisted was so ridiculous they made people like Life of Agony just by covering them. Nobody gave a shit about Life of Agony until 2005, even when they were a band in the ‘90s. No one. Blacklisted completely changed things. Then in 2010 they got sick of being gods and they started making music that sounds like flamingos being force-fed iron ingots. I guess the joke’s on us.
100 Demons – In the Eyes of the LordConstruction worker metal for lapsed Catholics who are ashamed of their children.
In Control – The Truth HurtsNo room for bullshit. Get out of the way, or watch in horror as your bones get feeble grinded into dust.
Buried Alive – The Death of Your Perfect WorldPre-Terror apocalyptic beatdown symphonies.
Hatebreed – Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire / Perseverance / The Rise of BrutalityThe first three. It doesn’t matter what any spaghetti-limbed, weakling naysayer says. Only the primal survive.
Merauder – Master KillerO.G. ninja thug ass-beater metal fueled by wanton criminality.
Disembodied – HereticThe darkest, heaviest record of all time was released in 1999. So you can stop debating it. Satan listens to this when he needs time alone.
Cut the Shit – Harmed and DangerousThis record can make a nun crack a skateboard over a cop’s head. All go, everyone dies.
Bad Brains – ROIR Sessions / I Against IThey’ve all smoked themselves retarded now, but the influence of these two records is indescribable. Breakneck punk rock insanity. Now H.R. crawls out onstage and reads the paper because his skull is full of resin.
Skarhead – Kings At CrimeEzec got stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver and then had someone tattoo over the scar. That’s what Skarhead sounds like.
Most Precious Blood – Our Lady of Annihilation / MercilessLike the Cure if they played hardcore and had a wolf for a singer.
Fury of Five –
This Time It’s Personal
Banned from Earth. Jersey beatdown insanity for animals.
Agnostic Front – Victim In Pain / Cause For Alarm / Something’s Gotta Give / Another VoiceOne of the first and most influential. Thirty-five years in and Stigma is still the Martin Scorsese of hardcore. This shit will turn you into a warrior.
Arkangel – Dead Man WalkingVegan hate metal from the forest.
Well, it’s not Damaged, but…
Henry Rollins – Get In the Van
Much like Evolution of A Cro-Mag, I prefer the audio book. When Rollins describes having to fight Flag’s actual fans during their shows because shit was just too wild in the ‘80s, you want to hear him tell the story. Punk rock used to be war and now even the hardest dudes are big, blubbery idiots in comparison.
Now, before you read on, just know that No Warning is on this list. Black Flag is not. I said heavy hardcore. I like Black Flag, but I was thinking about the metallic bands I like while making it. So get all your tears out now. You finished? Okay.
Strife – In This DefianceThe heaviest band to ever play in standard tuning. Rick Rodney’s voice sounds like a chainsaw punching through a side of beef.
No Warning – Ill BloodThese Canadian dickheads made the best NYHC record since Set It Off and then played grabass with Chester from Linkin Park until they turned themselves into scarf-wearing clowns.
Terror – One With the Underdogs“Put this record on and drive your car into a fucking wall.” – Scott Vogel.
Madball – Hold It DownFor me, this was their perfect record. Unprecedented hardness and Freddy hadn’t even gone to jail yet.
Carnivore – RetaliationBlood feast crossover war metal for dickheads and anti-vegans.
Sick of It All – Blood, Sweat, and No Tears / Scratch the SurfaceThis shit will get your parents wind milling at Christmas dinner. Kings of the live show: they make bands half their age look like Alzheimer’s patients.
Cro Mags – Age of QuarrelBehold, the pit bible. Everyone playing hardcore owes these savage bastards a check, or a couple of appendages.
Integrity – Systems Overload / Humanity Is the DevilAny hardcore band trying to be “evil” is really just pretending to be Integrity. Beyond time and space and meaning. Aliens will hear “Hollow” and erect monuments of bones in unspeakable veneration of these witchy bastards.
Ringworm – Birth Is PainThrash punk blasphemy for bald men who punch holes in their families. You cannot handle this.
Blacklisted – Our Youth Is WastedBlacklisted was so ridiculous they made people like Life of Agony just by covering them. Nobody gave a shit about Life of Agony until 2005, even when they were a band in the ‘90s. No one. Blacklisted completely changed things. Then in 2010 they got sick of being gods and they started making music that sounds like flamingos being force-fed iron ingots. I guess the joke’s on us.
100 Demons – In the Eyes of the LordConstruction worker metal for lapsed Catholics who are ashamed of their children.
In Control – The Truth HurtsNo room for bullshit. Get out of the way, or watch in horror as your bones get feeble grinded into dust.
Buried Alive – The Death of Your Perfect WorldPre-Terror apocalyptic beatdown symphonies.
Hatebreed – Satisfaction Is the Death of Desire / Perseverance / The Rise of BrutalityThe first three. It doesn’t matter what any spaghetti-limbed, weakling naysayer says. Only the primal survive.
Merauder – Master KillerO.G. ninja thug ass-beater metal fueled by wanton criminality.
Disembodied – HereticThe darkest, heaviest record of all time was released in 1999. So you can stop debating it. Satan listens to this when he needs time alone.
Cut the Shit – Harmed and DangerousThis record can make a nun crack a skateboard over a cop’s head. All go, everyone dies.
Bad Brains – ROIR Sessions / I Against IThey’ve all smoked themselves retarded now, but the influence of these two records is indescribable. Breakneck punk rock insanity. Now H.R. crawls out onstage and reads the paper because his skull is full of resin.
Skarhead – Kings At CrimeEzec got stabbed in the chest with a screwdriver and then had someone tattoo over the scar. That’s what Skarhead sounds like.
Most Precious Blood – Our Lady of Annihilation / MercilessLike the Cure if they played hardcore and had a wolf for a singer.
Fury of Five –
This Time It’s Personal
Banned from Earth. Jersey beatdown insanity for animals.
Agnostic Front – Victim In Pain / Cause For Alarm / Something’s Gotta Give / Another VoiceOne of the first and most influential. Thirty-five years in and Stigma is still the Martin Scorsese of hardcore. This shit will turn you into a warrior.
Arkangel – Dead Man WalkingVegan hate metal from the forest.
Well, it’s not Damaged, but…
Henry Rollins – Get In the Van
Much like Evolution of A Cro-Mag, I prefer the audio book. When Rollins describes having to fight Flag’s actual fans during their shows because shit was just too wild in the ‘80s, you want to hear him tell the story. Punk rock used to be war and now even the hardest dudes are big, blubbery idiots in comparison.
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