Time To Die

[haVoc 0]

By Ian Robinson

 

Time To Die

 

I recently read an article in A.P. magazine with the band Atreyu where one of their members said some really ignorant and stupid things. The kid's name was Alex Varkatzas and he said, and I quote "I fucking hate Metallica-flat out, fuck Metallica, fuck Black Sabbath. I don't give a fuck about the fucking "roots". Those aren't my roots, so I don't fucking care. Green Day was more important to me you know?".

 

Now before any of you internet-loving-wanna-bes start clamoring for my head, I'm not attacking this guy Alex's right to not like Black Sabbath or (early) Metallica and if he wants to really put it out there that Green Day are more important than those two bands, that's also his right. My beef is with "Fuck Metallica and Fuck Black Sabbath" and the "Those aren't my roots" claims.

 

Now I don't know Alex, and based on his band I don't wanna know him, but he needs to understand that without those two bands, there would be no Atreyu, no Bleeding Through, none of these types of bands. I met the Bleeding Through guys and they seem to have a much clearer understanding of what the term "influences" really means and how their hybrid sound was influenced by bands like AF, Cromags, Cryptic Slaughter, Void, Negative Approach and that all those bands listened to Black Sabbath, old Metallica and early Slayer, bringing the feel of metal into punk rock and creating hardcore, which is basically a more violent form of late seventies punk rock.

 

To say what he said shows quite clearly why Atreyu and most other bands in the so-called "hardcore" world suck today-they don't even understand the genre they're playing in.

 

For those who don't know, Atreyu are one of the many bands that claim hardcore when really they just sound like average metal with some kid whining over it. Bands like Atreyu, Bleeding Through, AFI, Avenged Sevenfold and the like always seemed to me like they were playing from the heart which I always appreciated, I never thought they were any good but hey, at least they meant it. The problem is that these kids, with their hip fashions, piercing and mall-esque scene are claiming to be from the same universe as the hardcore scene that shook up the world in the early to late eighties, and that simply isn't true.

 

Hardcore and punk have gone from something that spit in the face of the status quo, to becoming the status quo. Hardcore is a scene now, a teenage right of passage that takes it's place amongst the trends of bobby socks, poodle skirts, hippy beads and tie dye, it means nothing anymore in any relevant way and these kids are disrespecting it by writing bad metal and calling it hardcore. It's not just me, cause I'll be honest, I got into hardcore at the tail end of the 80s, where it wasn't as underground but still honest and passionate, so I'm not Mr. Old School either.

 

That being said, I do have friends who've been there since the heyday and most of them hate what's become of hardcore and how all their hard work has led to these snot nosed suburban brats turning what was once a thing of beauty into lunchroom theme music. Bands like Sick Of It all, AF, Madball and others who are keeping the hardcore ideal alive aren't in the press or on MTV or Fuse, not like these hybrid fashionista bands are. So how could true hardcore bands not be involved in the "growing hardcore scene" we always read about. Well it's simple, that's not hardcore, it's something else, something that needs it's own identity, an identity far from the term "hardcore".

 

The problem is that nobody has been forced to re-think this genre because it's really easy to just call it hardcore and be done with it.. So in order to solve these problems, I have come up with a solution, it's a radical one but it just might work. Let's have a National Moratorium for the term "Hardcore", let's bury it in a nice green field and let it die with dignity. We'll have a huge funeral, invite all the legends of the genre to speak about it's influence in their lives and then slowly lower the term and the genre into the ground where it will be at peace for all eternity.

 

Once it's buried then these young kids can sit around and pow wow over what to call it now. "Fashioncore", "Screamo", "Shit In A Blender", whatever they want. This will also help the future generations of music lovers to see what real hardcore is as opposed to what it's become. When it comes to hardcore I want my grandkids to hear Cromags and AF, not Atreyu and Thursday, I want them to know about Black Flag and Minor Threat not Avenge Sevenfold and AFI.

 

Don't get wrong, there's nothing wrong with those bands per say, I'm sure they are relevant and life saving to a large group of you out there, but they are not hardcore, it's just that simple. So if we bury the term and idea of hardcore then the kids can have their own thing to build on and it won't keep polluting the memory of one of the greatest musical movements of all time.

 

PS Atreyu were named for The Neverending Story, does that irritate anybody else besides me?

 

Credit: Metal-Sludge.com

[Guest cobainwasmurdered]

I wouldn't consider most of the bands named to be hardcore. And I've always found AFI to be perfectly harmless music.

[nl5xsk1 0]

Agnostic Front is/was hardcore, but most of the other bands he references aren't ... Cro-Mags, Void, Negative Approach, & Cryptic Slaughter were all more metal than hardcore. And then to name-drop Black Flag & Minor Threat was just random - when was Black Flag hardcore? And Minor Threat is from an entirely different era than the h/c bands that he's mentioning.

[B. Brian Brunzell 0]

He probably did the name-dropping thing to either A). get his point across, or B). sound cooler than he actually is.

[nl5xsk1 0]

I'm guessing option B, because the name-dropping actually hinders his point more than helps it.

[TheBigSwigg 0]

I would agree with his point in general, though. It's ironic that a band naming itself after the character in the Neverending Story considers itself Hardcore (It seems more "emo" to me). It's like the word Extreme. They're overused and misunderstood terms in modern society.

[Red Baron 0]

what music isn't hardcore these days, in someway. Most bands proclaim they are "hardcore" yet they don't even know what the true definition of the meaning of hardcore music.

 

Yet, hell I dont know since the context of hardcore has been refined so many times.

[Red Baron 0]

what music isn't hardcore these days, in someway. Most bands proclaim they are "hardcore" yet they don't even know what the true definition of the meaning of hardcore music.

 

Yet, hell I dont know since the context of hardcore has been refined so many times.

[Youth N Asia 0]

Why can't it just be "rock?" If we did that everything would be so much easier.

 

I could say "I like Thursday." And some indy kid would pop up out of nowhere with "that's not punk!" And I would have to defend with "I never said it was, goddamit!"

 

I was on a message board a while back saying I liked a band. And them some dickhead made this long post explaining why that band wasn't punk and how I was a dumbfuck for suggesting they were...which I didn't

 

I hate indy kids. Ian makes good enough points...but he's just one of them.

[Guest Agent of Oblivion]

if it's all rock, then you're saying Jimi Hendrix and Agoraphobic Nosebleed are part of the same genre of music, which is retarded.

[Guest macheteofodin]

I always considered Black Flag and Minot Threat to be hardcore bands. They don't all have to sound exactly the same. Cryptic Slaughter, on the other hand, I always thought was a Thrash band. Maybe I'm thinking of something else.

 

Today's "hardcore" scene is basically a bastard child of the original. They are related but today's scene grew up listening to Death and Black Flag while the original grew up listening to Sabbath, Motorhead and the Ramones. More extreme metal/hardcore vs. Early metal/punk.

 

Unless I'm out of tune with the kids today, I've never heard anyone refer to bands like AFI and Thursday as hardcore. Maybe it's hardcore with the mall/hot topics crowd (as he puts it) but I never really converse with them.

 

So I sort of agree with Robinson in that what I'd consider hardcore these days is a different beast than that of say 15 - 20 years ago. I look at it as more of an evolution than the death of a genre.

 

I hope that made some sense.

[SamoaRowe 0]

This is why I just listen to whatever sounds good to me, or touches me emotionally in some way, and don't worry about what kind of music it is or what listening to it would do to me socially.

[Nevermortal 0]

AFI & Thursday are not hardcore.

 

Atreyu is not hardcore. Atreyu is a metal band.

[AboveAverage484 0]

While it's debatable amongst some as to whether Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's, the Misfits, etc. are hardcore, they were integral parts of the hardcore scene, playing at hardcore shows, in hardcore venues, and watched by hardcore fans.

 

That's why I, personally, consider them hardcore.

[NoCalMike 0]

I do agree with his point that new generation bands should just come up with their own genre name or something. It does get kind of annoying when you talk to someone who says they like a certain genre, and if you dare bring up a band that MTV/Fuse hasn't designated as "the hardcore revolutionary bands" then they give you a funny look or when they hear the actual songs they don't get it. Who cares really though, just about every genre is played out in 2004. Stealing a line from Christian Slater in pump up the volume, "all the themes have been turned into theme parks" Sad really.

[NoCalMike 0]

this is almost the same thing with what is going on with the hip hop genre. MTV tries to act like today's hip hop stars are the next generation of 2pac, Notorious BIG, NWA, etc.......when in reality if you have ears and a brain, it would only seem natural to come to the conclusion that stuff like Nelly, Jay-Z etc......is a completely different genre type of music. It seems that the RAP music in it's purest form has gone back underground and/or back into the college circuit scene.

[nl5xsk1 0]

While it's debatable amongst some as to whether Black Flag, Dead Kennedy's, the Misfits, etc. are hardcore, they were integral parts of the hardcore scene, playing at hardcore shows, in hardcore venues, and watched by hardcore fans.

 

That's why I, personally, consider them hardcore.

I think that all 3 of the bands that you mention had some hardcore moments (e.g. In God We Trust, Inc by the DKs or some of the later Misfits songs) but I really don't think of them as hardcore bands. They just seemed like punk bands that followed the wave towards a more hardcore/metal sound.

 

To me, bands like Sick of it All, Slapshot, Agnostic Front, SSD, etc. were straight-up hardcore bands, without the punk roots.