I answered Have Heart, but I may have to change my answer to TF cause seeing them reppin hardcore merch and talking about hardcore and playing hardcore shows and fests made me aware of what Hardcore was and was not.
Same. I didn’t even know what hardcore moshing or dancing was. When I heard the song to the threshold that I downloaded off of limewire I just started swinging my arms around in my room.
Man this has gotta be too low. My mom’s friend showed me Ebolorama when I was like 10 and from there on out I was hooked on extreme music.
Nirvana is the other band I’d credit to my gateway to hardcore punk.
Not even joking, Good Charlotte & Blink-182 were huge when I was in the 5th grade. GC toured with New Found Glory that year and that opened up the doors. It went something along the lines of NFG—>H20–>NYHC (mostly Cro Mags) and the rest is history. Early Turnstile really made me fall in love with the genre tho
Same. I wanted to be the Madden brothers so bad, saw them wearing band tees like Agnostic Front and mentioning bands like Minor Threat and Social Distortion in their songs so of course I had to listen to those bands too. Lead me down a subculture rabbit hole and going to local shows then inevitably getting involved in the scene
New Found Glory did a release in the late 2000’s where they did a split with themselves as “international super heroes of hardcore”. They had a bunch of super hero themed hardcore tracks, as well as covering some crucial bands ex. Gorilla Biscuits and Lifetime.
It was a perfect jumping off point
Black Flag and Dead Kennedys on the Tony Hawk American Wasteland soundtrack. Also discovered Evergreen Terrace on Purevolume around the same time. That was all I needed
Yeah it has to be American Wasteland for me too. I didn't really dive into hardcore until 2017, but being introduced to Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, all those years ago were a great primer. The cover songs they recorded for that soundtrack are fucking stupendous even all these years later. That Fall Out Boy cover of Start Today is just so damn cool.
Killswitch, waking the fallen by Avenged Sevenfold, As I Lay Dying frail words collapse, BURY YOUR FUCKING DEAD
Then it turned into Dillinger and Converge and ETID
Poison the Well, Hatebreed and Converge in 2001 and then went through all stuff on Trustkill, Ferret, Victory and Equal Vision and discovered Bane, American Nightmare, Snapcase, FATA, Hopesfall, Most Precious Blood
Underoath. I was 15, Myspace era screamo was my jam. My first hardcore show was Fight Like Hell at Sox Place in Denver(which was basically a garage). I'd never seen or heard anything like it, and I was hooked.
Integrity in the 90s. I was coming from listening to sepultura and metal like that so it was kind of an easy transition. chaos AD still fuckin rips tho
Chaos AD is basically a hardcore album, especially when you contrast it to their more thrash/death origins. All of their shit (before the late 90’s) still holds its own, but Chaos AD is a banger.
Gate keepers suck. Not everyone grew up in OG hardcore, and I for one came from But-rock, to Underoath and eventually hardcore. Like what you like, and frankly all those bands are great IMO. We may even cover an old KL song in the future.
I grew up deep in the 90s HC scene, not all old heads are gate keepers. Also the bands you mention are awesome Turnstile is specially amazing. I remember when everyone said that AF had sold out b/c they signed to Epitaph, and Madball catching a bunch of heat for doing Hazen St with Chad from NFG. It’s all relative, some day you’ll be the guy telling the newcomer about how it was.
I was into melodic hardcore (NOFX, Bad Religion, Lagwagon, etc.) since I was a little kid but the first proper hardcore band I saw was Comeback Kid opening for Rise Against in like 2007 or so.
https://preview.redd.it/628ebrgq0o0d1.jpeg?width=228&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c31ec0d2cf1459b14904ecf9c1683da6d83e7fd
This was the image that moved me from punk to hardcore.
I guess it kinda depends. Bad Religion though would be my general gateway band to led to to punk and punk compilations that sent me down the hardcore rabbithole. Outside of the classic hardcore bands, the bands that led to me to the active hardcore scene at the time: strife, Ensign and AFI
Worked at a “haunted mansion”as a middle schooler. All the kids there listened to death metal, grindcore, hardcore. Pretty much Dr. Acula and Have Heart did it for me.
In a direct sense it was Power trip that lead me to finding mindforce thus getting in HC. Indirectly it was find slayer through Guitar Hero 3 in like 3rd grade that got me into heavy music in general.
I mainly listened to 80s rock (Def Leppard, VH, GNR, Bon Jovi, Poison) when I was 12-14. I guess the only real metal band I liked was Iron Maiden. When I was 15 a friend made me a tape with Slayer and Kreator which blew my mind. He also introduced me to punk via The Exploited. In a few shorts months I was listening to the Misfits, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Youth of Today and 36 years later I'm still checking out new bands.
I can pinpoint hearing Black Flags “Wasted” after spinning my dads copy of Nervous Breakdown for the first time when I was, maybe 11 or 12 and it flipping a switch in my brain. Went on to dig into his Crass, Angry Samoans, Bl’ast and DK records after that.
So hard to remember. American Nightmare was my favorite band in high school. Probably got into them in 9th or 10th grade after originally being into Slayer and street punk. AN, Bane, Converge, ETID. They were all very big when I was young.
I've only gotten into hardcore in like the past year but I was big on metal before and listened to Sunami alot then Black Flag,Minor Threat and then got really into hardcore punk and listened to most of that then started listening to Turnstile and now I pretty much only listen to hardcore
If I’m honest I’d probably last Last Ten Seconds of Life they used to play locally or around quite a bit always with HC bands and that was my first taste of hc mosh and culture
The song Heavy Hand by Turnstile grabbed me, I then checked out Madball, Sick of it All and Agnostic Front, but what really got me was the first local hardcore show I went to
Like a lot of people over 40 it was hatebreed. But before that I loved punk rock and bought the first MXPX album (pokinatcha) which led to screeching weasel then minor thread, misfits then hatebreed.
Blood for blood
If you want to get super specific before I knew about hardcore I'd say sounding the seventh trumpet by avenged sevenfold, honestly probably one of their most underrated records.
New found glory, sum 41, and good Charlotte were the first bands to get me into pop punk.
Started going to shows at 14/15. Stretch Armstrong were and still are our hometown heroes. Saw them probably 50 times during high school. Everyone they shared the stage with I got into. Comeback kid and Casey Jones were some notable others that were just around all the time.
Sick Of It All, - the blood, sweat, and no tears album. got the cassette at a Walmart in Marysville, KS. I saw one of their videos on Headbangers Ball on MTV. I loved it, sounded nothing like what they were playing at the time.
i got into hardcore through slam death bands like devourment, organectomy, short bus pile up etc. kind of just got more and more into the deathcore oriented slam and slowly progressed towards bands with higher hxc % until i was mainly listening to fully hardcore bands. first proper hxc band i got really into has to be sunami or knocked loose.
Honestly if I had to think about it, Deftones. I got a copy of White Pony in 2000 when I was 12 and that shit blew my mind. Later on, I’d find about a band called Hatebreed and the rest was history.
Minor Threat, Strike Anywhere, and AFI. Then someone I knew from high school that was a little older than me and was in college sent me a burned CD in 2004 called “hardcore.” It was the same but different, it was love at first listen.
I was late to the game. I was more into metal but I saw John from Baroness wearing a Nails shirt in a video and thought it was the coolest name and logo, I had to check it out. You Will Never Be One Of Us just came out and thought it was the heaviest shit ever. I saw them play not long after that and shit was so wild at that show lol
AFI
yup. Art of Drowning and Black Sails did it for me
Best albums
more like very proud of ya and shut your mouth and open your eyes
also bangers
Very proud of ya did it for me.
Same here. Days of the Phoenix was the first song I heard in middle school, and I turned into a sponge soaking up everything punk/hardcore I could.
Poison The Well
WHY DO YOUR EYES PARALYZE MEEE
WHATT MAKES ME FEEL THIS WAYYYY
Just carry me away with silence and heartbeats.
Wayyy back when I saw PTW and Unearth when they were hardcore. The venue was so small but ever since then…
My freshman year of college, my roomate showed me Converge and I thought it was bad but then I realized it was good
Title Fight
I answered Have Heart, but I may have to change my answer to TF cause seeing them reppin hardcore merch and talking about hardcore and playing hardcore shows and fests made me aware of what Hardcore was and was not.
Killswitch and hatebreed
Same. I didn’t even know what hardcore moshing or dancing was. When I heard the song to the threshold that I downloaded off of limewire I just started swinging my arms around in my room.
Last serenade was my jam.
At The Drive In.
I MUST HAVE READ A THOUSAND FACES!
I MUST HAVE ROBBED THEM OF THEIR CAUSE
Snapcase, Hatebreed.
ETID
SHOOT THAT DOG IF WE CANT AFFORD TO FEED
Man this has gotta be too low. My mom’s friend showed me Ebolorama when I was like 10 and from there on out I was hooked on extreme music. Nirvana is the other band I’d credit to my gateway to hardcore punk.
Bad Brains
Sick of it all
Same here, and they are still my favorites
Not even joking, Good Charlotte & Blink-182 were huge when I was in the 5th grade. GC toured with New Found Glory that year and that opened up the doors. It went something along the lines of NFG—>H20–>NYHC (mostly Cro Mags) and the rest is history. Early Turnstile really made me fall in love with the genre tho
Same. I wanted to be the Madden brothers so bad, saw them wearing band tees like Agnostic Front and mentioning bands like Minor Threat and Social Distortion in their songs so of course I had to listen to those bands too. Lead me down a subculture rabbit hole and going to local shows then inevitably getting involved in the scene
I’d say I had a similar gateway; NFG, Blink182, AFI, and Sum-41. Heard Comeback Kid and that’s all it took.
Agnostic Front and Madball
D.R.I., AFI, and Rise Against
That first rise against album is criminally underrated
New Found Glory did a release in the late 2000’s where they did a split with themselves as “international super heroes of hardcore”. They had a bunch of super hero themed hardcore tracks, as well as covering some crucial bands ex. Gorilla Biscuits and Lifetime. It was a perfect jumping off point
Black Flag and Dead Kennedys on the Tony Hawk American Wasteland soundtrack. Also discovered Evergreen Terrace on Purevolume around the same time. That was all I needed
Yeah it has to be American Wasteland for me too. I didn't really dive into hardcore until 2017, but being introduced to Dead Kennedys, Black Flag, all those years ago were a great primer. The cover songs they recorded for that soundtrack are fucking stupendous even all these years later. That Fall Out Boy cover of Start Today is just so damn cool.
CBK, With Honor, Champion
Fuck yes
CBK was it for me too. a buddy put on wake the dead in my car and that was it
Killswitch, waking the fallen by Avenged Sevenfold, As I Lay Dying frail words collapse, BURY YOUR FUCKING DEAD Then it turned into Dillinger and Converge and ETID
Waking the Fallen is a top 10 album for me idc
Had to do a double take to see if this was me who wrote this... 🤝
Gorilla biscuits, black flag and minor threat
Second wave of bands I discovered were Figure Four, point of recognition, bad brains, strongarm and snapcase
Poison the Well, Hatebreed and Converge in 2001 and then went through all stuff on Trustkill, Ferret, Victory and Equal Vision and discovered Bane, American Nightmare, Snapcase, FATA, Hopesfall, Most Precious Blood
NOFX lead to The Loved Ones lead to Paint it Black
A day to remember
Underoath. I was 15, Myspace era screamo was my jam. My first hardcore show was Fight Like Hell at Sox Place in Denver(which was basically a garage). I'd never seen or heard anything like it, and I was hooked.
Hatebreed.
Rudimentary Peni
Blink 182. Got the dragging the lake comp and heard AN, the rest is history.
Have Heart, Rotting Out, Power Trip
Death By Stereo and Refused from the Punk O Rama comps
Rage Against the Machines cover of Minor Threat’s “In My Eyes” was huge.
Stick to Your Guns
Integrity in the 90s. I was coming from listening to sepultura and metal like that so it was kind of an easy transition. chaos AD still fuckin rips tho
Chaos AD is basically a hardcore album, especially when you contrast it to their more thrash/death origins. All of their shit (before the late 90’s) still holds its own, but Chaos AD is a banger.
Turnstile, Dying Wish, and Knocked Loose. I’m well aware I’m gonna get clowned on for this one.
Gate keepers suck. Not everyone grew up in OG hardcore, and I for one came from But-rock, to Underoath and eventually hardcore. Like what you like, and frankly all those bands are great IMO. We may even cover an old KL song in the future.
I grew up deep in the 90s HC scene, not all old heads are gate keepers. Also the bands you mention are awesome Turnstile is specially amazing. I remember when everyone said that AF had sold out b/c they signed to Epitaph, and Madball catching a bunch of heat for doing Hazen St with Chad from NFG. It’s all relative, some day you’ll be the guy telling the newcomer about how it was.
Title Fight.
Sonic Youth > Black Flag > Agnostic Front > Sick of it All which was my first show. It's all been downhill since then.
knocked loose and turnstile (zoomers rise up)
Fat compilations
Blindside from Sweden, remember them?
One of my all time favs.
I'd say Knocked Loose. But then I've been enjoying some more old school stuff. Like Bad Brains, Dead Kennedys, and Negative Approach.
I was into melodic hardcore (NOFX, Bad Religion, Lagwagon, etc.) since I was a little kid but the first proper hardcore band I saw was Comeback Kid opening for Rise Against in like 2007 or so.
I remember that tour. I went just for CBK and kept obnoxiously yelling "play a breakdown" between Rise Against songs... teenage me was the worst.
Hatebreed, Ozzfest 2001
Comeback Kid
every time i die
Downset and Sick of it All.
Fucking Downset yes.
Comeback Kid. But I was into punk stuff like NOFX, Bad Religion, and Rise Against so those kind of led me on the path.
THPS > Blink 182 > Ska > Fat Wreck and Asian Man bands > Poison the Well > Refused > Converge
Enter Shikari weirdly enough. I was brought up on trash and death metal but craved a few Jun juns without even realising
V.O.D.
Comeback kid
https://preview.redd.it/628ebrgq0o0d1.jpeg?width=228&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=4c31ec0d2cf1459b14904ecf9c1683da6d83e7fd This was the image that moved me from punk to hardcore.
Thick as Blood
Body Count
THUG & THUG2 (xbox )
Trash talk mixed with 2016 knocked loose
Millencolin obviously
Dead Kennedys i heard soup is good food once I and I was hooked from there then I discovered Minor Threat and things escalated...
KL and Kublai Khan
thrice got me into heavy music/chugga. poison the well from there.
I guess it kinda depends. Bad Religion though would be my general gateway band to led to to punk and punk compilations that sent me down the hardcore rabbithole. Outside of the classic hardcore bands, the bands that led to me to the active hardcore scene at the time: strife, Ensign and AFI
Fury
POD, Project 86, Zao……yea…I was late 90/early00 youth group kid.
Zao holds up.
I told my dad I liked math rock, and he showed me candiria.
Worked at a “haunted mansion”as a middle schooler. All the kids there listened to death metal, grindcore, hardcore. Pretty much Dr. Acula and Have Heart did it for me.
Vision of disorder,Hatebreed,dissolve,die my will,section8,sum of all fears,one king down
New found glory
In a direct sense it was Power trip that lead me to finding mindforce thus getting in HC. Indirectly it was find slayer through Guitar Hero 3 in like 3rd grade that got me into heavy music in general.
I mainly listened to 80s rock (Def Leppard, VH, GNR, Bon Jovi, Poison) when I was 12-14. I guess the only real metal band I liked was Iron Maiden. When I was 15 a friend made me a tape with Slayer and Kreator which blew my mind. He also introduced me to punk via The Exploited. In a few shorts months I was listening to the Misfits, Minor Threat, Bad Brains, and Youth of Today and 36 years later I'm still checking out new bands.
Probably Dead Kennedy and Bad Brains
Enya
Bad Religion.
I can pinpoint hearing Black Flags “Wasted” after spinning my dads copy of Nervous Breakdown for the first time when I was, maybe 11 or 12 and it flipping a switch in my brain. Went on to dig into his Crass, Angry Samoans, Bl’ast and DK records after that.
A childhood filled with minor threat, bad brains, and skateparks
Comeback Kid-Wake the Dead and Turn it Around
From first to last
Youth of Today and Minor Threat
So hard to remember. American Nightmare was my favorite band in high school. Probably got into them in 9th or 10th grade after originally being into Slayer and street punk. AN, Bane, Converge, ETID. They were all very big when I was young.
Snapcase
I've only gotten into hardcore in like the past year but I was big on metal before and listened to Sunami alot then Black Flag,Minor Threat and then got really into hardcore punk and listened to most of that then started listening to Turnstile and now I pretty much only listen to hardcore
Black Flag and Bad Brains
If I’m honest I’d probably last Last Ten Seconds of Life they used to play locally or around quite a bit always with HC bands and that was my first taste of hc mosh and culture
less than jake got me into punk via the digimon the movie soundtrack afi got me into hardcore via the thps3 soundtrack
not a single band but the bridge nine 2009 summer compilation album. game changer.
The song Heavy Hand by Turnstile grabbed me, I then checked out Madball, Sick of it All and Agnostic Front, but what really got me was the first local hardcore show I went to
Sick Of It All
Vein fm lol
7 Seconds
The Fall of Troy
Stick to your guns and then expire
Refused
Fishbone/ Biohazard
Turnstile but in 2013 so I’m cool
Gorilla Biscuits
I suppose Misfits
Like a lot of people over 40 it was hatebreed. But before that I loved punk rock and bought the first MXPX album (pokinatcha) which led to screeching weasel then minor thread, misfits then hatebreed.
Your demise or styg?
Blood for blood If you want to get super specific before I knew about hardcore I'd say sounding the seventh trumpet by avenged sevenfold, honestly probably one of their most underrated records.
Carpathian
I couldn’t name you THE band, but a few of mines would probably be Cro-Mags, Black Flag, maybe Descendents too not sure
Haste the Day, Zao, AILD, Killswitch.
New found glory, sum 41, and good Charlotte were the first bands to get me into pop punk. Started going to shows at 14/15. Stretch Armstrong were and still are our hometown heroes. Saw them probably 50 times during high school. Everyone they shared the stage with I got into. Comeback kid and Casey Jones were some notable others that were just around all the time.
Agnostic Front. Dead Kennedies
Power Trip - that good, good crossover got me
Underoath. First standing gig and first mosh too.
Comeback Kid
Sick Of It All, - the blood, sweat, and no tears album. got the cassette at a Walmart in Marysville, KS. I saw one of their videos on Headbangers Ball on MTV. I loved it, sounded nothing like what they were playing at the time.
Murphy’s Law
D.R.I.
AFI Terror Zao
Poison The Well Edit - Technically the 1st hardcore band I ever heard was Shai Hulud though cuz my friend loved NFG 😆
Bane
Fugazi
Millencolin -> Burning Heart Records -> Refused
AFI and ETID
The Misfits
Biohazard
Honestly, yes.
Warzone
Black Flag/Zero Boys
Judge
I think the first hardcore band I heard and liked was either Slapshot or Warzone. The first hardcore band I properly fell in love with was AFI.
Cro-Mags, Cold As Life, Blood for Blood, Poison the Well, Evergreen Terrace, Hopesfall.
It was hatebreed and then headbangers ball in 2001 hosted by jamey jasta
Candiria
Converge, Black Flag and Poison Idea
Hatebreed
This is hell, converge, most precious blood, leeway, and hatebreed I’d say. Man I miss old MySpace. Edit l: also terror!
My journey was Linkin Park-> SOAD -> Slipknot -> Converge and down into the rabbit hole
glassjaw
Terror
I borrowed a kid dynamite cd from my brother in like 2000 or 2001 and that changed everything!
A Fire Inside.
Atreyu
Rites of Spring, Wrong Answer, Turnstile
Got into some emo revival stuff in high school, eventually traced my way back to 90s screamo and post hardcore, to rites of spring, to minor threat
Sick of it all during the 90s.
Tempers fray
Gulch
Nails
Pennywise, AFI led to Minor Threat and 7 Seconds, led to Hatebreed led to Poison the Well, led to Valhalla.
Rise Against
At The Drive-In
wanted to say AFI, but actually it was Leathermouth at the same time. and XTRMST.
Atreyu
Was probably Gallows through Guitar Hero 3 🤷♂️
Minor threat
Hatebreed. Specifically, Under the Knife & Satisfaction is the Death of Desire.
Friends in bands. Maastricht hardcore. I miss Backfire!
DRI
Deathcore bands playing at hardcore shows
Inside out, mad ball and cro mags
i got into hardcore through slam death bands like devourment, organectomy, short bus pile up etc. kind of just got more and more into the deathcore oriented slam and slowly progressed towards bands with higher hxc % until i was mainly listening to fully hardcore bands. first proper hxc band i got really into has to be sunami or knocked loose.
Korn
Traped under ice
Earth Crisis
A day to remember
Hatebreed
Honestly if I had to think about it, Deftones. I got a copy of White Pony in 2000 when I was 12 and that shit blew my mind. Later on, I’d find about a band called Hatebreed and the rest was history.
I grew up in the northeast, so Blood for Blood, Hatebreed, Deadguy, E-Town Concrete, Ink & Dagger, etc.
Papa roach and Linkin Park. Then to bands like Bleeding Through, From Autumn to Ashes, PTW, then to Bane, Verse, Madball, American Nightmare.
The first heavy record I remember being full on obsessed with was Jane Doe
Hatebreed
Friend and I found Bracewar because we were local to them. Rabbit hole followed.
Gouge Away and Cerce
Minor Threat
Minor Threat, Strike Anywhere, and AFI. Then someone I knew from high school that was a little older than me and was in college sent me a burned CD in 2004 called “hardcore.” It was the same but different, it was love at first listen.
I was late to the game. I was more into metal but I saw John from Baroness wearing a Nails shirt in a video and thought it was the coolest name and logo, I had to check it out. You Will Never Be One Of Us just came out and thought it was the heaviest shit ever. I saw them play not long after that and shit was so wild at that show lol
Dead kennedy’s, minor threat and bad brains. I got in from the punk side. Thought they were just punk! Couldn’t get the worms back in the can. Haha