Within the last year, Ive been going back and re-discovering a lot of 90s European hardcore bands that I had either never heard or hadnt heard in a long time. Honestly, Im so glad I did because there were so many good bands to come out of Germany, Poland, Italy, Sweden and especially the Belgium H8000 scene. Many of the bands were disregarded by US hardcore kids are knockoffs of Morning Again, Culture or Earth Crisis but hey so were lots of the American bands. The first band I remember that kids over here went nuts over was Refused from Sweden. Of course there had been others but Refused really stuck out in my mind as doing something different and unique. They also were one of the first bands to really blow up the Umea scene along with Final Exit, Abhinanda, and Doughnuts...check my past write up for more in depth info. Another important band was Arkangel. Regardless of how you feel about their politics and life choices, "Dead Man Walking" still slays, even 10 years later. John Wylie got the record in his distro and he couldnt ke
ep them in stock. Every show he would sell like 10 copies of it, a pretty amazing feat for a band at the time that wasnt on Victory or Revelation (just for example). Some more notables were Congress, Liar, Purification, Lifeforce, Regression, Shortsight, Length of Time, Kindred, Blindfold, Spawn and Shorebreak.I also stumbled across 2 very informative blogs that cover the H8000 scene of the past and are well worth checking out so please do. I know my knowledge of the European scene is pretty limited so feel free to comment and add to this.
Flanders Fury (great info on different records from Europe as well the US)
http://flandersfury.blogspot.com/
H8000 Central (THE place for info on the H8000 scene of the 90s)
http://h8000central.blogspot.com/
Any mention of European hardcore from the 90's that doesn't mention LASH OUT makes me want to cry.
ReplyDeleteLASH OUT = BEST EUROPEAN HARDCORE BAND OF ALL TIME.
Period!!!
I would add Course Of Action and Facedown to the best Belgian bands ever ;)
ReplyDeleteWhat's up, no Doughnuts? I saw them with Refused and Snapcase in the mid-nineties. I think Far opened then Refused Then Doughnuts, Snapcase was a good live band but they totally got upstaged that night.
ReplyDeleteseriously, the entire Good Life catalog is pretty amazing. Sobermind as well had some pretty great things. but chip, you forgot Reprisal!!!! that band is so good.
ReplyDeletetoooo many good european bands from the past... just to mention: i have 7 good live recorded songs of reprisals last show ever, xabsencex was really great , arkangel's first album 'prayers upon deaf ears' to me was a milestone and better than dead man... plus tons of other awesome bands outta europe that wre great..
ReplyDeleteoh and i have free xthebattlex cd's to ship...
lars
Hey Guys
ReplyDeleteThanks for the suggestions, I never meant for this to be a definitive list...thats why I listed the other blogs. Lars, Id like to hear The Battle. How do I get one?
Hey guys, check out this band from Belgrade, Serbia, this video is from 1996. . .
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVe9c9NcONU
Excuse me, Kickback is the best euro hc band ever. Not lash out.
ReplyDeleteS-P-O-R-T-S-W-E-A-R
ReplyDeleteSystral's "Black Smoker" basically kills every other German hardcore record from the 90ies. A lot of that "Bremen" sound is pretty amazing, although I can understand that the typical Snapcase fan won't like it haha.
ReplyDeleteIf you want MP3s of a lot of H8000 bands, I still have all the CDs I bought back then and I may be able to rip vinyl and tapes soon too. E-mail me if you want stuff.
ReplyDeleteDon´t know if all of this bands were in the 90s, but at least a few hehe
ReplyDeleteNegate (B)
Loxiran (D)
Yage (D)
Eaves (D)
REVEAL!! (NL)
...
so many good bands
but reveal is one of my alltime favourites.
What about ManLiftingbanner?
ReplyDeletethe entire Good Life, Per Koro, Desperate Fight, Sobermind, Genet, Cycle, Chrome St. Magnus, Voice Of Life catalog were pretty amazing!
ReplyDeletedo you guys ever heard about Sure Hand Recs from UK?
ReplyDeleteI remember back in the 1997, there was a sudden influx of swedish bands. Particulary here in Poland they were exceptionally popular, presumably due to short distance between Sweden and Poland and high demand for old school bands.I recall Misconduct,Separation,Within Reach,Final Exit just to name few.Eventually they even released their lp's.ep's etc with the polish label Shing,which had significant contribution in development of polish HC scene.As far as belgian and german scenes are concerned there were few bands that particulary drawn my attention and i occasionally go back to these recordings with a tear in my eye.
ReplyDeleteLength of Time was by far the best band coming from Belgium.To the best of my knowledge they have reunited few years ago and are about to release new record.