Hardcore anybody?

The ones you mentioned...

Horse the Band:  They're fun, but I can't really get into them.  I saw them open for Dragonforce last year (what a show!), and they were funny more than anything.  Their singer had some of the best on stage banter ever.  "We're Horse the Band and we're from the future!  but only 15 minutes from now.... I'm rock let's drunk!"


Job for a Cowboy:  Not bad for new grind stuff, but I'd recommend Cephalic Carnage over these guys.

The other two fall into the nether regions of metalcore that I just can't stand, but hey, everyone has their thing.

For good hardcore/metal, go with Dillinger Escape Plan or Psyopus.

I'm also a fan of post-hardcoer bands like Fugazi and At the Drive In...

You dont like becoming the archtype?!?! They are very skilled musically and lyrically (and with my experience, thats a rare combo) I'm not much into the whole emo post hardcore stuff, I guess instead of from autumn to ashes!

I always associated hardcore with punk. Metalcore is the term I usually link to what you're talking about, but there are all kinds of sub-genres.My fav. hardcore bands are Fugazi, Minor Threat, Black Flag, and the mighty Dead Kennedys

I listen to a lot of old-school Emotional Hardcore (mainly 90's stuff, but also Rites of Spring and One Last Wish from the 80's), and some Post-Hardcore. Favourites include At the Drive-In and Drive Like Jehu in Post-Hardcore and Bob Tilton, Indian Summer and Julia in 90's Emo. 

Edited by Philéas - September 15 2007 at 12:42

The "Emo" and "Screamo" you hear on the radio and on MTV is not the real thing. Emo is practically dead and has been for many years.

Many "real" Emo bands could be quite impressive musically, unfortunately much of the more impressive Emo material is very hard to get hold of these days (it was released in limited quantities on small labels). Emo was an underground genre, and Screamo (again, the authentic stuff, not what you find on MTV) is too.

Some musically rather impressive Emo bands that come to mind right now:

Bells on Trike (impressive drumming)
Giant's Chair (Emo/Math Rock fusion with odd time signatures and such)
Thirty Ought Six (Also very Mathy. Reminds me of Tool)
Uranium 9-Volt (The drummer is really good, and the others aren't bad either)

Some Screamo bands can be pretty impressive too. Good examples are Daïtro and Funeral Diner. I will probably be able to give more and/or better recommendations when I've explored Screamo further.

listen to Between the Buried and Me's "Colors"-when it comes out that is 
excellent album and probably the only one from the genre I listen to relatively consistently
unless you count Mastodon which some people do

schizoid_man77 wrote: Well, I guess I'm refering to the popularly used term for screamo, meaning constant screaming about how much some guy loves a girl (post hardcore), but I will check out those bands, especially if they remind you of tool.

Please do check them out! Funeral Diner and Daïtro should not be too difficult to find as they are contemporary bands (Funeral Diner recently split though), but the others I mentioned will be quite hard to get hold of.

Regarding Uranium 9-Volt, all their stuff is available for free download from their myspace page, and I think one of their records is still available from somewhere. I must point out that there aren't any extreme levels of complexity to be found in Uranium 9-Volt's music (we are talking non-Prog), but the musicians (mainly the drummer) are talented and play relatively simple music skillfully. To hear it I recommend attentive listening.

Note that Uranium 9-Volt are different from the other bands I mentioned because of a slight Pop-Punk influence, so if you don't like it don't immediately discard the other bands.

Giant's Chair also have a Myspace page (link), but there aren't any downloadable songs on it. There are two streamable ones though, which are fairly representative of their sound. Again, not the most complex stuff ever, but there is some 7/4 (or rather 3/4 + 4/4, which makes 7) in the first song and some other oddities in the second one. They have made more complex stuff though. Look for their two full-lenghts Purity and Control and Red and Clear.

Bells on Trike. No free tracks on this Myspace page either, but three representative ones. A little jazzy at times. More Indie Rock sounding than the two aforementioned bands. Also pretty Mathy. They only recorded one 10" vinyl, which can be tricky to find. Definitely worth trying though.

There are three Myspace pages for Thirty Ought Six (), this one have better-sounding streams. This is the band that reminds me of Tool, although I don't think you'll hear it. I don't know why I do actually.. Anyway, these songs might not be very Tool-esque, but nevertheless quite representative of Thirty Ought Six's sound.

Of their two full-lenght albums Thirty Ought Six recorded Bosozoku is the better one (though Hag Seed, the other one, is also good). Like those of the other bands I've mentioned, these albums can be hard to find, but they are worth looking for.

schizoid_man77 wrote: Now are any of those groups the stereotypical emo groups as in "cut my wrist, watch the lovely blood run" kind of music?

No, definitely not, I'd say. All this wrist-cutting business is some silly thing related to the new Emo bands. It's all very exaggerated these days. Of course they got it from somewhere, but real Emo stuff also deals with subjects other than just "my girlfriend left me, I'm sad" though such themes can be present (they can be found in most music, and they aren't necessarily something bad). Often the lyrics are quite abstract, they can be philosophical and also political. They can be about anything really.

Anyway, 90's Emo is serious and heartfelt (and rather arty), unlike today's Emo which tends to be superficial and full of clichés, and designed for the sole purpose of selling records to twelve year old kids.

I'm not that good at describing it, but I'm confident the differences between old ("real") and new ("false") Emo will become apparent if you listen carefully.

Of course, one can't like anything, but 90's Emo does deserve some respect.

Job for a cowboy is considered deathmetal, I think they are grindcore though

Cro-Mags were one of the early bands to be called Hardcore. More good bands are Sick Of It All, Madball and Agnostic Front.

www.myspace.com/shanksshanksshanks