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What’s up peoples, from long dormant sleep we’re waking up again, cause it seems to be a neccessity. From laziness and “lack of time” i’ve succumbed back and it’s about fucking time to. 2016 starts up with an editorial and then we’ll get back in to normal weekly rotation.
For what i’ve seen, there is a new rising in the scene. Finland has always been relatively small, when thinking about hardcore, there have always been vibrant centres in several bigger cities throughout the whole country like; Helsinki and Lahti (cities from where the whole metallic and “harder dancing” -inspired hardcore sprung up during the 90’s) to other early active spots of Turku, Pori, Jyväskylä and Lappeenranta. Back in early 2000’s hardcore was hard and heavy, kids were into really rugged and hard shit. It took a turn into more melodic stuff mid 2000’s and soon again into heavy NYHC worship, towards the 2010. More heavy metal / trash -influenced bands came beyond that and as we’re talking, beatdown seems to be in rise, at least amongst the younger crowd.
Trends never affected all of us in the scene, but the fact is that many kids came and went along the tides among the years. Still at the same time there always have been a core of people, who remained true. These people always come to shows and set ’em up, no matter what was the “cool thing” in the scene at the moment. As a quick comprasion, in how big scale it has affected Finland, i have to mention that even Finland has had trends inside hardcore, it still is pretty small here. If we look over the pond to Sweden (no pun intended, much love to our swedish friends!) and their scene during the years i’ve been traveling there (this is from my point of view, but friends who’ve been going there way longer have seen it happen as well), trends have had much bigger impact in their scene. It seemed crazy, every time we went over to see shows there, kids who were last year “political vegan straight edge” were next time “beatdown thugs” or something similar, faces seemed to have quite big changing rate in few year cycles. Sweden of course has had much bigger scene, as hardcore over there has been in a way more mainstream of an youth culture over there, that may explain the amount of kids who have been victims to the trends. As i have some friends over there too, i can also say that there are lot of people who have stayed true to what they represent and never went along with trends. I never really cared about if someone drops out or changes their whole style, outlook and even way of life with trends or something else, but times it just feels a bit ridiculous. Just that, if hardcore has been such a big thing to a person, how can you suddenly abandon it totally?
After this sidetracking, let’s get into what i really wanted to talk about, as from 2002 when i first started to go to shows, thinking now it felt like that more people have left, than found their way into this scene. You have to remember, that there is a good majority of the people who were there originally back in early / mid 90’s, they ARE still here today, a fact that i find absolutely amazing. People who build this scene, are mostly still there to maintain it even they’re older, have families etc. In 2015 there were numerous new faces coming to shows, younger generation that in this volume i’ve never seen coming into hardcore,ever since i’ve been involved. This scene of course needs new blood, as the scene needs people who are willing to make things happen, put up shows, release records and so on. Without it all there would be no hardcore scene. It’s great to see that new kids are getting into this, but one thing i’ve always thought to be one of the most important aspects in this, so i ask this; is it missing today?
History has always been essential part of everything that i’ve been interested in and for hardcore if you ask me, it’s definitely crucial thing. Again this may be just me, but if you start to listen hardcore from standpoint of metalcore (not the original metallic hardcore) and beatdown, there is so much behind and beyond it- if so you are only interested. I guess Bulldoze (the originators of beatdown hardcore) sounds like skate punk, when compared to “beatdown of today” and it might just be that kids today don’t give a fuck, i really don’t know. Anyhow what i’m really happy about is that in Finland things seem to be going forward strong, kids are putting up shows and things are happening, hopefully it all will be in a positive note and this all will help this scene to grow.
Hardcore has always been for me an amazing board of diversity where so different styles can all be put under one title. And yeah, i fucking love beatdown, but not really that what late few years define it to sound as. Here’s another real classic.
Killing The Legacy “beatdown” recommendations from back in the days till today;
Irate – 11:34 CD
Shattered Realm – Broken Ties, Spoken Lies CD
Next Step Up – Fall From Grace CD/LP
Neglect – Four Years Of Hate 2xLP/2xCD (or Complete Don Fury Sessions CD)
Five Minute Major – When It Ends CD
Fury Of Five – Taste The Steel mCD/7″
Burnside – Visions Of Serenity mCD
Krutch – Our Thing: The Mafia Years CD
Gut Instinct – Disturbing The Peace 7″
Two By Four – Aint’s Ta Be Fucked With 7″
Lifeless – D.R.E.A.M. CD/LP
World Of Pain – Improvise & Survive CD
Xibalba – Hasta La Muerte CD/LP
War-Time Manner – Sacrifice Demands Victory CD
There ya go, not all of these aren’t strictly even beatdown, but you’ll get the picture.
