Tag: Old School Hardcore

The lineup and date for JCHC Fest has been announced for 2025. This very special Fest will feature Officer Negative and No Innocent Victim with the following bands supporting: The Deal, Headnoise, Take, Richie The Barber, Absolved, Barriers, Destroy Nate Allen, GratitudeTX, Infirmities, XDoulosX, and Zippy Josh and The Rag Tag Band. It was also announced that Officer Negative will be playing some new songs from their upcoming new album so that’s certainly exciting! It’ll be the ultimate Christian punk and hardcore fest. It’ll take place in a to be determined venue in So Cal (City to be announced) on April 5th 2025.… Continued →

Emerging from the original wave of Spirit Filled Hardcore (or SFHC) came southern California’s No Innocent Victim, AKA N.I.V. In contrast to their SFHC peers like Unashamed, Strongarm, and Overcome, who often integrated metallic influences that were becoming more popular in hardcore, NIV stuck to their old school roots with a “Loud Fast Rules” mentality. In fact, their old school approach to fast and heavy hardcore played a part in sparking a revival of the style, which eventually evolved into “tough guy hardcore,” essentially an update of that old school sound with added breakdowns and heaviness.… Continued →

In the mid- to late-90s when all of the other Christian hardcore bands were doing new school/chugga chugga style hardcore with increasingly metallic influences, Bakersfield’s Chasm were drawing on earlier inspiration. These influences came mostly from the 80s British hardcore punk/d-beat sound (Discharge, Conflict, etc.), although somewhat ironically this track has elements of early black metal in the guitar riffs (a la Venom or Bathory). Nonetheless it’s still filtered through a hardcore punk sound. The band released one 7″ (Squander, Squander the Bright New Dawn) and one full-length (Gye Nyame, from whence our featured song is taken).… Continued →

I first heard of Cross-Check a few months ago through social media channels. Shortly thereafter, I was asked to review their mini-album Overwhelming Odds for Heaven’s Metal. What I found on that release equally excited and bewildered me. The band has a way of weaving some very interesting and somewhat disparate influences into their sound. While they clearly take as their foundation a traditionalist line of old school hardcore, they manage to weave such diverse sounds as street punk, post-punk, rockabilly, and occasionally even surf rock.… Continued →

I’m a sucker for this style of hardcore–really fast, short songs, with equal parts melody and anger thrown in for good measure. For some reason, this subgenre didn’t have nearly as much of a following in Christian circles as their secular counterparts, making Hit the Deck stand out even more. They released one full-length on Facedown imprint Strike First Records, and had a couple of demos as well, all of which can be found as digital downloads if you know where to look.… Continued →

Chicago based Hardcore Punk band 2Minute Minor have announced a very special 50% off sale in their webstore to generate funds toward the recording for their upcoming album. Check out the sale right here and support these hard working gentlemen. New album is going to be a beast of a record!… Continued →

The new IVM “Family & Friends Sampler 1” is now available on CD and in my hands. This CD will begin shipping on Tuesday next week. Anyone that orders the CD via Bandcamp gets the digital albums version with purchase. $3 for CD + Digital or $2 for digital only. Featuring 20 bands as seen in picture below. Tons of great music. Currently scouting bands for “2” due out in late spring/early summer. Order here. If you want merch only and don’t need the digital bandcamp files, I also have it in the official IVM store here.… Continued →