| Since this is my first time writing for this fanzine I would like to start out with what hardcore means to me and what it is for me. I have been listening to hardcore for about five years know, since my second year in high school when I wrote to a band in Florida called
Strongarm for info. and ordering their demo and they sent me one for free. From then on I was hooked. Although I have made short returns to punk rock and now I’m listening to metal again, this is where my heart is and where it will probably always be.
Strongarm, was five piece band out of Ft. Lauderdale (they has just recently broke up). Their drummer is currently playing with Shai Hulud and I think that all but the singer are going to carry on. This band has been a tremendous blessing to me. God graced me with them and then he graced me with hardcore. Yes that is right. God blessed me with the music of hardcore. After reading an article in Heaven’s Metal (now known as just HM) I was hooked and quickly bought up all that the Christian music industry had to offer, which, at that time mainly consisted of ToothandNail releases, but the roots were there. About a year later my brother told me about a guy named Ryan "Spanky" McInturff, who was the first vegan straight-edger that I meet, that went to college with him. Through my brother I started a relationship with him and he made me a tape of what he was currently listening to. The tape consisted of bands such as Despair, Earth Crisis, Strife, Brother’s Keeper, Hatebreed, Abnegation, Unbroken, and Culture. I almost wore this tape out. In fact, I still listen to it today. Around this time my mother had to be checked into the hospital with a hernia and while I was in the waiting room I strolled into the gift shop and came across the latest issue of metal maniacs. I bought it and proceeded to read it from cover to cover. In it was a write up of the band Doughnuts, a review of the Path of Resistance and Bloodlet, and an ad for Victory Records. A few weeks later I sent away for a catalog and By the Grace of God’s debut CD. I was blown away by the passion and intensity of the cd and the writings in the booklet. It amazed me. I fell in love with the honesty, passion, and integrity of this music that I had only heard of a short time ago. It blows me away.
Now, I’ve seen a lot of things that have been labeled hardcore that aren’t. Here is a brief list. Korn is in no way, shape or form hardcore and neither is Limp Bizkit or Helmet for that matter. I hate the first two and only mildly like the last. It really makes me mad to see these bands labeled hardcore by people who don’t know what they are talking about. Also, hardcore doesn’t begin and end with Victory Records. I know it is the biggest record company in the business, but that doesn’t make it the best. Yes, at one time Victory had a number of the best bands and released several great albums, but now it sucks. Now we get Blood for Blood and Fury of Five. Come on, with Earth Crisis leaving they are left with really few good bands. Hatebreed being really the only one, with Snapcase’s existence iffy and Strife’s existence unknown. Hardcore is about independence, DIY (Do it yourself), thinking for yourself, community, and it is about some kids jumping in a van that breaks down all the time and traveling from city to city meeting people, making friends, having fun and speaking their minds. This past summer I saw a band that put this into practice. I bought three CD’s, two records and some stickers and one of the guys in the band thanked me and said that "...you really believe in supporting the underground." This made me very happy. I knew that my money put gas in the van and food in their stomachs. Hardcore is not meant to be faceless like mainstream, but open and truthful. These guys weren’t rock stars and knew that they would never be, but they were people. This is meant to be underground, and is meant to be ugly and truthful. Keep hardcore independent and out of the hands of the corporate music market. Hardcore is diverse and wonderful and the corporate money lovers don’t deserve it. To quote the band Catharsis "Choose your heaven and fight for it to the death; or be content to live in Hell." |
This music has helped me through a lot. It gave me an identity that no one else had in my high school and few have in my college. It also gave me a voice. I love this music. I praise God for this gift of hardcore. It has changed my life.