Genre story · Hardcore
Fastcore
Hardcore cut down to its quickest possible shape, often over before the listener can settle in.
Fastcore describes a particularly rapid form of Hardcore punk, with roots in the early-to-mid-1980s underground. Bands and scenes used several overlapping names for this music, including thrashcore. Dutch band Lärm, American groups such as Siege and later waves of short-song hardcore pushed tempo and compression well beyond what had already seemed extreme. The word is most useful when it describes how the band organizes its songs, not as a promise that every track has to reach the same speed.
Short, quick, still punk
Fastcore favors compressed guitar riffs, urgent drums and shouted vocals. Songs can be startlingly brief, but the arrangements usually retain recognizable punk phrases and stops. Unlike grindcore's more prominent metal influence and blast-heavy distortion, much fastcore remains audibly close to hardcore punk. Powerviolence shares its speed but often makes more dramatic use of slow, heavy interruptions.
The naming problem
Fastcore and thrashcore are sometimes treated as interchangeable.
Essential recordings
- 1986LärmStraight on ViewDutch hardcore played at an extreme pace.
- 1984SiegeDrop DeadRecorded 1984. A central American reference for the fastest early hardcore and an influence on later grindcore.
- 1983D.R.I.Dirty Rotten LPA very fast pre-crossover phase before the band's more metallic records.