Genre story · Hardcore
Progressive Hardcore
Progressive Hardcore is an informal label for hardcore-derived music that departs from short, predictable song structures. Musicians working around Post-Hardcore, mathcore and more experimental heavy music have used changing meters, unusually long instrumental passages and sharp dynamic contrasts. There is no widely documented founding scene with this precise name. Many of its supposed characteristics already belong to the established history of Post-Hardcore.
An irregular drum pattern can carry a tense guitar riff, while a quiet passage changes how the next aggressive section lands. The term is valuable only if it describes a specific recording more clearly than an existing genre tag.
Listening context
- 1990FugaziRepeater
- 1994Drive Like JehuYank Crime
- 1998RefusedThe Shape of Punk to Come