American Bands

"AFI have done a lot for the post-hardcore scene as a whole, but cracking into the mainstream with “Miss Murder” is a massive achievement. The song had all of the makings of a radio hit, with a massive chorus, driving bassline and simplistic nature to capture the attention of people in and out of the know on bands playing this style of music."

"A Static Lullaby [capture] metalcore’s heavy tendencies while staying rooted in post-hardcore through clean melodies and classic punk riffs."

"The dizzying technicality of the Fall Of Troy is a lot to take in, but the band have one of the wildest takes on post-hardcore. The highly complex riffing and screamo elements on “I Just Got This Symphony Goin’” are jarring but truly unique, not only to the scene at the time but also rivaling anything mathcore and math-rock bands are putting out today."

"The calming, atmospheric vibe at the beginning of mewithoutYou’s “In A Sweater Poorly Knit” is there to suck listeners in before the band start to build layer after layer of sounds, showing their capabilities in bringing out punk energy without ever tapping into harsh noise."

"Fugazi are the godfathers of post-hardcore, and although they only released one album in the ’00s, the band’s legacy carries throughout the genre today."

"Washington D.C.’s answer to Black Sabbath, Pentagram are one of the most influential bands of the doom metal genre. [...] The epic guitar work of Victor Griffin helped set the standard for what American doom metal became, especially since the band had been active since the 1970s. The most polarizing member of the band, vocalist Bobby Liebling is very much the U.S. version of Ozzy Osbourne, but without the money or sustained success. the potential for doom metal dominance was never more than a few riffs away from this band’s grasp. Liebling is a soulful singer who complements the vile evil of the guitar tones present. Pentagram is a doom metal staple."

"Swallow my pride, it's mine to quell I'll put you through hell, I'll put you through hell"

"Rodan is one of the most underrated post-hardcore bands to come out of the 90s."

"San Franciscan band Jefferson Airplane soared as the soundtrack to America's late-sixties counterculture, with its psychedelia, pot, and anti-Vietnam War, anti-establishment protest. [...] That sound − a folk-garage acid mix − and indeed the band's whole persona [as well] − were infused with a potent cocktail of marijuana, LSD, cocaine, and amphetamines."

"["Repeater"] was one of those times when a guitar intro made history. The title track on Repeater not only is a standout piece from Fugazi’s debut album—it also gave a start to a new era of post-Revolution Summer hardcore. [The song's] guitar opening says it all: The new hardcore just became more inventive, emotional, and catchy."

"Spirit was more than just as good as Pink Floyd; they were in a category of their very own. The band was incredibly creative and had no qualms with experimenting with jazz, pop, and even proto-metal at times."

"The Doors were firmly planted in a vague space between the end of “traditional” hard rock music and the birth of psychedelia."

"One pill makes you larger, And one pill makes you small. And the ones that mother gives you Don't do anything at all. Go ask Alice When she's ten feet tall."

"One generation got old One generation got soul This generation go no destination to hold Pick up the cry"

"When logic and proportion Have fallen sloppy dead, And the White Knight is talking backwards, And the Red Queen's off with her head, Remember what the dormouse said: Feed your head. Feed your head."

"Rites of Spring might be the most influential punk group that pretty much no one has ever heard of. [...] The example they set – their conduct, their attitude, and of course their music – would be hugely influential. A model, if you will, for how hardcore punk might grow up."

"To save hardcore, Fugazi had to destroy it and build something new from what scraps could still be salvaged. By 1986, Minor Threat frontman Ian MacKaye was bored and frustrated with the violent, pig-headed masculinity prevalent in hardcore scenes across the country. He found kinship in the arty introspection of Rites of Spring, whose singer-guitarist Guy Picciotto and drummer Brendan Canty joined the fold of MacKaye’s next band. With these new members and bassist Joe Lally as collaborators, MacKaye paired slower and more rhythmically supple arrangements with an unrelenting commitment to his DIY, straight-edge values and the revolutionary spirit at the heart of the genre."

"Now I'm gonna love you Till the heavens stop the rain I'm gonna love you Till the stars fall from the sky For you and I."

"I'm a back door man The men don't know But the little girls understand."

"People are strange When you're a stranger Faces look ugly When you're alone Women seem wicked When you're unwanted Streets are uneven When you're down."

"This is music Lucifer would love."

"Book of the dead, pages bound in human flesh Feasting the beast, from the blood the words were said I am unseen, dreamt the sacred passage aloud Trapped in a dream of the Necronomicon"

"Before you slip into unconsciousness I'd like to have another kiss."

"When the music's over Turn out the lights."

"In the history of doom, despite being incredibly hard to get hold of at times, their music is essential (KISS once came to them looking to buy two songs in the ’70s). The fact is, guitarist Victor Griffin simply doesn’t do bad riffs, and this rolling bit of heaviness is a humdinger, filling with Sabbathian dread and take-no-shit muscle."

"Senses Fail’s debut album, Let It Enfold You, introduced some of the best post-hardcore songs of the 2000s."

"The Doors were among the decade’s most incendiary groups musically, lyrically and visually."

"Ravaged, torn and punctured — the carcass oozes from multiple wounds Avulsed and sliced, the dermis weeps pus and purge fluid with clear, viscous goo Prior to the initial incision, before my scalpel is baptized bloody wet We determine the postmortem interval using a simple algebraic formula for deaths"

"Meat Puppets were never your average punk band. [...] By the time they made Meat Puppets II, they really didn’t care about remaining within anyone else’s definition of punk rock. On [that album], they embraced their love of bluegrass, jazz, psychedelia, the Grateful Dead, Frank Zappa, and really whatever else piqued their interest. The result is an album that’s punk as fuck, regardless of how little it sounds like the Ramones."

"Senses Fail has remained at the fore of the commercial hardcore scene since issuing their 2004 debut, Let It Enfold You. Mainstays of the Billboard 200 and U.S. indie charts, the band has released a string of acclaimed albums."

"Out of my mind into a world between In search of the ancient artistry Lord Kur, before your sword I see The house of death is opening Hanging from their primal sleep Forbidden to be seen Spirit of the elder gods Are dead but must live on Still to life but yet they breathe Dead but dreaming..."

"The Used are kings of the 2000s emo scene."

"There’s a good argument to be made that no album had a more profound impact on the development of pop punk than [Milo Goes to College]. It was firmly rooted in the hardcore scene and played with the same rawness, speed, and intensity as early Black Flag, [...] but the Descendents added in bright, catchy melodies through Milo Aukerman’s bratty, snotty delivery, and basically invented pop punk in the process. And it wasn’t just the sound of pop punk that Milo Goes to College paved the way for; it was the lyrical content too. With songs about hating your parents, wanting girls to like you, being a loser, and a hint of social criticism, Milo Goes to College laid out what would be the primary concerns for a large majority of pop punk bands to come. Just about every major pop punk band has sung the Descendents’ praises."

"Life has no meaning, unyielding obsession Grasping at strings of a life I once knew Death by my own hands, achieving objective Blade to my throat, I calmly greet death In Hell I burn, my faith is sustained In Hell I burn again In Hell I burn, no questions remain In Hell I burn for Satan Opened eyes dream, unheavenly torture Raping the world of the dead Burning in Hell and viewing the unseen Satisfying feasting of flesh [...] Master it's true My promise I have kept Fulfillment of the prophecies The deity is dead"

"Chiodos were hugely integral to post-hardcore in the 2000s."

"Is it worth it can you even hear me Standing with your spotlight on me Not enough to feed the hungry I'm tired and I felt it for awhile now In this sea of lonely The taste of Ink is getting old It's four o' clock in the fucking morning Each day gets more and more like the last day Still I can see it coming While I'm standing in the river drowning This could be my chance to break out This could be my chance to say goodbye Can't take this town much longer Being half dead wasn't what I planned to be Now I'm ready to be free"

"Burning I bleed, unholy incision Mark of the beast, behold the trifixion"

"If there is a hell, Deicide are destined to become its permanent house band in a move not dissimilar to Celine Dion's long-standing gig at Caesar's Palace."

"With today’s hardcore scene embracing alt-rock, ' is a still-relevant reminder that history repeats itself."

"Their influence can be heard on pretty much any death/doom band worth their salt. Winter were always closer to punk in mindset, even if the music was doom, and their sound lives on not only in those who have ripped them off over the years – that list is long – but in guitarist Stephen Flam’s new project, Göden, too, which takes its name from a Winter track and sees Flam play an array of custom-made guitars he co-designed himself."

"Singing was really hard on his voice. [...] He just wanted to try something with a more traditional metal singer, because he was a huge fan of bands like Iron Maiden, Manowar and bands like that. I don’t think he ever wanted to stop doing Death full time, because he knew how much that band meant to people. But he was ready for a break."

"The recorded works of the Long Island death metal quintet were largely responsible for the word ‘brutal’ entering the patois of the extreme metal fan, stylized in the now passé forum-friendly format ‘br00tal’. Some modes of death metal require the guitars to tune down and rot. Others require a pedantic noise gate to trim it into the physical ideal of an über-metal rhythm tone. What Terrance Hobbs and Doug Cerrito did was split the difference, finding a way of making sure the technicality was not lost in the mix while retaining the whiff of gore. They could switch things up, too. Tracks like Breeding the Spawn defined the Suffo style, throwing chum for the slam heads and writing with the full knowledge it would ignite the pit – that mid-section breakdown on Breeding was seminal. The likes of Torn into Enthrallment showed another side to them, and proved they had the songwriting nous to sit at the table with death metal’s elite."

"Along with Paradise Lost, New York outfit Winter’s only album Into Darkness helped draw a line for doom between the blues of Sabbath and the more traditional metal leanings of bands like Trouble, and somewhere much, much more grim."

"Suffocation are like the death metal equivalent of an old roller coaster that still makes your stomach drop even though you’ve ridden it hundreds of times and there are plenty of newer rides that are faster and more jarring. If you were following death metal in the early 1990s, when there was a sudden explosion of technical proficiency across the genre, Suffocation’s work since re-forming in 2002 will probably make you nostalgic for that era."

"Suffocation are globally recognized innovators of death metal [and] became extremely influential in the thrash/grind community. Since the 1990s, their massive influence on the genre came from pioneering the balance between brutal and technical sounds now commonly heard in 21st century death metal. After several demos and singles, 1991's now-classic Effigy of the Forgotten influenced an entire generation in death metal and grindcore circles."

"[Winter] carried [the] monochrome crust-punk aesthetic [of Amebix] into their musical outlook with a bleaker-than-thou sound heavily informed by the Hellhammer/Celtic Frost paradigm."

"With Pavement it's the sound and feel that matter, not the words or themes. Quoting lyrics to get to the heart of Pavement is misguided. Go online and print some out and you'll see that, taken on their own, they're generally meaningless. Read the track-by-track notes [Malkumus] prepared for Melody Maker at the time of the record's release and it's clear just how unknowable these songs are."

"Listening to Slanted & Enchanted is like listening to a college radio station that you can barely tune in -- melodies are interrupted by shards of white noise, only to have a simple hook pull everything back into focus. On their first full-length album, Pavement constructed a cycle of gleeful guitar noise punctuated by fragments of melody floating in and out of the chaos."

"Pavement is perhaps the defining American indie rock band of the 1990s, the group that captured the slacker zeitgeist of the alt-rock era. Standing detached from the tumult of grunge, Pavement seemed laconic, sometimes lazy, as they threaded their love of underground American rock and British post-punk, dressing their winding melodies with squalls of feedback and shambolic rhythms."

"Pavement weren’t the only early-’90s band that turned noise into something like pop [...] but the low-key charm of Slanted and Enchanted felt different. Whatever angst they might’ve felt was sublimated by a bookishness and sense of grandeur that made even their feedback seem sweet."