Boston hardcore is the hardcore punk scene of Boston, Massachusetts. Beginning in the early 1980s, bands such as SSD, DYS, Jerry's Kids and Negative FX formed a nascent hardcore scene in the city that was notably captured on the compilation This Is Boston, Not L.A. (1982). By 1986, many of these bands had either disbanded or departed from the hardcore genre, instead beginning to play heavy metal. During the 1990s, the influence of extreme metal became prominent in the scene with Overcast, Converge, Cave In and Shadows Fall becoming prominent figures in the metalcore genre. However, a reaction against this metal influence quickly took place, which led to the mid-1990s youth crew revival of In My Eyes, Bane and Ten Yard Fight. By 2000, the youth crew revival had declined, and in response to its lyrical positivity, bands including American Nightmare, the Suicide File and the Hope Conspiracy began making music influenced by its music but centred on darker and nihilistic lyrics. In the following years, a reaction also took place against this lyrical style, which led to the rise of positive hardcore bands Mental and Have Heart. The 2000s also saw mainstream successful of Boston melodic metalcore bands including Killswitch Engage, All That Remains and Shadows Fall.
1980s
Disheartened by Boston's local punk bands like Mission of Burma and the Neighbourhoods, and feeling enfranchised by straight edge after watching Minor Threat perform in New York City, Boston's first hardcore band was SSD. Formed in 1981 and performing live for the first time on September 19 of the same year, SSD influenced the formation of a Boston hardcore scene. The groups of bands especially influenced by SSD and their straight edge philosophy called themselves the Boston Crew, which included DYS and Negative FX, while other early bands to join the scene included Jerry's Kids, the F.U.'s, Gang Green and the Freeze. The Proletariat, although a part of this scene were set apart significantly due to their jangle pop guitars, influence from Gang of Four and Wire and communist lyrics. In 1982, Modern Method Records released This Is Boston, Not L.A., a compilation album of the Boston hardcore scene. In addition to Modern Method was Taang! Records, who released material by a number of the aforementioned Boston hardcore bands.
Despite writing a mere 20 minutes of music and never playing outside of New England, Siege became highly influential. Their tracks on Cleanse the Bacteria exposed them to wide audiences, including Lars Ulrich of Metallica, who described them as the fastest band he had ever heard.Mudrian, Albert. Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore. Feral House, 2004, pp. 47 Numerous pioneering bands establishing the death metal and grindcore subgenres in the 1980s cited Siege as a formative influence,Mudrian 38, 126 including British groups Carcass and Napalm Death.Glasper 2009, p. 12 Further outside of Boston were Western Massachusetts bands Deep Wound (which featured future Dinosaur Jr. members J Mascis and Lou Barlow) and the Outpatients, both of whom would come to Boston to play shows. From nearby Manchester, New Hampshire was G.G. Allin, a solo singer who contrary to straight edge used large amounts of drugs and alcohol, eventually dying of a heroin overdose. Allin's stage show included defecating on stage and then throwing his feces at the audience. At this time, a prominent venue was the Gallery East.
By 1986, the scene was in decline, SSD, DYS and the F.U.'s has begun to play heavy metal, with the lattermost doing so also changing their name to Straw Dogs.Steven Blush. American Hardcore: a Tribal History. Feral House, 2010. p. 190-191 By the end of the year, both SSD and DYS had disbanded. Members of the Boston Crew then went on to form the band Slapshot. The members of ska punk band the Mighty Mighty Bosstones also originated from this scene. Slapshot have been credited by the Eagle Online as being one of the driving forces in the resurrection of hardcore in the Boston area, when all the other bands moved away from the genre. Stewart Marson of AllMusic wrote on their 1990 album Sudden Death Overtime stating “At a time when hardcore itself, never mind straight-edge, was on the ropes, Sudden Death Overtime proved that some bands were still in the game.”
1990s
In the early 1990s, Only Living Witness and Sam Black Church gained national attention during a time when New York hardcore dominated the scene. At the same time, an early metalcore developed in Boston, led by Overcast who formed in 1990. Much of this scene were based around Hydra Head Records, which was founded by Aaron Turner after moving to Boston. Converge were one of the earliest and most prominent groups from the city, formed in 1990. Using Rorschach's music as their sonic template, the band's experimental attitude, emotional lyrics and attention to dynamics led to them becoming one of the most influential bands in the genre. Blood for Blood was formed in 1994, and were known for their live performances being violent due to the audience getting into large brawls and riots. This resulted in the band having a large police presence at their shows.
As a reaction against the dominance of metal-influenced hardcore amongst straight edge bands, around 1996, a revival of the sound of the youth crew bands began. Bands including In My Eyes, Bane, Ten Yard Fight and Floorpunch, used the key aspects of late 1980s bands such as the gang vocals, high tempos and lyrical themes of straight edge, unity and vegetarianism.
In 1997, the Rathskeller, a prominent venue in the scene was closed and the building was demolished, hosting acts such as Blood for Blood. In a 2014 article by Vice Media, writer John Liam Policastro called it "Boston's legendary shithole".
As the 1990s drew to a close, a wave of metalcore bands began incorporating elements of melodic death metal into their sound. This formed an early version of what would become the melodic metalcore genre. The first band to make use of this fusion was Overcast, who were soon followed by Shadows Fall on Somber Eyes to the Sky and Unearth on Above the Fall of Man (1999).
2000s
By 1999 and 2000, the youth crew revival was in decline, with Ten Yard Fight, In My Eyes and Floorpunch all disbanding. As a reaction against the homogeneity and simplicity that scene had developed, Ten Yard Fight guitarist Tim Cossar and the band's roadie Wesley Eisold formed American Nightmare. Although still musically rooted in the youth crew revival, the band's negative, poetic lyrics of self-loathing were inspired by groups like the Smiths. American Nightmare's influence was apparent promptly in their home of Boston, then expanded nationally with the release of their 2001 debut album Background Music, being followed by a wave bands including Ceremony, Ruiner, Modern Life Is War and Killing the Dream."Charts", Billboard. August 23, 2008, pp. 40–41. Retrieved December 25, 2011.Hughes, Josiah. "American Nightmare Announce New Album, Share "The World Is Blue"". Retrieved November 25, 2019. A 2011 article by Lambgoat, called Boston bands American Nightmare, the Hope Conspiracy and the Suicide File as three bands who in particular "left a noteworthy mark" in the scene.
A reaction against this movement also took place, which began with Mental, who were quickly followed by Have Heart. Have Heart's success led to the rise in popularity of other positive hardcore groups like Champion, Verse and Sinking Ships, and the rise in prominence of Bridge 9 Records."Have Heart announce final show with Bane, Shipwreck a.d." punknews.org. August 22, 2009. Retrieved May 13, 2010.Break-ups: Verse (2003–2009) Punknews.org, February 9, 2009. Retrieved February 13, 2009. In an AllMusic review, Greg Prato wrote about the label's band Energy that "While you wouldn't go quite as far as calling Energy "a hardcore boy band," the group's leanings toward the mainstream are undeniable throughout Invasions of the Mind. Death Before Dishonor formed in 2000, and began making a name for themselves through extensive touring averaging 250 live performances a year by the late 2000s headlining worldwide in Australia, Europe, Mexico, and Canada.
Defeater formed in Boston in 2008. The band went on to be one of the forefront acts in the Wave, a movement of post-hardcore bands in the late 2000s and early 2010s. Their discography narrates an overarching story of a working class New Jersey family in the Post-World War II Era.
Metalcore At the beginning of the 2000s, many of the bands from Boston's 1990s metalcore scene began becoming increasingly experimental, with Cave In starting to make progressive music and Aaron Turner's post-metal band Isis emerging from the scene. Metal Hammer writer Stephen Hill called Jane Doe by Converge "the high watermark of the Boston scene [in this era]". Around this time, many of these acts gained international mainstream attention, with Cave In signing to the major label Capitol Records and touring with the Foo Fighters.
Converge's album was released on 4 September 2001 to universal critical and fan acclaim. The album influenced the development of the sound of other U.S. bands like Norma Jean and Misery Signals as well as international acts like Eden Maine, Johnny Truant and Beecher. Blake Butler of Allmusic stated that Converge "put the final sealing blow on their status as a legend in the world of metallic hardcore" with the album, calling it "an experience -- an encyclopedic envelopment of so much at once." Terrorizer Magazine named it their 2001 Album of the Year,J. Bennett, "Who's That Girl?", Precious Metal: Decibel Presents the Stories Behind 25 Extreme Metal Masterpieces, Albert Mudrian (ed.), Da Capo Press, p. 331. and it was named the greatest album of the 2000s by Noisecreep and Sputnikmusic
Melodic metalcore
By the 2000s, the melodic death metal-influenced style of metalcore had become increasingly prominent, with this bands soon separating themselves into their own scene, which Converge vocalist Jacob Bannon referred to as the "commercial metalcore scene". This scene was fronted by Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall and Unearth. In 2002, Killswitch Engage's Alive or Just Breathing reached number 37 on the Heatseekers Albums chart. In 2004, Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache, Shadows Fall's The War Within, Killswitch Engage's 2004 album The End of Heartache has been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America and their 2006 album As Daylight Dies was certified platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) in 2007 and 2021, respectively. Killswitch Engage's 2002 album Alive or Just Breathing, as of 3 July 2004, has sold 114,000 copies in the United States. Their album is a landmark album for the genre, being considered a foundational and highly influential record that helped define the metalcore in its early years. The band also became the first to receive a Grammy nomination for Best Metal Performance at the 47th annual Grammy awards in 2005.
Shadows Fall began to pick up in popularity with their 2002 album The Art of Balance with his since surpassed 100,000 plus sales. Their follow up 2004 album seen even more success peaking at number 20 on the Billboard 200 along with topping the Independent Album Charts, and has since sold 200,00 units. They also picked up two Grammy nods for Best Metal Performance in 2006 and 2008 respectively.