Lithuania

Our hardcore scene actually is quite weak. The biggest scene is in the capital - Vilnius but you will not find lots of new school hardcore or metalcore bands in the whole of Lithuania.

There was a great scene in Alytus (Zoo Underground).

Ictus 1 2006
Ictus 2 2006
Ictus 3 2006


These bands are the most popular but in the main it is about punk hardcore:

Bora RIP (Vilnius)

Spengimas (Vilnius)

Invazija RIP (Vilnius)

Serdnation (Vilnius)

5 Minutes After RIP


I don't know actually if there is any community out here. In my hometown, where 100 000 people live, there are 5 people who love hardcore. I was involved in making gigs in my hometown, and there was one gig, when only 2 or 3 people came. In Vilnius the situation is much better but I don't think that all the hardcore fans can be described as a community. Yes, they help each other but they are musicians most of all.

As a musician I was trying to create sxe hardcore/ metalcore band to play something like xDestroy Babylonx. But I found only 4 sxe musicians and no drummers. Actually Straight edge can be described as a very small community in Lithuania. As a post-communist country, the roots of alcoholism are very deep. So people who are sxe are black sheep. and there are no sxe bands in Lithuania and no vegan bands either.

It's more about old school or all-school hardcore. Bora is the most popular hc band in Lithuania. The are no big emocore, emo rock and etc. bands in the area. I haven't seen any Lithuanian emo bands playing at the local gigs. There are some nice screamo bands - 5 Minutes After, Anarres. That's it. I don't think there are any concept bands, just more generic hardcore with a big dose of passion. There are some good ska/punk, punk rock bands in the area but I don't like ska stuff so I can't say much about it.

Our scene is not changing much. I'm too young to say how much it's changed after the Soviet Union collapsed, but I have some old friends who are punks, and then the situation was worse than now. There was only punk rock bands in the area. Now it's more hardcore, the lyrics are important now.

You can see that the lack of sxe or vegan bands means that here hardcore is just music, only one band SC is maybe vegan. But of course, for me - it's the way of life (but I don't just like hardcore, as a multi-instrumentalist I enjoy lots of different kinds of music). And there are people who enjoy hardcore more than me. They are making gigs, playing in the bands.

Hardcore community is not big in Lithuania, but it's very close. 3 million people live here and the hardcore community is the smallest compared with metalheads or rockers. The metal scene is much bigger. That's it. :)


You can find more information, some gigs, mp3s and more at Vilnius Hardcore

Good Luck,
Martynas