Turkey 3

Turkey 2



This is Berk from Truth We Defend. First of all we are not a tough band :) We are not machos. Anyway we are not active now but we were not posing we were playing what we fucking liked.

Anyway here are some bands for you:

Lifelock
10 year old hc/punk band from Istanbul. They released an album called ''Under Pressure.'' The best of the best I think.

Never Reach Home (2008)
A new band from two members of TWD. They are playing fast poppunk/hc. Guys you must really check these fellas.

You Name It I Hate It
Fastcore since 2007 and they have released a demo tape.

Ultimate Blowup
Ultimate Blowup was formed in late 2008 and they got the band started in 2009 to play what they like so much. It has ex and current members of shit loads of bands and projects like Truth We Defend, Sakatat, Rott-Fish, Decaying Pürity (the grindcore one, in 2003), Circuits Made Flesh, Never Reach Home, You Name It I Hate It, Stevan Flipovic etc.

Sakatat
Grindcore band From Bursa. They are playing since 2006 or 2007 I think. They have toured Europe twice. They played in Obscene Extreme and have had lots of CDs, 7 inches etc.

Poster-ITI
Punk band playing since 2003 .

Malazlar
Malazlar is a fast hc/punk band from Ankara. They have a demo called ''Abolishing The Borders From Below'' which you can download.

Standback
Streetcore band and playing since 2007 I think. They have two demos you can download.

Ofisboyz
Another streetcore band from İstanbul but they are fucking dead now.

Street Dukes
Another band from the tough hardcore trend that's around these days.

I hope this will work for you, take care.

BTW Check Berk's blog...

Russia 4

Russia 3

These are cool bands)

High Hopes

Shout Aloud

Italy 2

Italy 1

Surely the most active and known Italian band at this time is To Kill (Rome).

There are a lot of names known in the rest of europe or even in other parts of the world thanks to their live activity :

Payback ( Rome )

Strength Approach ( Rome )

Affluente ( Ascoli )

Concrete Block ( Torino )

Straight Opposition ( Pescara )

Bull Brigade ( Torino )

Ingegno ( Perugia )

Face Your Enemy ( Caserta )

I think anyway that if you ask someone else the same question he/she will reply with different names and I'm sure that I haven't remembered some very good bands :)

Unfortunately hardcore right now is in a bad period. In my opinion there is a big loss of attitude. A lot of bands just care about the style, clothes, the appearance, the way to move on the stage. But there are some good bands who still try to send a message to people at shows.

Historically Italy has a big political background in punk/hc music. The previous generations were fighting everyday for their values, now it's different .
Some people, especially youngsters, don't know anything about politics, human and animal rights and they just think about the pair of new shoes to buy, just because they grew up with the playstation and tv.
Some others do like the past generations, they are still fighiting in squats, writing manifestos, having sit-ins, every kind of demonstration and supporting the diy culture and punk hc bands.
Talking about bands who have something to tell...some of them talk about respect, antiracism, antifascism, anticapitalism, critical attitude, straight edge, veganism and vegetarianism...just the same as the other meaningful hc punk bands in the world.

Some more links:

Oltrezona (Venice)

Values Intact RIP (Palermo)

Skruigners (Milan)

To The Embers (Milan)

While You Wait

My Own Voice

Some historical old school bands:

RAW POWER

NEGAZIONE

INDIGESTI

WRETCHED

GRANDINE

Italy - Abruzzo

In our area, specifically in our city, Pescara, there is not a real scene. There is only 1 hardcore band even if the city has around 200 000 people. The hc scene died some years ago.
There are some good bands of friends but they are not hardcore. In Abruzzo (our region) the situation is different, there are some little towns in which the scene grows up fast and a lot of bands come out. In Sulmona there is a great punk rock scene.

Generally in Abruzzo there is a good scene with good and active bands:
Straight Opposition

While You Wait

Vibratacore

Startoday

One Trax Minds

Bones Bag

Unaware

Rise from the Agony

Mud

The Memory

...there are a lot of other good bands but these are the ones which play more than others so I consider them better.

There are a lot of promoters but not so many shows. That's because of the location of the state...if you look to the map you can understand what I mean. A lot of big bands won't come to the south. They just stop in Rome, if you're lucky. Most of the important bands are used to playing in Torino, Milano, Bologna and Vicenza, which are all northern cities...
Talking more about the underground, you can find hardcore gigs everywhere. There are a lot of squats involved in the punk/ hc scene, and there is a large number of clubs (especially in the north) that often put on hardcore shows.

There are people who stand true and remain the same throughout the years, and there are those who change clothes everyday just to feel accepted by the "trendy" people...who in my opinion is the most far thing from hc attitude.

When bands respect other bands help comes fast, every time there is the possibility to be helpful.

Thinking about bands that represent the scene well is a difficult question. I can give you some names , but it depends also on my vision of music and about what I consider hardcore or not...

Turkey 2

Turkey 1

First of all, for turkish hc punk history (1978-1999) I can suggest An Interrupted History of Punk and Underground Resources...

For mp3s, basic information etc. you can use the blog Clouds of Cancer

If you ask me, the best hc bands in Turkey, I would suggest to check these bands:

Radical Noise RIP

Kranch RIP

You can use Noizine!


Actually, it's not a good time for turkish hardcore because a lot of people are angry and bored working on it because of the lack of interest. Most of the zines, bands, distros are not doing anything at this time.

The last big concert in Turkey was Oi Polloi at Resist Fest and there was not enough tickets for costs (band's travel costs, sound systems etc) but I hope it will be better this year but I'm not sure. So, we are not in good mood at this time about hardcore :)

Spain - Asturias

In this area of Spain, the first hardcore bands began in the 90's.

The most important bands were:

Intolerance RIP

Strangis Guajes RIP

Escuela de Odio

In the next decade many new bands emerged. Some of them are still active and these are the most representative of the current scene:

End It Now RIP

Enter The Nightmare

The Awake

The Black Panthys Party


At present, these are bad times for our music. But "hardcore still lives" and we have new bands to fight for it:

Thunderducks

Tragic Vision

The Baseball Furies


Of course I hope to have good news soon to put on the blog.
Your blog is a good idea in so many ways... It helps us to know how the situation in different countries is... And also to listen to bands that we didn't know before...

That's Hardcore Unity.