France - Rouen

Rouen is the capital of Normandy. A really interesting town for hardcore for many years. Many bands and a really good atmosphere at the shows! But we have only one place to organise shows. It's a mix of vegan, vegetarian, sxe and hardcore kids who have fun during the show. It's dancing really hard but with respect and it's a mix of different generation from 40 years to 18 years...

Check all these myspace pages and you can have an idea of our scene!

Primal Age


Lazare


As We Bleed


Back to Square 1


17 Seconds Left


Tears of Pride


Hatred Down


A Rising Hand for Elijah


Cordier Street (not a band, just a crew)

Slovakia

I live in Humenné, which is a rather small town (30k) in the east of Slovakia. The scene here is punk/rock, plus these emo/screamo kids that are everywhere nowadays..

We had a great club in town (club 80), lots of hc gigs and bands from all over the world, but it had to be closed due to high rent and noise..

Then there was Metheora rock pub, opened by few friends, but it ended up like club 80. The thing is, we are used to travelling to see good hc gigs..

Many of them are organised in Košice, the biggest town in Eastern Slovakia, where the hc scene is much bigger..

There are few venues - Collosseum, Tabačka, ex-Khoi Khoi..



Here are some hc Slovak bands:

Saprophyte


Time of my Life


Turtle Fighters - currently on hiatus


Abhorrence

Indonesia - Jakarta

Always a pleasure to hear news from Indonesia...Dr. Iman speaks with so much experience of the posi spirit...it is so uplifting to see that sxe is so strong!



I’m living in the capital city of Indonesia, which is called Jakarta, in East district...Jakarta HxC scene it’s a huge scene. You can imagine, in the late 90’s era of Jakarta Underground Music, all the people who were into Hardcore Music would go to one place...

Jakarta has 5 district which are East Jakarta, West, North, South, and Center. And also increasing by three new big district around Jakarta, which are Depok, Bekasi and Tanggerang and each district has a lot of hardcore bands, with different characters, sounds, style, it's a personal things, they are free to choose. And also subcultures are growing so fast like Straight Edge, Vegan, etc

I started to listening Hardcore-Punk in the era 90’s, when i was in junior high school, and when I was in High School made a band with my friends called Strong Arm, covered some US HxC bands such Minor Threat, Blag Flag, Warzone, Up Front, etc.

I saw a lot of things happen, especially the people, a lot of changes. In 1993-1999 there were several special places to put on hardcore gigs like POSTER CAFE, HD CAFE, LIPSTICK, M CLUB in Blok M, GOR Pondok Kelapa, etc and wow...it was amazing...

And up to now, I’m still with a band called VICTORIOUS, its kinda family project, all the members are my family, then also my latest band, FOR GOOD REASON, that wanna make a reunion...and anyway at the same time I write a blog, I’m also writing guitar tabs, and some composition.

Jakarta has a lot of amazing bands, and also they have gone on national and international tours across Asia. I will mention a few of my fave Jakarta HxC bands who still exist...

FINAL ATTACK (hard hittin Jakarta HxC band, with deep low noise, and scream so loud)


SENSE OF PRIDE (modern and old skool style HxC, with high-pitched voice)


GRAVE DANCERS (wow, this one of my fave hardcore crossover...)


Artwork: A.Z.E.R

STRAIGHT ON VIEW (cool dude...old skool style)


TAKE DOWN (modern sound, new skool??? Naah, remind me of some European HxC bands, nice crew and fun)


RAIN COAT (alright, classic, sing a long, pointing finger, fast, posi...)


STRAIGHT ANSWER (old guys, great music, never surrender HxC ? ... new material's really cool)


BRAVE HEART (modern sound, brave sound, forthright lyrics, sing a long, great SxE band)


DEAD PITS ( what a old skool HxC...fast...melodious sing a long parts)


THINKING STRAIGHT (and old epic SxE band from Depok City Crew, their guitar player is one of my fave guitar player, best friend ever...)


Design: Bled Art

All these bands are my friends...we have known each other from the start.

Here are also some labels and merch...

TRUE SIDE RECS


FIRST NOTE RECS


SUB MERCH


I hope everyone in the world can see and enjoy...

And oh I almost forgot, I’m also writing some blogs...

MEDICAL CORE LIFESTYLE


ONE LIFE STAND

UK - London

I'm from SW London which means I'm lucky enough to be a part of the London scene which kinda includes the surrounding areas as well making it probably a more extensive hardcore scene than any you'll find in the rest of the country. It's got a pretty good vibe to it, shows are always fairly laid back and people are by and large friendly/open to new bands or whatever. There are a few dickheads but you'll get that anywhere.

In terms of the good bands there's a lot. The most famous ones are bands like Gallows (who're actually kinda famous even in the mainstream sense), Your Demise, Dead Swans and Blackhole. Equally though there are some amazing more underground/upcoming bands...

Last Witness



Dirty Money RIP



More Than Life

TRC


...and that's not even scratching the surface.

Most popular venue for shows is probably the Underworld in Camden but they happen all over central London and the outskirts.
As for labels, they're pretty much covered in this video which also has plenty of info about London and the UK's HC scene.

Russia 7

Russia 6

As everyone knows, Russia was one of the leading countries in the Second World War and is known as a land of fascist defeaters. However, the globalisation process has affected our country in a bad way. Conscious russian youth now is very sad to witness how the deeds of our grandfathers are forgotten nowadays.

The problem of nazism in our country is acute, as many young people, who claim to be patriots, are agressive to immigrants from China and ex- USSR countries such as Tadzhikistan and Azerbaidzhan. Those immigrants seek so-called shit jobs and are paid times less than any russian would claim. So there's an acute problem of illegal immigration in our country, but it must be solved economicaly and by introduction of Federal laws.

However I believe those "russian patriots" are little concerned about this problem. Their victims are mainly russian people whom they (often by mistake) take for antifascists, people of outstanding appearance, or students with non-russian appearance , who walk alone. What makes things worse, is that our corrupt government obviously backs them up. There are many incidents of fascist attacks on innocent people, but few are delivered to justice. Antifascists are badgered, arrested and suited for extremism. No scrupulous investigation is carried out when nazis kill an antifascist . This situation is painful and arouses the utmost indignation. That's why most of russian hardcore bands support antifascism (though still most of them don't claim they are strongly antifascist). These are the strongest voices among them.


The group which I should mention first and one of first voices against nazism in Russia is Sandinista! (hardcore, neocrust, screamo). Their piercing screams apprehended the tragedy that happened to one of the members - Timur Kacharava. He was a vegan and FNB activist and was killed by nazis in November 2005. The place is still decorated with flowers.


What We Feel is the most famous hardcore antifascist group in Russia. The group had been around since 2005, musicians are vegan sXe by views. The band went on extensive touring through Europe visiting France, Germany (twice).

"We hold on to quite open views on life and politics - and have no tolerance of the murderers and dirty fuckers, who take refuge in "patriotism" and "providing a future for Russia" and are sheer criminals backed up by the authorities."

They despise "apolitical" people, who, according to their words, are too coward to be openly on either side, going to shows and at the same time making friends with boneheads. The group unfortunately split up this spring. They have tracks in English.


The next is their friends, rappers from Moscow Death Brigade

"It's us who are Russians, and you are mere nazi-sluts," shout their agressive rhymes. Music without compromise for those who use their own brains, true patriots of their country who want to make it better by conscious attitude. They are still around, I've been to their concert on 9 may. All of the ticket sales from the concert were donated to needy veterans of The Second World War. They have tracks in English.


Flawless Victory are a ray of light in the russian scene, a straight edge group with antifascist views. Their album "Young Hearts" was translated into English, so you can undestand the lyrics.


Во весь голос (Vo Ves Golos) is a hardcore-punk band with anarchist views.Their lyrics are about the way army cripples a man, about average people (a man in the street) and animal rights.

The russian scene is ever changing and developing, activists maintain contacts with other world's antifascist communities. More and more young people open their eyes and switch on their brains, and that's the main goal of hardcore music.

UK - Kent

I live in the Medway Towns, which has a really clichy Indie Scene (it did seem that around the time Hardcore went trendy all the Indie kids started wearing Black Flag shirts), my friend John runs Deep Anchor Promotions.


Graphic: Scot aka Switch

He works really hard at it and he's managed to get some bands that would never come down South further than London (he's put on Death Before Dishonor, Ritual and Billy The Kid from Puerto Rico in the last year), at venue's such as The RAFA club and Tap N Tin (both in Chatham).


Although his shows do really well it's because of people traveling all over Kent for them, local people will only come out if their fucking mate's band are playing or, because John tries to just do all ages shows, little Metal kids who can't get in anywhere else, but I'm not one to judge, I came from a Metal background myself, today's Grebos are tomorrow's Hardcore kids.

The bands coming out of our area range from...

Pay No Respect (Heavy Beatdown)


Breaking The Day (Deathcore)


Take Courage (straight up Hardcore Punk)


One local band set to blow up is Feed The Rhino, who kind of sound like a cross between Gallows and Converge.


They've just signed a deal with In At The Deep End Records and are touring really hard.


Going further down South to Canterbury, which back in the early 2000's had a world famous (well nationally well known at least) Straight Edge Scene, but sadly it died away but some bands are keeping the spirit alive...

Cold Snap


Never Again


Artwork: Luke

Breaking Point



This kid called Bob runs PD Promotions and puts on most of the shows at The Chantry Social Club (bands such as The Effort, La Dispute and Skare Tactic), sometimes with the help of Jaime who runs Fist In The Air records out of Herne Bay.


Artwork: bigxtom


Down to Margate (or Marghetto as the local kids call it) my friend Sam runs a really great Grind/Thrashcore DIY label and distro Keep Screaming Records, he also plays drums and sings for two man Powerviolence racket Face Of Death and puts on really great, intimate shows at Beau's Practice Rooms, puting on fine underground bands like Diet Pills, The Afternoon Gentlemen, Battle Of Wolf 359 and Resurrectionists from Germany.