Top 5 Thursday #6: Top 5 90’s HC Records

By Ryan Germ and Scott Danshaw
 The 90’s. Definitely THE most diverse time period in hardcore. You had bands pioneering beatdown like Kickback and Bulldoze, bands in the youth crew revival like Ten Yard Fight and Floorpunch, bands laying the base for the melodic hardcore style that would become prevalent in the 00’s like Kid Dynamite and Bane, and bands doing whatever the fuck like Ink & Dagger and Refused. What records did we pick from this era? Well that’s what you’re here for so without further ado here’s our top 5 90’s HC records.

Scotty D’s List:

1. Refused - The Shape of Punk To Come: This is hands down the most important punk/hardcore record ever. Such a major step forward creatively for Refused and a major departure from the more straightforward hardcore on their earlier records. Incorporating techno samples and interludes they took what Ink & Dagger started exploring on their self titled record and expanded on it. No other record has done as much for pushing punk to be more explorative from a creative stand point. 
2. Ink & Dagger- Drive this 7inch wooden Stake through my Philadelphia Heart: Speaking of these dudes, ya can’t have a best 90s hardcore list without including Ink & Dagger. This record has pretty much all of my favorite I&D songs. Starting with the eerie opener “Road to Hell” and capping it off with “Crawler” there isnt a skippable track on here.
3. The Reatards - Teenage Hate: If people can consider Hüsker Dü and The Replacements “hardcore punk” bands allow me to introduce you all to one of my favorite bands of all time, The Reatards. Teenage hate comes in at 18 tracks and is just short of 37 minutes of pure punk aggression.  No one plays this style better than Jay and he proves it here. The songs are short, fast, hard, and catchy as a motherfucker. If you haven’t given them a listen I suggest you do so now.
4. Kid Dynamite-S/T: If there is one hardcore band that encapsulates the 90s punk scene in Philadelphia it is Kid Dynamite. Rising out of the ashes of Lifetime Dan Yemin proved that yet again he makes some of the best punk rock in the northeast. Bookworm, Shiner, Showoff, Wristrocket, & Fuckuturn are just a few standouts from this record. Listen to it front to back, indulge yourself and fall in love with this record like I did.
5. Lifetime - Jerseys Best Dancers: WHAT A RECORD! The best melodic hardcore record from THE BEST melodic hardcore band ever. Fight me if you think any different! That’s right you won’t because it’s an undeniable record from a band that is far more important than most would realize. They just nail it front to back. Listen to it, dont skip a single track, then get back to me about how right I was…

Ryan Germ’s List:

1. Floorpunch - Twin Killing: So after Gorilla Biscuits, Judge, and Youth Of Today broke up youth crew was kind of dead for a minute, but bursting onto the scene in 95 was Floorpunch with their 2 demos Goal Line Stand (my favorite out of the 2) and Division One Champs which got coupled in this album. Now yes this IS technically a compilation but it’s 19 minutes of the most important youth crew revival music ever written. It’s positive and uplifting while also being scathing towards drug users who disrespected straight edge people in the scene. Not For Me and Changes have 2 of the greatest 2 step parts ever recorded, and Clear is an infectious earworm that you can’t get out of your head if you aren’t careful. Not only is it the best from the youth crew revival, it’s some of the best youth crew period.
2. Kickback - Forever War: on the complete opposite spectrum this is the scariest record by one of the scariest bands. People say bands like OBW are scary for their pits but Kickback brings it to a new level. The mythos and legends about them from when they were originally around are equal parts as scary as they are fascinating, and they do not give a fuck what anyone thinks about them as their Instagram bio boasts that they’ve been “Making HC kids cry since 1991”. The fast parts on this record are the only ones in HC where I think a circle pit is necessary, the breakdowns are the hardest that any 90’s band has had which is saying a lot. Its rare where you come across a record with no filler whatsoever and it makes the over an hour long run time an absolute breeze to go through. The songs that best demonstrates this are the title track and Heaven and Hell. The title track has one of the hardest breakdowns ever written and Heaven and Hell has a build up that makes the fast part hit like a freight train. Shoutout to Stephan for almost beating up Johnny Somali too.
3. AFI - Black Sails In The Sunset: Listen, is this record technically better than Forever War or We Are The Romans? Hell no. But this record and the All Hallows EP were so many people’s gateways into punk and hardcore like how The Misfits were for the generation before them. The intro of this record never fails to give me chills and from there they hit the ground running with a mix of CA hardcore punk and horror punk best exemplified in track 2 Porphyria. It features the East Bay HC energy you come to expect from AFI around this era with gang vocals galore but mixed with this hard to explain crisp fall air feeling. This is AFI at their peak and it makes me mad how this record often gets overlooked in the mainstream due to the explosion of AFI from The Art Of Drowning onwards.
4. Blood For Blood - Spit My Last Breath: When bands peak early it normally means the rest of their discography sucks ass, but not in this case. The rest of Blood For Blood’s discography is amazing, but they also decided to write the greatest hardcore song right out of the gates with Paper Gangster which has everything you want in a hardcore song neatly packed in less than 2 and a half minutes. Other great songs include the absolutely soul crushing primarily spoken word piece Redemption Denied, the hard ass chorus of Maldito, and Fade with a sick Danzig sounding part
5. Botch - We Are The Romans: Come On, if you know me you know this record is one of my favorites of all time. The riffs hold up even today, the drumming is tight as shit, and the intensity of this record is something even the heaviest metal records today can’t compare to. It’s unmatched in almost every way. C. Thomas Howell As The Soul Man feels like an out of body experience in just a few minutes, To Our Friends In The Great White North is the 3rd most important Mathcore song behind The Saddest Day and 43% Burnt, and Transitions From Persona To Object is one of the most technically complex and interesting hardcore songs ever written.