Proper use of "hardcore"

Alright kids.  Allow me the opportunity to jump onto my soapbox for a moment.  I was browsing the craigslist ads today for bands looking for a drummer, so looking for a musical love connection.  In case you're curious there is nothing good on there.  But one ad caught my eye proclaiming a local hardcore band was looking for a drummer.  Upon listening to some songs on the bands YouTube channel, my suspicions were verified.  I swear to Christ, this irks me every time.  Around the Denver area there is a lack of education of what hardcore is and you are using the term to inflate what is a very singular music scene.  You are a METAL band, and not even a good metal band.  Stop using the term "hardcore" to describe your music because you obviously have no fucking idea what that term even means.

For anyone still with me, probably like 2 of you if I'm lucky, let me first tell you what hardcore is.  Hardcore is a sub-genre of PUNK music, that's right....PUNK MUSIC....that originated in the late 70's and early 80's.  Hardcore is generally harder, faster, and more abrasive than traditional punk music.  On the West Coast, Black Flag were considered the "godfathers" or hardcore.  On the East Coast, bands like Minor Threat, Agnostic Front, and the Misfits (though more closely associated with horror punk) were influential to the rise of hardcore.

By the 90's, hardcore punk began to influence several different genres, including melodic hardcore, thrashcore, and screamo among others.  New school bands with a sound more reminiscent of metallic hardcore emerged, including Strung Out, Snapcase, and Hatebreed.  Old school bands were also developing with a sound more reminiscent of the classic beginnings of hardcore, including Ten Yard Fight and H2O.

In the 2000's, hardcore began to fade as the popularity of punk rock had reached the mainstream.  Bands like AFI, who were hardcore on their earlier work, changed their sound considerably to appeal to major labels.  Rise Against would gradually diminish their hardcore elements, culimating with 2008's Appeal to Reason which lacked the intensity of their earlier releases.

While hardcore has a few subgenres including post-hardcore and thrashcore, as well as fusion genres such as grindcore and metalcore, hardcore is at it's core (pardon the pun) a punk genre.  If you are a metal band, of which there are an abundance in Denver, stop calling yourself hardcore.  You are using that word incorrectly, STOP IT!!!!!

Sorry for the history lesson, and sorry if I sound like a geezer.  It just irks me when people like this try to lump themselves into a genre of music and don't have a fuck-all idea of what they're talking about.  For someone who grew up listening to and being heavily influenced by several of these bands, allow me to speak for all of us in saying we do not want or need you polluting our subculture.

Oh, and here's another fact to add to the lesson.  Moshing was developed in the HARDCORE PUNK SCENE.  So to all you bros and d-bags moshing to 5 Finger Death Punch (I vomited a little just typing that), guess what?  That shit belongs to us, you fucking hypocrites.