NWOBHC has Ended but UKHC is Thriving

The New Wave of British Hardcore (or NWOBHC, if you're spicy) is a term coined by Andrew Malik of the Essence Records but more commonly known for its use by Quality Control HQ. Now, I know the term is still in use, still being used to refer to currently emerging bands in the UK hardcore scene, however I'm not sure if this wave is even really still happening. Obviously, I'm not saying there isn't a wave currently going on in the UK underground because that is so not true: the likes of Big Cheese, Higher Power and Stages in Faith are gaining even more attention than most bands have earned since Gallows hit the scene, but to me they aren't NWOBHC. Let me explain:

NWOBHC began around 2012 or so, when Arms Race, the Flex and Violent Reaction were making waves in the underground. These bands merged American style hardcore with elements old-school street punk and oi! Take a look at pictures of Arms Race or Violent Reaction, lots of them were skinheads. Not the “skinheads” you'd see in the '80s hardcore scene in America, who were just bald hardcore kids. Real skinheads, the kind who would play oi! if they were alive in the '80s. There's inklings towards American-isms like Tom Pimlott wearing a Youth of Today shirt or Callum Baird wearing shorts, but these guys are bomber or harrington jacketed, bleached jeaned and Doc Marten wearing. And obviously there'd be American-isms, all the bands' music was primarily based around the sounds of Agnostic Front, Youth of Today or Negative Approach, but they were pushing it into a direction that had never been heard from anyone other than 86 Mentality.

But... all of the bands who were a part of this movement seemed to have broken up by now: DiE in 2014, Violent Reaction in 2015, Bad Manifest and Insider in 2016, Arms Race in 2019. I swear the only band that hasn't are the Flex. And, all the members of these bands have formed other hardcore projects, like Jimmy from Violent Reaction now being the vocalist of Higher Power, Orla from Arms Race being the vocalist of Game and Razor from Violent Reaction being the vocalist of Big Cheese but these bands don't sound the same. They're actually more in-line with the mentality of younger bands in the scene like Payday, Mastermind and Lawful Killing, who take solely from the sound of U.S. bands. There's exceptions, Lloyd from Bad Manifest plays in Permission, who sound like a NWOBHC band. But there's very little similarities between the music of say Higher Power and Arms Race other than the fact they're both hardcore.

In short, I think we're in a different wave. A much more significant and varied wave. Higher Power are releasing an album through Roadrunner Records at the beginning of 2020 and seems like its going to be one of the most defining moments for UKHC in the past ten years, there are metal bands being accepted in the scene now, like Mere Mortal and Berserk and bands aren't afraid to experiment with elements outside of the norm, like Higher Power and Stages in Faith with alt rock and Vile Spirit with metal. It's a good time for the scene; savour it.