Hardcore, the hard-edged second generation of punk rock, whose peak period ranged from 1980 to 1986, has never before been captured in the way Steven Blush's authoritative, extensively illustrated oral history has. Angrier, less pretentious and more stripped-down than its artsy, drug-addled predecessor, this harder-faster form of music was never very pretty - an angry and violent outlet for unfocused rage. American Hardcore: A Tribal History not only recapitulates an important and influential scene, its provocative sociological snapshots reveal a singular time in music history.
