The 90s were something of an unusual time for hardcore. With the genre's birth and wild evolution throughout the 80s seen as something of a golden age and the 2000s marking various sonic and commercial breakthroughs, you may think the 90s were nothing more than a holding period, a bridge between those two iconic eras. That would ignore some truly exceptional and landmark releases for the genre, though. These five releases may not get name-checked as much as Black Flag or Minor Threat or have received mainstream recognition like Turnstile or Knocked Loose, but they certainly defined a period of glorious evolution for hardcore music.
