‘We were treated like enemies of society’: Japan’s dangerous hardcore punk scene looks back to its roots

‘A huge array of foundational acts’ … clockwise from top left: Death Side (with van and in studio), the Nurse, and Lip Cream. Composite: Guardian Design; HARU; Dynamite Records; La Vida Es Un Mus

A few short years after punk’s initial shock-and-awe inspired thousands of teenagers to spike their hair and learn three chords, the genre mutated into hardcore: a leaner, meaner and fiercely independent hybrid that would soon be tearing up squats, church halls and dive bars around the world.

Forty-five years on, hardcore is enjoying a moment in the mainstream thanks to bands such as Turnstile, Speed and Knocked Loose. There are hardcore bands on talkshows, in fast-food ads and on $40 T-shirts – all things that the 1980s artists would probably have gobbed at.