Dude, I’m gonna be real with you. I love ska so god damned much, but I didn’t always. I just barely missed out on being a teenager for the third wave, but The Impression That I Get was still on the radio and ska-punk was definitely still in the public consciousness. We had a ska band at my high school that would play every local show, but I was a steadfast metalhead at the time. I was more interested in whatever was coming out of Sweden than I was with picking anything up. I thought the genre was too goofy and I was way too much of a little edgelord to give it a chance.

Then one day, I heard The Flaming Tsunamis and my entire outlook got flipped upside down. They were a ska band, but also a metalcore band? There was a brass section, but also there were breakdowns and screaming? While I would eventually get into ska proper because of this revelation, that’s not the reason I’m writing this right now. I want to examine this cross section of hardcore and ska, because they were far from the only ones doing it. So let’s ask the question… WTF is ska-core?

Ska-core as a term was first coined by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones on their 1993 EP, Ska-Core, the Devil, and More. While it may seem like some grand declaration of a new genre, it was probably more of a tongue in cheek nod to the covers of Minor Threat, Angry Samoans, and SSD that were featured on the EP. The Bosstones are definitely more of a ska-punk band first and foremost, but one with heavy roots in the Boston hardcore scene and those influences would bubble up in their early work every now and then in tracks like Dr D and Issachar. When it comes to ska-core proper, there’s more or less two varieties and they line up pretty cleanly with how hardcore in general has evolved over the years. First up there’s ska-punk that’s just generally faster, angrier, louder, and more aggressive. A lot of these kind of blur the line as to what might even count as one or the other, but that’s how a lot of old hardcore was too. Then, there’s the stuff that’s inspired more by metalcore and metallic hardcore. Breakdowns and screaming. The whole nine yards. Lets get into the examples.

Blue Meanies

Blue Meanies are a perfect example of that older style of ska-core. They’re really fast, aggressive, and pissed off sounding. The vocals are sung and shouted without really dipping into full on screams. They’ve had a lengthy discography and a number of lineup changes over the years and slowly they’d drift away from their ska sound. I’d recommend their 1997 album Full Throttle for the most glaring example of what I’m talking about though.

Voodoo Glow Skulls

This is one of the first ska bands I ever listened to that really connected with me. The album cover for Firme stuck out immediately with its Ed Roth inspired artwork, but Band Geek Mafia is probably their most well known. There’s a very distinctly So-Cal vibe to their whole sound, with some easy comparisons to draw to a few of the bands that I’ll mention later. The vocals are some some straight up hardcore shouting that would have been right at home in an Agnostic Front track or something, but musically they’re kind of on that line between ska-punk and ska-core. I think there’s enough d-beats and aggression to count them though.

The Flaming Tsunamis

Look, I’ve already gushed about this band. Being from the New Haven area, these are the local champions. This is where we start to move more into the modern sound of the subgenre and bring in those metalcore and melodic hardcore influences. Riffs are a little thrashier. drums are a little blastier. Vocals are a little screamier. That’s not to say they that it’s all aggression all the time. There’s still plenty of grooves and this band is overall catchy as hell. Their final album would move pretty much all the way into straight up metalcore territory, but Fear Everything is an absolute classic.

Grey Matter

If you’ve been paying attention to the things I’ve been writing then this name will already be familiar to you. Their newest album Climbing Out was on my Top 10 Albums of the Year list for 2020, and for good reason. It rules. Grey Matter are a bit of an outlier when it comes to ska-core, though. They don’t quite fit in either of the categories I’ve outlined and they’re kind of just doing their own thing. Musically, they’re a bit more laid back, a bit more funky. Their guitars aren’t quite as crunchy. A lot of the aggression in this band comes in with their vocalist, but it’s more than enough to get that stank face going.

Folly

If horns aren’t your thing, then this is the one for you. These guys are one of the more aggressive bands on the list, leaning much heavier into post-hardcore and metalcore sounds. When the ska breaks hit, though? They hit hard. For those of you coming from the heavier side of things, this is definitely a good entry point to dip your toe in. Stick around a while and you’ll go from crowd-killing to skanking in no time.

The Best of the Worst

In my opinion, this is the band to watch. They’re the closest to the The Flaming Tsunamis in sound, but definitely carve their own niche out. The heavy parts are really heavy, but the ska parts really groove. They’re really catchy, and with 3 different vocalists they have someone to cover whatever part of the song needs covering. It’s a really nice balance and you don’t end up with someone screaming over a super melodic part or anything. Their previous releases all rip, and I’m very excited for their new one. Better Medicine comes out on 2/19 via Bad Times Records.

8 Kalacas

Most of the bands I’ve talked about so far have been from the East Coast, but there’s an entire scene of really heavy ska-core happening over in Cali that I wasn’t even aware of until digging around for this very article. Some kind people over in the Skatune Network discord clued me in to these. 8 Kalacas are a prime example of what’s going on over there. There’s a noticeable hispanic influence, with a lot of these bands singing or screaming in Spanish most if not all of the time. 8 Kalacas are upbeat and fun, but really aggressive. There’s definitely a strong metalcore element to their sound.

Mafia Rusa

Like Folly, this is another band that forgoes the brass section for some really dirty, aggressive sounding ska-core. They really blend the older and newer sounds of the genre with a lot of really fast and upbeat punk sections complimented with breakdowns and full on screams. Even the ska parts tend to feature distorted guitars, which makes their songs feel really cohesive. A lot of these bands revel in the stark contrast between the ska and hardcore sections, but Mafia Rusa transition through both effortlessly.

La Pobreska

Rather than the typical hardcore, post hardcore, metalcore, or metallic hardcore influences, La Pobreska have drawn pretty clearly from more of a crossover thrash sound. It’s a really unique spin on this whole thing and easily makes them stand out. They’ve only released one album and that was way back in 2011, but they dropped a single last year so hopefully another is on the horizon.

River Ratts

River Ratts are hard to pin down. The ska sections or sometimes full songs tend to lean really heavy on the mellow side and their vocalist is easily one of the best singers out of any of these bands. In complete opposition to that, the heavy parts are really heavy. This is a band with blast beats and screaming that wouldn’t sound out of place in a black metal band. The breakdowns hit like a truck. What’s a bit interesting is they also seem totally content with letting full songs fall on one side or the other of their sound without needing to flip flop in every track. Still, they do both incredibly well.

23 skunks

This band definitely leans the heaviest into the metal side of things. Rather than hardcore, I’d wager to say they take inspiration directly from death metal and black metal since they have songs with blast beats and gutteral vocals. Hell, just look at their logo. Their 2016 album Heathens is especially heavy. There’s plenty of ska on it, but tracks like Serial are almost entirely metal. I think this might be the heaviest band of the bunch. I saved them for last for a reason.

There’s a bunch more bands I could have mentioned, though. The Ironies, Link 80, Against All Authority, and more. It was hard keeping it down to 10, so I didn’t. There’s 11 bands on the list. It’s my site, I can do what I want. Lastly, I’d like to give a brief mention to Saucy Creg and 8 Ball Fracture, who both have some really great singles out but no full albums. These are definitely bands to keep an eye on in the near future.