Crust punk (also known as stench core) is a derivative form of anarcho-punk, mixed with metal riffs. The style, which evolved in the early 1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills. The tempos are often fast, but just short of thrashcore or grindcore. Drumming is typically done at high speed, with D-beats sometimes being used, and the genre often taking influence from death metal, grindcore, and powerviolence. The initial inspiration for the crust punk scene came from the anarcho-punk of Crass and D-beat of Discharge. Swedish D-beat groups such as Crude SS, Skitslickers/Anti Cimex and Mob 47, and the Finnish Rattus were
… Read more also early influences. Amebix also brought in influences from various post-punk bands, including Public Image Ltd., Bauhaus, Joy Division, and Killing Joke. The early metal sound of Black Sabbath and Motörhead was also a big influence on both Amebix and Antisect. Doom, Excrement of War, Electro Hippies, and Extreme Noise Terror were among the first bands to have the traditional UK "crust" sound. Additional subgenres of this style began to develop. Deviated Instinct, from Norwich, created "stenchcore", bringing both the look and sound - dirty and metallic, respectively - to their natural conclusion.
Crust is partly defined by its "bassy" and "dirty" sound. It is often played at a fast tempo with occasional slow sections. Vocals in crust punk are often shrieked or shouted, and may be shared between two or more vocalists. The lyrical content of crust punk tends to be bleak and nihilistic, yet politically engaged. Crust punk songs are often about nuclear war, militarism, animal rights, police, personal grievances, oppressive states, and fascism. While the term was first associated with Hellbastard on their 1986 "Ripper Crust" demo, Amebix has been described as the originators of the style, along with Discharge and Antisect.
American crust punk scene started in NYC in the mid-1980s, with the work of Nausea. The early work of Neurosis also borrowed from Amebix, and inaugurated crust punk on the West Coast. Disrupt, Antischism, Misery, and Destroy were also significant U.S. crust groups. In the 1990s, an important American crust punk band was Aus-Rotten. Crust punk also flourished in Minneapolis, shepherded by the Profane Existence label. In this period, the ethos of crust punk became particularly codified, with vegetarianism, feminism, and sometimes straight edge being prescribed by many of the figures in the scene. The powerviolence scene associated with Slap-a-Ham Records was in close proximity to crust punk, particularly in the case of Man Is the Bastard and Dropdead. Crust was also prominent in the American South, where Prank Records and CrimethInc. acted as focal points of the scene. The most well-known representative of Southern crust was His Hero Is Gone. Prominent crust punk groups (Driller Killer, Totalitär, Skitsystem, Wolfbrigade, and Disfear) also emerged from Sweden, which had always had a strong D-beat scene. Many of these groups developed in parallel with the much more commercial Scandinavian death metal scene.