A List By Tim Cundle

The focal point of the band as well as it’s spokesperson, vocalists are the heart of any band, even more so within the confines of the Hardcore genre.

Here are Ten of it’s very best….

Greg Graffin (Bad Religion)

A voice of reason and rationality in an often chaotic and insane world that makes little or no sense to most
of us who live in it, Graffin is the punk rock professor with perfect pitch who effortlessly creates and
build the sort of harmonies that would make angels, if they actually existed, weep, and who can, in the
space of a single ninety second song can make you heart soar with joy, and make your soul cry out in
anger and sorrow.

HR (Bad Brains)

HR was, in his heyday, quite possibly the greatest frontman ever. An exquisite combination of physicality,
energy and pure, raw charisma, he was terrifying and mesmerising in equal measure. And his voice
embodied the rage and frustration that his audience felt and became a clarion call to legions of disaffected and disenfranchised kids and adults alike.

Keith Morris (Black Flag / Circle Jerks / Off!)

The eternal punk rock pixie who’s unholy howl belies his diminutive stature, Morris’ voice conveys
righteous fury in way that no one else has ever been able to, and hasn’t lost any of it’s power or urgency
in the five decades that he’s been stalking stages the world over and encouraging successive generation to question everything they’re told and deny authority.

John Brannon (Negative Approach)

Brannon’s voice is the sound of undiluted anger writ large and you can hear and eel the venom and hatred in every word that erupts from his fractured soul. John Brannon is proof psotive on stage at least, that indignation doesn’t care about age and like wine, gets better, increases in potency and becomes more focused the older it gets.

Blaine Cook (The Accused / Toe Tag / The Fartz/ Accused AD)

Blaine’s emotive, primeval howl drills a hole in your skill and burrows deep into your grey matter, and
challenges you to scream along with it, while soothing and taming the raging monster that lives in each
and every one of us. His voice is a vessel of pure, undiluted loathing, fury and contempt, and is both
terrifying and beautiful in equal measure. It’s the sound of hardcore given form.

Roger Miret (Agnostic Front)

One man epitomizes and encapsulates everything that I’ve always believed New York Hardcore, was, is
and always will be, and while it’s a burden and weight that should be too much for any individual to carry,
Miret has broad shoulders. His voice captures and embodies the visceral nature, energy and anger of the
New York sound, and his love for the scene he helped to create, his friends, his family and the city he
called home for most of his life reverberates in every lyric he sings. As far as I’m concerned, he is, and
always will be the Godfather of NYHC.

Paul Bearer (Sheer Terror / Joe Coffee)

The wise cracking, street wise sardonic bourbon soaked poet with the soul of a romantic who can bust
balls and break heads with the best of them, has an angel on one shoulder and the devil on the other and
his voice exists in the ether that seperates both. A lyrical genius, he’s one of the rare breed of singers who
can, and does emote with staggering ease, what the rest of us are feeling and thinking, but thanks to the
bullshit that we drown in on a daily basis, are often too traumatized to talk about.

Theo Kogan (Lunachicks)

Hardcore isn’t just boys fun, and the Lunachicks are one of the scenes best kept and all too often over
looked secrets, and their singer Theo Kogan as well as possessing a fuck you, can do spirit that would
make Henry Rollins quake in his boots, isn one the greatest singers to have ever picked up a microphone
and hit the stage, regardless of genre. And the Lunachicks were, are and always will be one of the best
live bands that the scene has ever produced.

Dean Beddis (Cowboy Killers / Bad Sam)

I’ve said it before, and I’ll almost certainly say it again, the Cowboy Killers were the best UK Hardcore /
Punk band ever. A chaotic whirlwind of insanely catchy, lightning fast songs and socially conscious,
darkly humorous lyrics, the Cowboy Killers had a secret scene weapon in Beddis, a amn with scant regard
for his own well being when they played anywhere and everywhere and whose voice was, and still is
incredible. And Dean is still the greatest Elvis impersonator you’ll ever hear. Seriously. Best. UK. Band.
Ever.

Zoli Teglas (Ignite)

Zoli was, and is, a force of pure nature with the voice of a Broadway star and a conscience that drives him
to always do the right thing, regardless of the personal cost. And I could listen to the man sing all day and
every day, because he has one of the most powerful and emotive vioices I’ve heard.