Spazzcore
Spazzcore (also typeset as spazz-core or spazcore, and occasionally called spazz rock or spaz-rock) is a broad and inconsistently-used term which arose in the early to mid-1990s? to describe hardcore punk-derived? styles of music with a "spastic", chaotic sound, typically incorporating a high degree of dissonance (à la noise rock) and fast-paced, quickly shifting rhythms. Although that usage remains most common, there are a few related areas of punk? music which have been described with the term.
The first, and most primary usage, is approximately equivalent with chaotic hardcore? or the commonly proscribed alternate usage of "noisecore", a family of styles with roots in the San Diego art-hardcore?/proto-screamo? scene of the early 1990s, though the term was also sometimes connected to the grindcore-informed? jazzcore? of John Zorn? and his band Naked City?. By the late 1990s and into the 2000s?, this "spazzcore" came to encompass the style that became known as mathcore? as well as the overlapping category of "false grind?". The term was also associated with sass? as it rose to underground prominence, first with the most intense groups like The Locust? and An Albatross? and soon after with the slightly more mainstream-friendly group The Blood Brothers?.
The most specific usage of the term "spazzcore" comes from the DC? post-hardcore band Frodus? and was "coined" by their leader Shelby Cinca, apparently as a marketing experiment. Unlike the more literal usage of the term, the sound of Frodus has been noted as much more calculated and mechanical, based on complex repeating rhythmic patterns and intricate guitar parts inspired by early math rock. Although the term has not been widely used in this manner outside of by and with reference to Frodus, the style it refers to was broadly influential on post-hardcore, mathcore, and later forms of math rock.
One of the aforementioned later forms of math rock, technical math rock?, also became associated with the spazzcore term in the early 2000s, specifically being connected to high-octane, largely instrumental? duos like Hella? and Lightning Bolt? for their chaotic complexity and particularly energetic live performance style.