Power violence

Powerviolence
Powerviolence pioneers Siege performing at their high school in 1984
Stylistic origins	Thrashcore grindcore
Cultural origins	Late 1980s, North America
Typical instruments	Vocals bass guitar drums
Derivative forms	Bandana thrash
Fusion genres
Emoviolence
Other topics
Crossover thrash crust punk noise rock screamo

Powerviolence (sometimes written as power violence) is an extremely dissonant and fast subgenre of hardcore punk which developed from thrashcore and grindcore. In contrast with grindcore, which is a "crossover" idiom containing musical aspects of heavy metal, powerviolence is just an augmentation of the most challenging qualities of hardcore punk. It does, however, share grindcore's noise music influence. Like its predecessors, it is usually socio-politically charged and iconoclastic.

Powerviolence's nascent form was pioneered in the late 1980s by Infest. The microgenre solidified into its most commonly recognized form in the early 1990s, with the sounds of bands such as Man Is the Bastard, Crossed Out, Neanderthal, No Comment and Capitalist Casualties. Powerviolence groups took inspiration from Siege, SSD, Deep Wound, Neon Christ, Hirax, Impact Unit, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, Negative FX and Corrosion of Conformity.

Spazz vocalist and bassist Chris Dodge's record label Slap-a-Ham Records was a fixture during the rapid rise and decline of powerviolence, releasing influential records by Neanderthal, No Comment, Crossed Out, Infest, Slight Slappers, and Spazz. The label's Fiesta Grande was an annual powerviolence festival held at 924 Gilman from 1993 to 2000. Spazz drummer Max Ward's label 625 Thrashcore has started its own festival, Super Sabado Gigante, in a similar vein. While powerviolence is closely related to thrashcore (often referred to simply as "thrash"), the style is distinct from the thrash metal groups active in the same place, at the same time.