UK82
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UK82 is the harsher second wave of British punk: faster drums, shouted gang choruses, buzzsaw guitars, spiky production and street-level lyrics about war, unemployment, police, class and nuclear dread. It is less art-school than 1977 punk and more relentless than oi!, often pushing toward hardcore, crust and D-beat. The name signals both a period and a sound: early-1980s Britain under pressure, turned into speed and distortion.
History
Discharge, GBH, The Exploited, Broken Bones, The Varukers, Chaos UK, Vice Squad and Anti-Nowhere League made UK punk louder, faster and more apocalyptic after the first wave. Compilations, anarcho-punk networks, punk squats and independent labels carried the sound across Europe and into global hardcore. UK82 directly influenced crust punk, D-beat, street punk, thrash metal and extreme metal because its riffs and drum patterns were already halfway to metal's later aggression.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Burning Britain UK punk history
- Discharge and GBH biographies
- Punk 45 compilation notes
- AllMusic UK hardcore overview