Punk Metal

Punk metal is the umbrella term for the fusion of punk rock and heavy metal that formed in the early 1980s, when hardcore bands absorbed metal's speed and technique and metal musicians adopted punk's DIY economy. Its core is crossover thrash, the style named by *D.R.I.*'s "Crossover" and defined by *Suicidal Tendencies*, *Corrosion of Conformity* and the *Cro-Mags*, but reference works extend the term across the whole family of punk-metal hybrids, from grindcore and crust to metalcore and sludge. The shared markers are shouted vocals, breakneck tempos, down-picked riffs and a scene infrastructure of independent labels and all-ages shows.