Early history in Europe

The Netherlands, Finland, Sweden, and Germany have had notably active hardcore scenes. However, in the United Kingdom, street punk (also known as UK hardcore) bands such as The Exploited, Disorder, Discharge and Chaos UK occupied the cultural space that American-style hardcore did elsewhere. These UK bands at times showed a musical similarity to American hardcore, often including quick tempos and chord changes, and they generally had similar political and social sensibilities. However, they represented a case of parallel evolution, having been musically inspired by Oi! bands such as Sham 69, and the speed metal band Motörhead.

Discharge played a huge role in influencing early Swedish hardcore bands, such as Anti Cimex. Many hardcore bands from that region still have a strong Discharge and Motörhead influence.

Anarcho-punk bands such as Crass, Icons of Filth, Flux Of Pink Indians and Rudimentary Peni shared an uncompromising political philosophy and an abrasive aesthetic with American hardcore.

Many American hardcore punks listened to British punk bands, but others upheld a strict regionalism, deriding the UK bands as rock stars and their fans as inauthentic. American hardcore bands that visited the UK (such as Black Flag and U.S. Chaos in 1981-1982) encountered ambivalent attitudes. European hardcore bands suffered no such prejudice in the U.S.; Italian bands Raw Power and Negazione, and the Dutch BGK, enjoyed widespread popularity.

In the more underground part of the UK punk scene, a new hardcore sound and scene developed, inspired by continental European, Scandinavian, Japanese and American bands. It was started by bands like Asylum and Plasmid, and their sound – only heard at concerts and on demo tapes and compilations in the mid 1980s – evolved into metal bands such as Heresy, Napalm Death and Extreme Noise Terror.

There were many 1980s bands that could be described as sounding like something in between the styles of the dominating UK and US bands. While the bands that had the most significant influence were bands such as Discharge and Charged GBH, others, such as The Stupids (a UK band influenced by US hardcore) gained brief but widespread college-radio airplay in the US.

Other notable bands from that era in Europe were Crise Total (Portugal), Wretched, H.H.H., MG-15, Subterranean Kids, L'Odi Social, Ultimo Gobierno (Spain), Vorkriegsjugend, Spermbirds (Germany), U.B.R. (Former Yugoslavia), Heimat-Los (France), Lärm, Funeral Oration (Netherlands), Dezerter (Poland), Kaaos, Lama, Riistetyt, Terveet Kädet, (Finland), Headcleaners, Homy Hogs and Mob 47 (Sweden).

Examples of European bands that continued to play the original style of hardcore in the 1990s include Voorhees, Totalitär, Disfear and Sin Dios. After the fall of the Iron Curtain in eastern Europe, many hardcore bands were created or became more publicly known (after hiding in garages and being known only by small circles of underground fans).