By the late 1980s, the genre had begun to merge with hardcore punk, typified by Electro Hippies, Extreme Noise Terror and Doom.

During the 1990s, this sound was continued by Swedish and Japanese bands including Skitsystem, Driller Killer, Disclose and Gloom, while other areas brought in outside influences such as Dystopia with sludge metal, His Hero is Gone with powerviolence and Choking Victim with ska.

[1] In a 2007 interview with 3PRQ, the band's vocalist and guitarist Rob Middleton stated "We came up with the 'stenchcore' tag on our demo as kind of a joke as there were so many ridiculous 'cores' going about at the time and people used to comment on our general dishevelment."

This term has stayed in use, however has developed from referring to the genre as a whole, to mean the particular mid–tempo, early extreme metal-influence sound of crust punk's first wave such as Deviated Instinct, Amebix and Antisect.

[13] In the same book, he quoted the group's vocalist and guitarist Malcolm "Scruff" Lewty "A lot of people say we started the crust punk genre, but whatever.

[1] Crust punk was established by the bands Amebix and Antisect, who both growing out of the anarcho-punk scene and made use of dark, morbid and post-apocalyptic imagery.

[1] This early wave of the genre was closely related to the nascent extreme metal scene, with the members of Amebix and Hellhammer even being in the same tape trading circles, influencing one another.

The largest of these was the Swedish crust punk and d-beat scene which early on produced Anti Cimex and Agnoni, who both quickly toured the United Kingdom.

The group emerged from the Lower East Side squat scene and New York hardcore,[18] living with Roger Miret of Agnostic Front.

[19] The early work of Neurosis, from San Francisco, also borrowed from Amebix, and inaugurated crust punk on the West Coast.

[25] In this period, the ethos of crust punk became particularly codified, with vegetarianism, feminism, and sometimes straight edge being prescribed by many of the figures in the scene.

[25] The powerviolence scene associated with Slap-a-Ham Records was in close proximity to crust punk, particularly in the case of Man Is the Bastard and Dropdead.

[26] Prominent crust punk groups (Driller Killer, Totalitär, Skitsystem, Wolfbrigade, and Disfear) also emerged from Sweden, which had always had a strong D-beat scene.

By the band's final album The Plot Sickens (1998), they had begun to incorporate influence from the Japanese hardcore style burning spirits, to create a more grandiose and melodic take on crust punk.

[35] Notable bands within the genre include Choking Victim, Leftöver Crack, Morning Glory and Star Fucking Hipsters.

Crustcore bands include Extreme Noise Terror, Doom, Disrupt,[1] early Wolfbrigade,[36] Neurosis,[37] Baptists,[38] Discharge[39] and Filth.

[42] The genre makes use of a melancholic tone and a post-civilization aesthetic, often including dead trees and barren landscapes, as well as poetic band names and lyrics.

This style was soon termed neo-crust by Alerta Antifascista records founder Timo Nehmtow, and saw widespread popularity in the punk scene during the mid–2000s.

As Daniel Ekeroth wrote in 2008, In a very ironic paradox, black metal and crust punk have recently started to embrace one another.

[61][62][63][64] Artists labelled RABM include Iskra, Panopticon, Skagos,[64][65] Storm of Sedition,[58] Not A Cost,[58] Black Kronstadt,[58] and Vidargangr.

[60] Crust punk led to the development of the grindcore genre, by bands including Extreme Noise Terror, Napalm Death and Carcass.

[5] However, Pete Hurley, the guitarist for the group, declared that he had no interest in being remembered as a pioneer of this style: "'grindcore' was a legendarily stupid term coined by a hyperactive kid from the West Midlands, and it had nothing to do with us whatsoever.