The genre expanded in the 1980s and 1990s with releases by bands from cities that had established hardcore scenes, such as Fugazi from Washington, D.C.[4] as well as groups such as Big Black, Jawbox, Quicksand, and Shellac that stuck closer to post-hardcore's noise rock roots.
[4] Music database AllMusic stated "These newer bands, termed post-hardcore, often found complex and dynamic ways of blowing off steam that generally went outside the strict hardcore realm of 'loud fast rules'.
"[4] AllMusic also claims that post-hardcore bands find creative ways to build and release tension rather than "airing their dirty laundry in short, sharp, frenetic bursts".
[4] Jeff Terich of Treblezine stated, "Instead of sticking to hardcore's rigid constraints, these artists expanded beyond power chords and gang vocals, incorporating more creative outlets for punk rock energy.
Naked Raygun's Jeff Pezzati and Effigies frontman John Kezdy have disputed this classification, however, insisting that neither band was drawing from hardcore, and were instead influenced by British punk and post-punk acts like Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, and the Stranglers.
[12][13] Los Angeles' Saccharine Trust mixed Minutemen's sound with that of post-punk acts the Fall and Gang of Four on early releases like their EP Paganicons, helping to further the burgeoning genre.
[19] The band's music, punctuated by the use of a drum machine, has also been seen as influential to industrial rock,[19] while Blush has also described the Albini-fronted project as "an angst-ridden response to the rigid English post-punk of Gang of Four".
[25] Outside the United States, post-hardcore would take shape in the works of the Canadian group Nomeansno,[26] related with Jello Biafra and his independently run label Alternative Tentacles, and that had been active since 1979.
[29][35] Rites of Spring has been described as the band that "more than led the change",[29] challenging the "macho posturing that had become so prevalent within the punk scene at that point", and "more importantly", defying "musical and stylistic rule".
[41][45] The former's music contained, according to Steve Huey, "shifting dynamics, chiming guitar arpeggios, and screaming, crying vocal climaxes",[46] which would prove to be influential to later musicians in spite of the band's unstable existence.
[31] The band, which included MacKaye, Picciotto, and former Rites of Spring drummer Brendan Canty along with bassist Joe Lally, issued in 1989 13 Songs, a compilation of their earlier self-titled and Margin Walker EPs, which is now considered a landmark album.
[47] On the other hand, Jawbox had been influenced by "the tradition of Chicago's thriving early-'80s scene",[51] while the Nation of Ulysses are "best remembered for lifting the motor-mouthed revolutionary rhetoric of the MC5" with the incorporation of "elements of R&B (as filtered through the MC5) and avant jazz" combined with "exciting, volatile live gigs", and being the inspiration for "a new crop of bands both locally and abroad".
Steve Huey argues that the release of Cap'n Jazz's retrospective compilation album Analphabetapolothology helped spread the band's influence "far beyond their original audience", while also considering the group as influential for the development of emo in the independent music scene.
[80] These bands were influenced by acts like Fugazi and The Nation of Ulysses, while also helping propagate an offshoot of hardcore that "grafted spastic intensity to willfully experimental dissonance and dynamics".
[81] The label also featured releases by non-San Diego bands that included Mohinder[78] (from Cupertino, California), Angel Hair and its subsequent related project The VSS[78] (from Boulder, Colorado), groups that have also been associated with this sound.
[78] This group, founded by former members of Pitchfork, was known, according to Steve Huey, for their lengthy and multisectioned compositions based on the innovations brought by the releases on Dischord, incorporating elements such as "odd time signatures played an important role on its development in spite of the band's music not resembling the sound such term would later signify.
[84] According to Ian MacKaye, the sudden interest in underground and independent music brought by the success of Nirvana's Nevermind attracted the attention of major labels towards the Dischord imprint and many of its bands.
[92] In John Franck's review of Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Silence for Allmusic, he stated: "Featuring extraordinary ambidextrous drummer Sammy Siegler (of Gorilla Biscuits/CIV fame), Glassjaw has paired up with producer/entrepreneur Ross Robinson (a key catalyst in the reinvention of the aggro rock sound) to take you on a pummeling ride that would make Bad Brains and Quicksand proud.
Moment defining bands like Modern Baseball, the Hotelier and Joyce Manor all gained significant success in the underground, a new takes on post-hardcore became prominent with the sonic experimentation of Drug Church, Title Fight, The World Is a Beautiful Place & I Am No Longer Afraid to Die and Citizen.
[96][97] The name was originally coined to refer to only Touché Amoré, La Dispute, Defeater, Pianos Become the Teeth and Make Do and Mend, however by 2014 had expanded to also include groups Balance and Composure, Into It.
[98] In 2011 Alternative Press noted that La Dispute is "at the forefront of a traditional-screamo revival" for their critically acclaimed release Wildlife,[99] while a 2014 article by Treble called Touché Amoré "the one band carrying the sound forward in the most interesting ways".
Seen also is the emergence of independent post-hardcore bands like the Men, Cloud Nothings and METZ, who are moved closer to the dynamics and aesthetics of earlier acts, whilst diverging deeper into external influences.
[104][105][106][107] Reviewers have also noted the incorporation of a diversity of elements like krautrock, post-rock, sludge metal, shoegaze,[104] power pop[106] and no wave[108] in addition to previous hardcore, noise rock and post-punk sensibilities.