In the '90s, Seattle was closely identified with grunge, but not every Seattle-based ock act that emerged in the '90s had a grunge or post-grunge outlook. Seattle's Himsa, for example, has never sounded anything like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, the Stone Temple Pilots, or the Foo Fighters. Formed in the late '90s, Himsa is a ferocious, punishing, harsh metalcore band. The name Himsa is a play on the Sanskrit word "ahimsa," which refers to peace and nonviolence. (Historians have often noted that civil rights activist Mahatma Gandhi, a Hindu, was a firm believer in ahimsa, as was Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., who considered Gandhi his hero and was influenced by Hinduism even though he was a Protestant minister -- and members of the Hare Krishna sect have often asserted that they promote vegetarianism because they believe that killing animals for food goes against the ahimsa principle.)

By dropping the "a" from ahimsa, Himsa is saying that their sound is the opposite of peaceful. The Pacific Northwesterners aren't actually promoting or encouraging violence, but they are saying that they have a violent sound -- which is certainly true. Musically, Himsa's metalcore is unapologetically vicious. While metalcore is the band's orientation, Himsa draws on a variety of metal and punk influences and has incorporated elements of hrash metal, power metal, death metal/black metal, grindcore, and, of course, hardcore (metalcore is a style that takes hardcore to the extreme). The list of bands that Himsa's admirers have cited as influences is a long one; it's a list that ranges from Slayer, Obituary, Megadeth, and Sepultura to the Cro-Mags to power metal favorites Iron Maiden and Judas Priest. But while there are traces of Maiden and Priest in some of Himsa's guitar parts, those British bands are considerably more melodic and intricate -- and even though Slayer's brutal hrash/death metal assault is a strong influence on Himsa's playing, Slayer doesn't have the sort of growling, screaming, larynx-ripping, satanic-style vocals that one gets from Himsa.