shelter (band)

thought id come on here to yap abt one of my current favorite bands, Shelter. 

lets start with some background. in the mid-late 80s, a subset of the hardcore scene in new york city, called the youth crew, was thriving. these were straight edge bands with more positive lyrics; like youth of today, gorilla biscuits, and chain of strength. 



at the same time, the hare krishna movement (sect of hinduism) was having a boom in NYC. John Jospeh from hardcore band Cro-Mags got into it. It spread to the scene from there, with Youth of Today member Ray Cappo discovering it and becoming involved. he shared it with his best friend and bandmate, John Porcelly. They both became devout Hare Krishnas and wanted to make music reflecting their passion. But... they still loved hardcore, and many of the young people getting into hare krishna did too. and thus, in 1991, shelter was born. 



Shelter was still hardcore like youth of today, but included religious imagery and lyrics. their most popular song, Message of the Bhagavat, is a reference to the Bhagavata Purana,one of hinduism's sacred texts. This song also includes hindu chanting, creating an iconic intro. To anyone outside the hardcore scene, it was totally bogus that tough looking NYHC guys were singing about krishna and using chants in their songs, which makes shelter truly unqiue.



Shelter also kickstarted what some call Krishnacore. Some other krishnacore bands are 108, prema, and Baby Gopal.