The "core" thread

There seem to be quite a few metalcore enthusiasts around here. Hardcore in general seems to be a genre frequently frowned upon by "true" metalheads. Metalcore/Deathcore/Mathcore get a lot of bad press because of that - people label it an immature, trendy musical mutant.  I love good whatevercore. If well executed, it's much more powerful and energetic than typical metal, some bands like to play it the catchier and epic way (Killswitch Engage, All That Remains), some keep it br00tal (Despised Icon, All Shall Perish). There are also quite a few experimental bands, who started off as whatevercore and wandered off into experimental territory (The Dillinger Escape Plan, Converge). Core comes in many shapes and sizes. Feel free to share your favourite bands/albums.

My top 5 (in no particular order) at the moment would be:

Killswitch Engage - The End of Heartache
All Shall Perish - Awaken the Dreamers
The Dillinger Escape Plan - Ire Works
Parkway Drive - Horizons
Despised Icon - The Healing Process

Oh and I don't know if you know this but Despised Icon unfortunately broke up

Despised Icon are still gonna play shows until 2011, so they're not dead yet. It is a shame, though - They are one of those bands that make really awesome deathcore.  If All Shall Perish decide to disband I'm gonna go and shoot a few people, since those are my fav deathcore bands hands down.

People love subgenres, Time Signature . But I do understand the problem. It's trendy to play whatevercore, the kids love it! 

You know, in the Roman dialect core means 'heart' (it's cuore in standard Italian), so anything with 'core' in it tends to be the butt of jokes. I do like 'whatevercore' as a word quite a lot!

ed_the_dead wrote: People love subgenres, Time Signature . But I do understand the problem. It's trendy to play whatevercore, the kids love it!

Yeah, if they didn't love -core subgenres, I guess there wouldn't be so many of them.

Beekeeper wrote: ed_the_dead wrote: There seem to be quite a few metalcore enthusiasts around here. Hardcore in general seems to be a genre frequently frowned upon by "true" metalheads. Metalcore/Deathcore/Mathcore get a lot of bad press because of that - people label it an immature, trendy musical mutant.  ...and it isn't? Bands have been mixing hardcore and metal for decades, crust punk bands like amebix moved towards thrash metal territory, bands like S.O.D. incorporated hardcore elements into thrash to make crossover, some black metal bands lately have been moving toward crust punk and then you have grind which is pretty much the logical extension of hardcore incorporating elements of death metal as well. All those changes are pretty natural and logical progressions where elements of metal and hardcore have blended together fairly spontaneously. Metalcore isn't a very natural hybrid at all, it's not an entity residing along a logical musical progression like crossover thrash or grindcore, It's fairly artificially concocted when you think about it. Seems like metalcore bands just take melodic metal then add in angsty vocals and breakdowns to make it more accesible to young people. I have yet to see much/any evidence to the contrary.

 

I really don't care for metalcore, which is strange because I absolutely love BTBAM. For the most part I can appreciate post hardcore bands though. Something about them seems more genuine than any -core band IMO.

Harry wrote: topofsm wrote: I really don't care for metalcore, which is strange because I absolutely love BTBAM. For the most part I can appreciate post hardcore bands though. Something about them seems more genuine than any -core band IMO. BTBAM isn't really metalcore though. The last 3 albums are definitely much more in the deathcore vein, which is practically the same as death metal, just more noisy, dissonance and more of a tendency to have breakdowns.

What? With regards to being more noisy and dissonant I don't think that's true at all, have you ever heard Gorguts? Pretty much all death metal has very dissonant riffs in fact it's probably one of the defining characteristics of death metal (note: obviously not melodic death metal). And more noisy? really? I wouldn't have thought so especially when you take into consideration that 'noise' is primarily a result of production. Considering deathcore is a very modern genre the majority of deathcore releases are highly compressed and well producued and in general pretty clean.

To illustrate:

Deathcore: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iEM9W14TsWQ

Death Metal: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zkwsC1zsqEU

From what I've seen the main differences are that deathcore has breakdowns and favours angsty shouts over lower register guttural and growling vocal styles.


Edited by Beekeeper - 11 Apr 2010 at 7:17am

^That's what I think of with TGM, not necessarily any other album. While the compositional techniques BTBAM uses aren't really metalcore, their riffs seem firmly rooted in it, especially when you mix in the breakdowns.