The "core" thread

It's proably me who's incompetent, but I am incapable of drawing a clear line between melodic metalcore bands and melodic thrash metal and melodic death metal bands.

It seems to me to be more like a continuum from Ax7 and Killswitch Engage over Shadows Fall and God Forbid and In Flames to Arch Enemy, "Heartwork"-era Carcass and At The Gates (the last couple of albums). I guess, to me, it's all just metal that blends melody and aggression, and then there are just different degrees of emphasis on one or the other. What I like about melodic so-called metalcoreand melodic thrash- and death metal is how eclectic the artists operating within those genres are. They really manage to take the best of different genres and styles of metal.

As to death metal vs. death core - I'm sure it's possible to draw a continuum from genre to the other, which seems to be what DeathOfSeasons is indicating with the reference to The Red Shore.

Good music is good no matter what subgenre it is and it has geniune fans as well as trend followers.   Sure theres a cool factor in liking core; but equally some people only like death metal or true metal because they think its cool. The problem isnt the music, its the fans.      ...And its not much of a problem, its extra money, support and public awareness for metal and rock as a whole.

Time Signature wrote: It's proably me who's incompetent, but I am incapable of drawing a clear line between melodic metalcore bands and melodic thrash metal and melodic death metal bands.

And now, three years later, I definitely have become much more competent at telling the difference - and I am increasingly getting bored with metalcore and deathcore bands, because the genre seems so formulaic. A lot of the bands sound alike, but there are, of course, some outstanding and groundbreaking acts within the genre.

ed_the_dead wrote: Hardcore in general seems to be a genre frequently frowned upon by "true" metalheads.

I actually think that hardcore is more respected in the "true" metalhead community than metalcore, deathcore and similar subgenres are.