Genre of music
Metalcore is a broadly defined fusion genre combining elements of extreme metal and hardcore punk, that originated in the late 1980s. Metalcore is noted for its use of breakdowns, which are slow, intense passages conducive to moshing, while other defining instrumentation includes heavy and percussive pedal point guitar riffs and double bass drumming. Vocalists in the genre typically perform screaming; more popular bands often combine this with the use of standard singing, usually during the bridge or chorus of a song. However, the death growl is also a popular technique within the genre.
In the late 1980s to early 1990s, pioneering bands such as Integrity, Earth Crisis and Converge, whose hardcore punk-leaning style is sometimes referred to as metallic hardcore, were founded. These bands took influence from a range of styles and genres such as hardcore punk, thrash metal and death metal. During the decade, the genre diversified, with Converge, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch and Coalesce pioneering mathcore, while Overcast, Shadows Fall and Darkest Hour merged the genre with melodic death metal to create melodic metalcore. During the early 2000s, melodic metalcore bands such as Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine and Parkway Drive found mainstream popularity. In the subsequent years, the genre saw increased success through social networking on Myspace and internet memes such as crabcore. During this time, artists began to draw influence from a wide variety of sources, which led to genre cultivating a plethora of fusion genres including electronicore, deathcore, Nintendocore, progressive metalcore and nu metalcore. In the 2010s and through to the 2020s, the genre saw even greater commercial success, with albums by Bring Me the Horizon, Architects, Asking Alexandria, the Devil Wears Prada and Of Mice &amp; Men penetrating the top 10 of international albums charts.
Characteristics.
Metalcore fuses elements of hardcore punk and extreme metal, and is known for its use of breakdowns. Jon Weiderhorn of Loudwire stated that early metalcore bands' breakdowns were influenced by death metal.
Metalcore singers typically perform screaming, a vocal technique developed in the 1980s and characteristic of 1990s metalcore. Later metalcore bands often combine this with the use of standard singing, usually during the bridge or chorus of a song. The death growl technique is also popular.
The instrumentation of metalcore includes heavy guitar riffs often utilizing percussive pedal tones, stop-start rhythm guitar, double bass drumming, and breakdowns. Drop guitar tunings are often used. Most bands use tuning ranging between Drop D and A, although lower tunings, as well as 7 and 8 string guitars, are not uncommon. Drummers typically use a lot of double bass technique and general drumming styles across the board. Blast beats are also heard at times. According to author James Giordano, "tempos in metalcore tend to be slower than those found in thrash metal". Many later metalcore bands would include guitar solos in songs.
Many 2000s metalcore bands were heavily inspired by melodic death metal and used strong elements of melodic death metal in their music. Malcolm Dome of "Revolver" wrote that without melodic death metal band At the Gates' 1995 album "Slaughter of the Soul", "modern American metalcore (everyone from As I Lay Dying and Killswitch Engage to All That Remains and the Black Dahlia Murder) wouldn't even exist." Graham Hartmann of "Loudwire" wrote "Although metalcore broke in the early 2000s, listening to At the Gates' 1995 album feels like a Nostradamus-esque prediction of how metal would evolve."
Etymology.
The term "metalcore" is a portmanteau of the words "metal" and "hardcore", and was originally tongue-in-cheek. During the 1980s, "Maximumrocknroll" had used early variations of the term, referring to Richmond band Black Pyramid as "heavy-metal core" in February 1985; Oxnard band False Confessions as "metal-core" in December 1985; Mesa band Desecration as "death metal core" in May 1986; and Austin band Last Will as "ghoulish metal/core" in December 1986.
When the metalcore genre began in the 1990s, it was largely known as "metallic hardcore".
According to "Loudwire", Shai Hulud guitarist Matt Fox "is often cited as someone who assisted in popularizing the word [metalcore]". However, in a 2008 interview, Fox claimed the term had already been in use before his band began releasing music. He recalled: ;templatestyles src="Template:Blockquote/styles.css" / ;"There were bands before Shai Hulud started that my friends and I were referring to as 'metalcore.' Bands like Burn, Deadguy, Earth Crisis, even Integrity. These bands that were heavier than the average hardcore bands. These bands that were more progressive [...] my friends and I would always refer to them as 'metalcore' because it wasn't purely hardcore and it wasn't purely metal [...] so we would joke around and say, 'Hey, it's metalcore. Cool!' But it was definitely a tongue-in-cheek term."
Alternatively, Jorge Rosado of Merauder claimed in 2014 interview that he and his band coined the term.
History.
Precursors: 1980s.
Many of the originators of hardcore punk took influence from the sound of heavy metal, including Black Flag, the Bad Brains, Discharge and the Exploited, Furthermore, during the 1980s many genres originated merging the two styles, including crust punk, sludge metal and crossover thrash. Nonetheless, punk and metal cultures and music remained fairly separate through the 1980s.
Bands in the New York hardcore scene in particular put a significant emphasis on the influence of metal, building their own take on hardcore, based around groove-driven, palm muted guitar riffs. Early on, this scene saw the development of the hardcore breakdown, an amalgamation of Bad Brains' reggae and hardcore backgrounds, which encouraged moshing. It was this New York-style hardcore that metalcore grew directly out of.
Origins: 1990s.
One of the earliest metalcore scene was that of Cleveland, Ohio. Fronted by Integrity and Ringworm, the sound of bands in the scene was distinctly darker than what the genre would become. Integrity's debut album "Those Who Fear Tomorrow " (1991) merged hardcore with apocalyptic lyrics and metal's guitar solos and chugging riffs to create one of the primeval albums in the genre. "Revolver" magazine writer Elis Enis stated that the album "influenced practically every breakdown that's been recorded since". Whereas, Ringworm's debut "The Promise" (1993) made use of a style closer to crossover thrash while also putting a heavy emphasis on breakdowns. The term "holy terror" refers to this specific style of metalcore which Integrity and Ringworm pioneered. The style is typified by soaring guitar leads, gravelly vocals and lyrics discussing western esotericism.
Philadelphia's Starkweather were also an important early metalcore band, with their album "Crossbearer" (1992) which merged early metal's grooves and dark atmospheres with elements of hardcore. Rorschach also pioneered a distinctly dissonant and noise-influence niche into this early metalcore sound, which would go on to define noisecore and mathcore.
In 1993, Earth Crisis released "Firestorm", a song which became one of the most influential in metalcore. The band's militant vegan straight edge ethic and emphasis on chug riffs saw them immediately influence a wave of subsequent bands and gained coverage by major media outlets like "CNN", "CBS" and "MTV". The EP the song was a part of was also one of the earliest releases by Victory Records who go on to be a defining part of the metalcore scene in the coming years, through releasing many of the style's most successful albums.
Boston, Massachusetts too developed an early metalcore scene, led by Overcast who formed in 1990. Much of this scene were based around Hydra Head Records, which was founded by Aaron Turner after moving to Boston. Converge were one of the earliest and most prominent groups from the city, formed in 1990. Using Rorschach's music as their sonic template, the band's experimental attitude, emotional lyrics and attention to dynamics led to them becoming one of the most influential bands in the genre. Converge, along with Morris Plains, New Jersey's the Dillinger Escape Plan and Tacoma, Washington's Botch were three of the founding acts in the style's mathcore subgenre, with Kansas City, Missouri's Coalesce and New Brunswick, New Jersey's Deadguy being prominent acts transitioning towards the style. Converge's guitarist Kurt Ballou opened the recording studio GodCity Studio in 1998, and would go on to record many of the most influential subsequent hardcore records from the city.
New York City's Merauder released their debut album "Master Killer" in 1996, merging the sounds of metalcore, earlier New York hardcore and the newly emerged beatdown hardcore style. Of the album, "Revolver" writer Elis Enis stated "any self-proclaimed 'metallic hardcore' band of the last 25 years is indebted to "Master Killer"'s steel-toed stomp." Along with All Out War, Darkside NYC and Confusion, Merauder were a part of a wave of bands defining a newer, increasingly metallic style of hardcore in New York that had long been one of the epicentres of the genre. Long Island's Vision of Disorder were also a prevalent band in the scene, being one of the first bands to incorporate clean singing into the genre, which would soon become a staple, as well as incorporating elements of nu metal. In a 2005 article by "Billboard" magazine, writer Greg Pato stated that "with seemingly every local teen waving the VOD banner circa the mid/late '90s, it seemed as though it was only a matter of time before VOD would become the band to take 'metalcore' to a massive audience".
Bridgeport, Connecticut's Hatebreed released their debut album "Satisfaction is the Death of Desire" in 1997. The album helped the band achieve underground success, selling 158,000 copies, according to Nielsen SoundScan, and holds the record for Victory Record's best selling debut album. The band's style merged classic hardcore with beatdown and metalcore, while also overtly referencing metal bands like Slayer. In a 2015 "Metal Hammer" article, writer Stephen Hill stated "The difference between Hatebreed and many of their influences is that where a band like Madball were happy to co-exist with metal bands without feeling like they were part of the same scene, Hatebreed actively went out of their way to become the hardcore band metal fans listen to." Other influential metalcore bands of the time include Shai Hulud, Zao and Disembodied.
Orange County, California metalcore band Eighteen Visions contrasted the metalcore scene's usual hyper masculine aesthetic of "army and sports clothes" with "skinny jeans, eyeliner and hairstyles influenced by Orgy and Unbroken". This visual style led to the band being called "fashioncore". Jasamine White-Gluz of "Exclaim!" wrote that Eighteen Visions look "more like a boy band than a popular hardcore group. Critics tag the band for putting fashion at the centre of their music, but it adds a playful and interesting touch to a band that sounds much tougher than it looks." A scene of bands in Orange County including Bleeding Through, Avenged Sevenfold and Atreyu continued this in Eighteen Visions' wake, and influenced emo and scene fashion in the coming decade.
As the decade drew to a close, a wave of metalcore bands began incorporating elements of melodic death metal into their sound. This formed an early version of what would become the melodic metalcore genre, with Shadows Fall's "Somber Eyes to the Sky" (1997), Undying's "This Day All Gods Die" (1999), Darkest Hour's "The Prophecy Fulfilled" (1999), Unearth's "Above the Fall of Man" (1999), Prayer for Cleansing's "Rain in Endless Fall" (1999) being some of the style's earliest releases. CMJ writer Anthony Delia also credited Florida's Poison the Well and their first two releases "The Opposite of December... A Season of Separation" (1999) and "Tear from the Red" (2002) as "design[ing] the template for most of" the melodic metalcore bands to come.
Mainstream success: 2000s.
Converge's "Jane Doe" was released on 4 September 2001 to universal critical and fan acclaim. The album influenced the development of the sound of other U.S. bands like Norma Jean and Misery Signals as well as international acts like Eden Maine, Johnny Truant and Beecher.
Blake Butler of "Allmusic" stated that Converge "put the final sealing blow on their status as a legend in the world of metallic hardcore" with the album, calling it "an experience -- an encyclopedic envelopment of so much at once." "Terrorizer Magazine" named it their 2001 Album of the Year, and it was named the greatest album of the 2000s by "Noisecreep", "Sputnikmusic" and "Decibel".
Douglasville, Georgia's Norma Jean and the Chariot were both influential artists continuing metalcore's earlier sound into the 2000s. Norma Jean's "O' God, the Aftermath" (2005) was Grammy award nominated for Best Recording Package and the Chariot's "Long Live" (2010) was