Metalcore
Metalcore | |
---|---|
Stylistic origins | Crossover thrash[1] Hardcore punk Heavy metal Thrash metal Youth crew[2] |
Cultural origins | Late 1980s, United States |
Typical instruments | Electric guitar − Bass guitar − Drums (double kick) |
Subgenres | |
Mathcore (complete list) | |
Fusion genres | |
Melodic metalcore, deathcore | |
Regional scenes | |
Massachusetts - New Jersey - New York | |
Other topics | |
Breakdown - Punk metal |
Metalcore is a fusion genre incorporating elements of hardcore punk and extreme metal. The name is a portmanteau of heavy metal and hardcore punk. The term took on its current meaning in the mid-1990s, describing bands like Earth Crisis, Merauder, Deadguy and Integrity.[3] The earliest of these groups, Integrity, began performing in 1989.[4] Metalcore is distinguished from other punk metal fusions by its emphasis on breakdowns:[5] slower, intense passages conducive to moshing.[6]
History
Precursors (1977–1984)
Black Flag[7] and Bad Brains,[8] among the originators of hardcore, admired and emulated Black Sabbath. British street punk groups such as Discharge and The Exploited also took inspiration from heavy metal.[9] The Misfits began to borrow from Motörhead, becoming a crucial influence on thrash.[10] Nonetheless, punk and metal cultures and music remained separate through the first half of the 1980s.
Crossover thrash (1984–1988)
Cross-pollination between metal and hardcore eventually birthed the crossover thrash scene, which gestated at a Berkeley club called Ruthie's, in 1984.[11] The term "metalcore" was originally used to refer to these crossover groups.[12] Hardcore punk groups Corrosion of Conformity,[13] Dirty Rotten Imbeciles and Suicidal Tendencies[14] played alongside thrash metal groups like Metallica and Slayer. This scene influenced the skinhead wing of New York hardcore, which also began in 1984, and included groups such as Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, Agnostic Front[15] and Warzone.[16] The Cro-Mags were among the most influential of these bands, drawing equally from Bad Brains, Motörhead, and Black Sabbath.[17] Cro-Mags also embraced straight edge and, surprisingly enough, Krishna consciousness.[18] Other New York straight edge groups included Gorilla Biscuits, Crumbsuckers, and Youth of Today,[19] who inaugurated the youth crew style.[20] 1985 saw the development of the hardcore breakdown, an amalgamation of Bad Brains' reggae and metal backgrounds,[6] which encouraged moshing. Agnostic Front's 1986 album Cause for Alarm, a collaboration with Peter Steele, was a watershed in the intertwining of hardcore and metal.[21]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/6d/Converge_009.jpg/220px-Converge_009.jpg)
Metallic hardcore (1989–2000)
Between 1989 and 1995, a new wave of metalcore bands emerged.[22] These included Integrity,[23] Earth Crisis,[23][24] Converge,[24] Starkweather, Judge, Bloodlet,[24] Strife,[23] Rorschach, Cave In,[25] Vision of Disorder,[25] Hatebreed,[23][25] and Candiria.[25] Integrity drew influence primarily from the hardcore of The Cro-Mags and the thrash metal of Slayer, with more subtle elements of Septic Death, Samhain, Motörhead, and Joy Division.[26] Earth Crisis, Converge, and Hatebreed[27] also borrowed from death metal.[28] Earth Crisis's 1995 album Destroy the Machines was particularly influential.[29] In guitarist Scott Crouse's words,
It was a very mixed reaction. I'm often misquoted as saying Earth Crisis was the first hardcore band with a metal sound. Of course we weren't the first, but I think we definitely took it to another level. We heard a lot of, 'These guys are trying to be Pantera,' which we all took as a great compliment![29]
Biohazard, Coalesce,[30] Shai Hulud and Overcast were also important early metalcore groups. These groups are sometimes referred to as "metallic hardcore".[31][32]
Melodic metalcore | |
---|---|
Stylistic origins | Metalcore (metallic hardcore era) Melodic death metal Post-hardcore |
Cultural origins | Late 1990s, North America and United Kingdom |
Typical instruments | Electric guitar − Bass guitar − Drums (double kick) |
Fusion genres | |
Deathcore | |
Regional scenes | |
Australia - Germany - Massachusetts - Russia | |
Other topics | |
Breakdown - Punk metal |
Melodic metalcore (1997–present)
In the late 1990s, a third wave of metalcore groups appeared, who placed significantly greater emphasis on melody. Such bands as Unearth, Bullet for My Valentine, As I Lay Dying, Trivium, Avenged Sevenfold, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Underoath, Sonic Syndicate and Atreyu[33] [34] are the most commercially successful practitioners of metalcore. Other notable metalcore bands include The Autumn Offering, The Devil Wears Prada, Haste the Day, Darkest Hour, Poison the Well, Parkway Drive, In This Moment[35]. These groups took major influence, cues, and writing styles from melodic death metal bands, particularly In Flames and At the Gates.[35][33] Melodic metalcore frequently makes use of clean vocals,[36][37][38] and is significantly less dissonant than other metalcore. Some of these groups, such as Shadows Fall, have voiced an affection for '80s glam metal.[39] Melodic metalcore groups have been described as "embrac[ing] '80s metal clichés", such as "inordinate amounts of smoke machines, rippin' solos, [and] three bass drums".[34]
In the mid-2000s, metalcore emerged as a commercial force, with several independent metal labels, including Century Media and Metal Blade, signing metalcore bands. By 2004, melodic metalcore had become popular enough that Killswitch Engage's The End of Heartache,[40] and Shadows Fall's The War Within[41] debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart. Welsh metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine's second album, Scream Aim Fire, went straight to #4 on the Billboard 200.[42] Underoath's album Define the Great Line, released in 2006, peaked at #2 on the Billboard 200 charts.[43] Hatebreed, God Forbid, and As I Lay Dying have also charted.[44][45][46] Underoath's most recent album Lost in the Sound of Separation has reached #8 on the Billboard 200 and has sold 56,000 copies in its first week of sales in the U.S. alone. Also, Killswitch Engage's newest album "Killswitch Engage" has reached #7 on the Billboard 200.
Characteristics
![]() | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008) |
Instrumentation
Metalcore bands generally feature two electric guitarists lead and rhythm guitars who often play fast riffs with dual leads.[citation needed] The harmonies are usually very simplistic, and the harmony is often just a third played over a very simple root part on the minor scale. Bassists usually follow the rhythm guitar.[citation needed] The drummer usually performs using double-kick or double-bass drums.
Vocals
Vocals in metalcore are often unclean and became common among many 1990s metalcore groups.[citation needed] Today many metalcore groups combine unclean vocals with clean vocals.[36]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/f/f6/Zao_US_band.jpg/220px-Zao_US_band.jpg)
Ideologies
Metalcore initially emerged from the milieu surrounding youth crew hardcore, with many of the groups adhering to straight edge beliefs (that is to say, abstention from drugs and alcohol), though Integrity was a notable exception.[47] Earth Crisis proselytized for veganism and animal rights, which had an enduring effect on numerous bands, including Converge.[48] Converge was also notable for their focus on personal anguish and experiences of failed romantic love.[49] One Life Crew and other skinhead hardcore groups,[50] were controversial for their right-wing political beliefs.[51] Dwid Hellion, frontman of Integrity, advocated the "Holy Terror Church of Final Judgment", an outlook related to Satanism.[1] Several members of contemporary melodic metalcore groups are practicing Christians: Zao[52], As I Lay Dying,[53] Underoath[54] and Norma Jean[55] are the most famous examples.
Subgenres
Mathcore
Mathcore (also called Chaotic Hardcore, Schizophrenic Hardcore, Technical Hardcore, Experimental Hardcore) began with the mid-'90s work of Converge[56], Botch[57][58] and The Dillinger Escape Plan[59]. The term mathcore is suggested by analogy with math rock. Mathcore is characterized by speed technical riffing, and unusual time signatures.[60][61] Bands such as Ion Dissonance,[62] Fear Before the March of Flames,[63] Protest the Hero, and The Number Twelve Looks Like You[64] are additional examples of mathcore bands.
Deathcore
Deathcore, is an amalgamation of metalcore and death metal[65]. The genre was pioneered by Despised Icon[66], Job for a Cowboy and The Red Chord in the early years of the 21st century. While remaining a subgenre of metalcore, deathcore is heavily influenced by death metal in its speed, heaviness, and approach to chromatic, heavily palm muted riffing, dissonance, and frequent key changes[citation needed]. Deathcore often features breakdowns and melodic riffs[65]. Other examples include As Blood Runs Black, Through the Eyes of the Dead, Whitechapel, The Red Shore, Dead To Fall, Bring Me The Horizon, Suicide Silence, Carnifex, All Shall Perish, With Blood Comes Cleansing and Germany's Heaven Shall Burn[67].
References
- ^ a b "Blood Runs Deep: 23 Bands Who Shaped the Scene". Alternative Press. July 7, 2008. p. 110.
- ^ Christopher Pearson, "Beer and Loathing in New Jersey: Earth Crisis in Concert", January 20, 1999 [1] Access date: June 20, 2008
- ^ "Shai Hulud, interview with Punknews.org - 05/28/08". Retrieved 2008-09-21.
As far as coining the term "metalcore" or coining a sound, I don't think we did. 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 than the average hardcore band. My friends and I would always refer to them as "metalcore" because it wasn't purely hardcore and it wasn't purely metal. It was like a heavier hardcore band with hardcore ethics and attitude but clearly a metal influence. So we would joke around and say "Hey, it's metalcore. Cool!" But it was definitely a tongue-in-cheek term.
- ^ "Blood Runs Deep: 23 Bands Who Shaped the Scene". Alternative Press. July 7, 2008. pp. 110, 118.
- ^ "The best part of every metalcore song is the breakdown, the part where the drums drop out and the guitars slow their frantic gallop to a devastating, precise crunch-riff and everyone in the moshpit goes extra nuts." - Tom Breihan. "Status Ain't Hood". "Live: Trivium, the Jackson 5 of Underground Metal". The Village Voice Daily Voice. October 11, 2006. [2] Access date: July 21, 2008.
- ^ a b "Mosh style was slower, very tribal – like a Reggae beat adapted to Hardcore. [...] It was an outbreak of dancing with a mid-tempo beat driven by floor tom and snare." - Howie Abrams, Blush, p. 193
- ^ Blush, American Hardcore, part 2, "Thirsty and Miserable", p. 63, 66
- ^ Andersen, Mark and Mark Jenkins (2003). Dance of Days: Two Decades of Punk in the Nation's Capital. "Postive Mental Attitude". p. 27. Akashic Books. ISBN 1888451440
- ^ Glasper, Ian (2004). Burning Britain: The History of UK Punk 1980-1984. Cherry Red Books. p. 5. ISBN 1901447243
- ^ Blush, "Hits from Hell", American Hardcore, p. 204
- ^ Blush, p. 115
- ^ Felix von Havoc, Maximum Rock'n'Roll #198 [3] Access date: June 20, 2008
- ^ Blush, p. 193
- ^ Christe, Ian: Sound of the Beast: The Complete Headbanging History of Heavy Metal (2003), p. 184
- ^ Blush, p. 186
- ^ Blush, p. 188
- ^ Blush, p. 189
- ^ "Cro-Mags were the first band to attract both Skinheads and Metalheads audiences; their music at the point where Hardcore nihilism met Metal power." Blush, p. 189
- ^ Blush, p. 194
- ^ Alternative Press, July 7, 2008, p. 109
- ^ Blush, p. 192
- ^ "Blood Runs Deep: 23 Bands Who Shaped the Scene". Alternative Press. July 7, 2008. pp. 110, 118.
- ^ a b c d "here the term (metalcore) is used in its original context, referencing the likes of Strife, Earth Crisis, and Integrity ...", Ian Glasper, Terrorizer no. 171, June 2008, p. 78
- ^ a b c Mudrian, Albert (2000). Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore. Feral House. ISBN 193259504X. p. 222-223
- ^ a b c d Ross Haenfler, Straight Edge: Clean-living Youth, Hardcore Punk, and Social Change, Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813538521 p. 87-88
- ^ "It was this simple formula that's single-handedly responsible for every band you hear combining heavy metal and hardcore today." "Blood Runs Deep: 23 Bands Who Shaped the Scene". Alternative Press. July 7, 2008. p. 110.
- ^ Hatebreed cites Entombed and Bolt Thrower. Q&A with Jamey Jasta, Miami New Times, May 27, 2008. [4] Access date: June 22, 2008
- ^ Karl Buechner of Earth Crisis cites Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, and Obituary as prime influences. Mudrian also discusses Converge and Bloodlet and their relationship to death metal. See Mudrian, Albert (2000). Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore. Feral House. ISBN 193259504X. p. 222-223
- ^ a b Gabriel Cardenas Salas, "Blasts from the Past," Terrorizer 180, February 2009, p. 96.
- ^ The History of Rock Music: 1990-1999
- ^ "EXCLUSIVE INTERVIEW WITH SHAI HULUD GUITARIST MATT FOX". Retrieved 2008-10-09.
When we used to joke with the term, it was just a clever (or not so clever) way of describing a metallic hardcore, metal-influenced hardcore, or hardcore-influenced metal band.
- ^ J. Bennett, "Converge's Jane Doe, Revolver, June 2008
- ^ a b Allmusic Review, Atreyu, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses [5] Access date: June 24, 2008
- ^ a b "Taste of Chaos", Revolver, June 2008. p. 110.
- ^ a b Metal Injection, August 28, 2007 [6] Access date: June 24, 2008
- ^ a b Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses review [7]
- ^ Metalrage, 12/30/07 [8] Access date: June 24, 2008
- ^ El Paisano, 9/12/07 [9] Access date: June 24, 2008
- ^ Dan Epstein, "The Brewtal Truth", Revolver, Nov. 2004, p. 65
- ^ The End of Heartache at Billboard.com
- ^ [10] at Blabbermouth.net
- ^ Scream Aim Fire at Billboard.com
- ^ [11] at Billboard.com
- ^ Supremacy at Billboard.com
- ^ Perseverance at Billboard.com
- ^ Sacrament at Billboard.com
- ^ "Blood Runs Deep: 23 Bands Who Shaped the Scene". Alternative Press. July 7, 2008. pp. 110, 118.
- ^ Kaban, Tyson. "Eat Your Veggies". Vue Weekly. Retrieved June 8 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=
ignored (help) - ^ Interview with My Penis, Revolver, June 2008. p. 114
- ^ Blush, p. 192
- ^ Ferris, D.X. "The Godfather of Cleveland Hardcore". Cleveland Scene. Retrieved June 8 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Check date values in:|accessdate=
(help); Unknown parameter|dateformat=
ignored (help) - ^ Cogdale, Russ (2005-01-28). "Zao's music abrasive yet spiritual" (Interview). Retrieved 2008-07-08.
{{cite interview}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|program=
ignored (help) - ^ FAQ - As I Lay Dying
- ^ Chamberlain, Spencer; Gillespie, Aaron (2006-07-17). "Interview With Underoath" (Interview). Retrieved 2008-01-28.
{{cite interview}}
: Check date values in:|date=
(help); Unknown parameter|program=
ignored (help) - ^ http://www.crossrhythms.co.uk/articles/music/Blessing_the_Martyrs/8026/p1/
- ^ "Converge biography". Rockdetector.com. Retrieved 2007-08-23.
- ^ Botch - We Are The Romans Review
- ^ San Francisco Bay Guardian : Article : The Gap's attack on kids
- ^ TV3 > News > Story > Mathcore band the 'Dillinger Escape Plan' visit NZ
- ^ Events for this weekend in New York
- ^ http://www.thebatt.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticle&ustory_id=57c9a7c1-3b7d-4def-97f1-3783659abe8c
- ^ http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1543586/20061019/index.jhtml?headlines=true
- ^ "Fear Before The March Of Flames Bio" The Gauntlet. Retrieved on August 3, 2008.
- ^ Miller, Kirk. "The Number Twelve Looks Like You: Put on Your Rosy Red Glasses - You know, the kind Bootsy Collins wears..." Decibel Magazine. Retrieved on August 3, 2008.
- ^ a b lambgoat.com "This is deathcore. This is what happens when death metal and hardcore, along with healthy doses of other heavy music styles, are so smoothly blended..."
- ^ metalinjection.net Cosmo Lee: "...All Shall Perish...Alienacja (Poland), Despised Icon (Montreal), and Whitechapel (Knoxville, TN)... They’re all textbook “deathcore,” fusing death metal and hardcore punk.
- ^ Eduardo Rivadavia. "Heaven Shall Burn Biography". Allmusic. Retrieved 2008-05-31.
69. March 9 issue of Guitar World lists All Shall Perish as Deathcore, in the article titled "Death Squad."
Bibliography
- Haenfler, Ross. Straight Edge: Clean-living Youth, Hardcore Punk, and Social Change, Rutgers University Press. ISBN 0813538521
- Mudrian, Albert (2000). Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore. Feral House. ISBN 193259504X
- Sharpe-Young, Garry (2005). New Wave of American Heavy Metal. Zonda Books. ISBN 0958268401