The Fall of Deathcore
 

Some call it the future of metal, others call it the death. Regardless, no one can deny the monstrosity that deathcore has become. In the past year, the former fringe genre has exploded into the single most saturated genre in metal. On the wave of this influx have ridden a number of misconceptions concerning deathcore. As an avid hardcore and metal fan, it brings me great pain--and anger--to see the term being applied to any and every band.

Deathcore--in my opinion--was established by bands such as ASP, pre-Malice TTEOTD, pre-Animal Animosity, ABRB, and a few others. These bands infused metalcore with death metal influence. ASP brought the guitar solo to metalcore, something not many bands in the genre did. TTEOTD, Animosity, and later ABRB brought death metal style riffing and song construction to metalcore, as well as the blastbeat--I can't think of many metalcore bands before them that used the blast. These bands also began to adopt death metal style vocals, that is, darker, lower register growls, rather than the higher register shrieks and cookie monster growls of metalcore. However, they retained the breakdown and two-step devices from metalcore.

Deathcore was still relatively underground; I only stumbled upon it through hxcmp3.com, from which I downloaded a couple TTEOTD songs--keep in mind, this was four or five years ago, maybe more. I had been listening to metalcore for quite awhile; but this sounded different, and I liked it.
I delved into the genre a bit, discovering Animosity and ASP, who expanded the musicianship of the genre.

Then came JFAC, specifically, "Entombment of A Machine". Now, I am not a metalhead, but I blame this song for the explosion of deathcore. I can't even remember how I came across it, but again, I had heard nothing like it*. By "it" I mean the "bree", or "pig squeal" approach to vocals (ASP had used it some, but sparingly enough to where I hadn't considered it a separate style of vocal). Somehow, this song spread like wildfire, at least in the circles I knew. The breakdowns appealed the metalcore kids, and the furious rif***e appealed the metalheads. Copycat bands began springing up everywhere, jumping on the Breewagon.

Fast forward two years, to present day. Very few bands are producing true deathcore. A term more appropriate to today's scene is mosh metal. Bands such as Suicide Silence, Whitechapel, UTG, AOAA fall under this category--a genre I also call Spacecore, for obvious reasons. Every band is the same; musicianship and originality has been thrown to the wind. Generic riffs are recycled over and over, as are generic breakdowns. Everybody and their mom plays mosh metal; and somehow, the kids love it. Ten more bands spring up everyday; even their names are formulaic, seemingly made with a Mad Lib: "(noun) From A (noun)", "(noun) After (noun)", "(noun) For A (noun)", etc. Oh, and alliteration is a must.

But I'm straying away from the music itself. My point is, deathcore is dead. The **** that's being put out now by clone bands like The Argent Dawn, Here Comes The Kraken, Knights of the Abyss is mosh metal. Just as importantly, stop applying the term "deathcore" to bands like The Acacia Strain.
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What do you guys' think? Is deathcore dead, or is it merely changing? Do you think this new style of music is different enough to receive its own label?





* I know now that this style, along with the--what I call--burping style of vocals had been used much earlier in brutal death.

deathcore is so 2006. get with the times, man. it's deathfuzz now. Times New Viking own your f'kin' soul.

There are new sub genres evry week in metal and consequently others get over saturated. This is noting new in the metal scene. NWOBHM, Power, thrash, speed, nu etc etc. Things go in cycle and sometimes come back again. The main reason is that it is so difficult to sound different to an over saturated scene full stop. I am not for one minute saying that there are only generic bands out there, but sub genres come and go.

I'm not particularly familiar with this genre. What do all the acronyms stand for?

ASP = All Shall Perish
TTEOTD = Through the Eyes of the Dead
ABRB = As Blood Runs Black
JFAC = Job For A Cowboy
UTG = Underneath the Gun
AOAA = Annotations of An Autopsy

KK I know what you're talking about now.

Edit* Job For a Cowboy is from my city woot!

I think the deathcore has now been assimilated into what I like to call "Scene Grind". A general term for metalcore/mosh style deathcore or grindcore. There are like hundreds of these bands that just use the same metalcore riffs over brees and insane yelling. That is where deathcore has gone. Only the few real deathcore bands exist to continue it until its true death. Until the originators stop making interesting deathcore, the genre still has its place.

I disagree with you, in that a very small fraction of these bands incorporate actual grind elements. Blastbeats do not equal grindcore, nor do fast tempos, short song lengths, or changeups.

br00t4lty = all you'll ever need in life.

Why after over 20 years of listening to metal am I still finding the same old arguments about the qualities neccessary to belonging to a certain sub genre of what essentially sounds the same?

No don't kid yourselves people. One form of metal is no different to the other, only in tempo or guitar pitch. The delinanation between genres is minimal. It always has been and always will.

Twenty years ago kid's were arguing about who had the heaviest riffs and who belonged to what particular flavour of the day sub genre. It has'nt changed one bit. The only difference is that there is even more sub genres to argue about and pigeon hole.

We need general genre classifications to differentiate of that there is no doubt but some of the criteria that is needed to be a a part of a particular scene is ridiculous.

Many metal fans should drop this pathetic pretence that what they are listening to is new and exciting and different to the other metal out there. GUESS WHAT? It is'nt!

It's a retreading of ideas and formulas that have been around for over 30 years.

The odd band will come through and have a different approach and have something different to say, but in general it is sad to see the genre in virtually the same state as it was 20 years ago.