Metalcore; enough.

I'm starting to get sick of practically every band in this incestuous genre these days.

I'll always love the classics but I'm tired of hearing the same shit over and over and over..

Is someone forcing you to listen to this genre of music? Blink twice for yes.

I'm probably going to get made fun of for asking this....but what is metalcore? :(

It's a mixture of heavy metal and hardcore punk. [metal](core).

Well, sometimes. Being a metal subgenre, it too has many subgenres. It's honestly harder to explain than i thought...

@tommycallahan: what are some bands that could be called metalcore? This is honestly the first time I've heard that term before ?

I love metalcore. And like its Music there are a trillion bands out there if you don't like it find something new.

@giantlennonx_x: My favorites are Misery Signals and Shai Hulud. The popular ones you've probably heard of; As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage, Underoath, Every Time I Die... so on and so on.

I listen to a lot of different types of music tbh. I'm a huge hip-hop fan and old-school punk is what I grew up listening to leading up to me finding metalcore in middle school.

I don't know. I'm probably just bitching for no reason.

Metalcore is a hard genre to box like many others, since the styles vary so much. I like the newish wave, where the most famous is probably Architects. I especially like the bands Crystal Lake and Breakdown of Sanity. But yeah, hating metalcore as a whole is strange, since metalcore can be anything from something like Atreyu to I don't know.. say Lamb of God? To the aforementioned Architects. They don't sound at all alike. Not to mention the cousin genres like Deathcore and Mathcore and what have you.

@tothenines: I feel like an raving idiot trying to explain it to people who haven't heard the sound before lol

Also RIP Tom Searle.

Well, so much for not thinking about Bullet for my Valentine...

Bullet always felt more alt rock/metal to me. Same with A7X.

@tommycallahan: Yeah, defining metalcore with words is hard, well any genre is. A7X did have a metalcore phase heavily inspired by the melodic death scene in their early years. Seems every american metalcorish band in the early 2000's wanted to be In Flames on some level, or at least they loved a lot of the same riffs.

One thing that metalcore bands usually have more than any other genre is breakdowns, some bands use em more than others. "Breakdown Of Sanity's - The Writer" has like 4 breakdowns or something crazy, one might argue that the song is one long breakdown. Here is my favorite breakdown in recent memory though, it makes even 30 year old me want to move.

@tommycallahan: oh okay. I've heard of some of those bands. I just all put them in the category of heavy metal though honestly, sub genres seem kind of silly to me ?

@tothenines: My main draw to metalcore was the melodic nature of death metal mixed with the aggressive attitude of punk. I also tend to rest in the more mathcore realm because of how challenging it is.

But when it came to breakdowns; no one did it better than Danza :)

@giantlennonx_x: Honestly, I wish I could just throw them all in the same camp. But then everyone just wants to label it screamo. That shit is annoying.

Not that there's anything wrong with SKRAMS. That stuff is good if it's like united nations or city of caterpillar

You could always start listening to that djent. Isn't that what the extreme music kids are into these days? Periphery and the like?

Or just graduate to real metal. Have you listened to Death yet?

I still occasionally kinda like metalcore that leans more into metal-ish territory. Killswitch Engage might be cheesy, but they can still be pretty catchy sometimes.

Also Converge is still doing stuff, right?

Steven Wilson is the solution to all of your problems. You won't need any other music.

@justin258: Djent lol I had my time. I think it's on the same sinking ship. The fact that you think I don't know who the greatest death metal band was and ever will be insults me to my core (no pun intended). Killswitch was better with Howard and Converge is in my top 5 for sure.

@tommycallahan: I don't listen to alot of metal honestly, but my ex boyfriend introduced me to mastodon, and I listen to them on a fairly regular basis now. Both them and deftones (who I alsp really like) occupy the same space of music for me ^_^ I guess I don't really care for labels when it comes to music! :D

@flasaltine: Shit man. You've got a point there. Definitely hoping to see him or Porcupine tree (I know...) at least once before i die

@justin258 said:

There is love burning to find you so much right now.

@giantlennonx_x: Both extremely awesome bands :) especially Deftones. When I found out they were Alex's favorite band, it kind of all made sense why I love that little bastard lol

@facelessvixen: Would you say I have a Lack Of Comprehension? teehee

Is there a general metal discussion topic around here?

Forgive me I'm still lurker status at this point

Saw him in November. Worth it times 1000.

@giantlennonx_x: Sometimes labels are useful though, you might ask your partner to buy ketchup and he comes home with a brand you didn't like because you weren't specific enough. I feel like subgenres are there to help people navigate music better, though it's always confusing at first, I'll grant anyone that.

The best ketchup is the spicy ketchup from Whataburger. Heinz all day otherwise, for everyday situations. Fuck Hunts.

I miss Texas so god damn bad..

@flasaltine: See? Ketchup is serious business.

yeah, like others said maybe time to just spread out and find some new stuff. if its the aggressive punk stuff that you dig, try some of the others cousin of hardcore to start: thrash or grind maybe? Or maybe go more on the death side and do something like some black/death or death/doom?

Those were my gateways out of metalcore a ways back. i consider doom and black metal my favorite genres now, but i try to keep an open mind about what new i seek out now, and find a lot of what I listen to is more "metal-adjacent" now. Like my favorite band of all time right now is a "noir jazz" group called Bohren & Der Club of Gore. I'd have never thought i'd be listening to this at all, let alone it being my favorite band.

But yeah, definitely don't just stick with a genre just because that's what you're used to, especially when you are not satisfied with what the bands in that genre are putting out. seek out something new and fresh. maybe you just need a break from the same old stuff.

We had a heavy metal discussion thread that was occasionally bumped for a little while and then it died. I posted Trioscapes in there at some point for some reason. I don't think the mods would have a problem with bumping that thread - the anime and wrestling threads get bumped regularly - but please post something with discussion value! I don't want to see that thing die.

In the aforementioned discussion thread, there was a lot of mention of Death. I'd been listening to them long before that. I feel like that band has had something of a resurgence in the past few years? Or maybe that was just me broadening my metal horizons? Anyway, there was a long while where I alternated between Death and Opeth as my favorite metal bands and I eventually just gave up and started listening to some jazz (never fear, metal remains my favorite genre of music!)

Have either of you listened to Black Crown Initiate? I also want to plug Oceans of Slumber because I really like her singing and it works very well with the atmosphere they've got going, even though it doesn't sound like a voice you'd normally hear in metal.

Also worth noting that my tastes in metal and music in general have kind of calmed down a bit. Give me some of those slow passages around the blast beats, tremolo picking, and harsh vocals. I have to be in the mood to pull out the Black Dahlia Murders of the world.

Yeah, but metal genres and subgenres can get so ridiculously specific as to be useless and it's hard to find agreement on what something is. Nobody will argue that Atheist is technical death metal. I'd call The Human Abstract more metal than core any day of the week, but Metal Archives disagrees. When it comes to metalcore, Converge and Dillinger Escape Plan are metalcore, but so are Killswitch Engage and Protest the Hero doesn't fit in with any of them but it's still metalcore. I kinda just gave up at some point and somewhere in my mind it's kind of all either death metal, black metal, regular ass metal, or metalcore. Or thrash. Or hardcore. And beyond that I'm kinda just "eh, label it whatever you want to".

Mastodon was on Jimmy Kimmel! They've also been on Conan and Letterman. And Monsters University. They're not my favorite band but that's a hell of a thing for a metal band these days.

No mention of the most important metal band in existence, Parkway Drive... disappointed by the lot of you.

Don't @ me with your hate

Can every other genre stop trying to claim heritage from punk/hardcore? Any musician actually from the 80's hardcore scene would probably vomit if you mentioned them in the same breath as a band like Killswitch Engage.

whenever i get burned out on metal (and metalcore at times feels especially egregious in this regard; so many bands are focused on adhering to convention rather than push boundaries) i look for the HEAVY in other genres.

like HERE for example. (fair warning: that video is probably considered nsfw despite being very silly).

@nnickers: Thats a silly argument. Yes a band like I dunno, Discharge would probably hurl if you mentioned them along with Killswitch, but it doesn't change the fact that you can probably draw a direct line from them back to the early 80's hardcore scene, when it comes to their inspiration.

And thats coming from me, and I'm not that big of a Killswitch Engage fan or listener. I think I might like 1 song.

There was actually a pretty solid 'metal' thread that would randomly see sparks of life throughout last year. I always played with the idea of contributing myself but found it was more fun to watch the GB community talk about this music as it served as an excellent reminder that there are people outside of my chosen sphere of influence, and to see what they listen to.

As for Metalcore, I forget what wave we're on, but I was part of the mid-2000's one, where Victory records was king and I don't feel like a lot of bands in the genre afterwords have really justified their existence outside of the initial five or six year block I was listening to it. It's a genre that unfortunately felt doomed to recycle itself over and over again. Most of the -core bands I really came to like were the ones that later on jumped out of that genre, which of course was usually the opposite of what their fans wanted so I was the guy who would get really into latter-era stuff for some bands...just in time for their fans to turn on them. I did the same thing with the deathcore scene.

That new Zao album would like to have a word with you.

Really, though, there's so much good metal coming out literally all of the time that it seems pointless to complain about the stuff that you don't like. 2016 was absolutely insane for quality metal releases. Ulcerate, Bölzer, Neurosis, Sumac, Kvelertak, Bossk, Alcest, and Inter Arma all had amazing releases last year. Even the new Despised Icon was fantastic. This year, Amenra are releasing Mass VI, and Converge will release their new one, I'm sure. Seeing Neurosis, Amenra and Converge together on August 2nd which will likely be the greatest concert experience of my damn life. There's never been a better time to listen to metal.

Which old school? (seriously) 77 London, 80's US, 76 New York or like all the Proto stuff?

@justin258: I'm gonna hijack this thread to express my joy that the best British extreme/death/blackened death metal band are back:

Their new album isn't out yet but they did put out this demo:

Isn't that what thrash metal originally was back in the early 1980s?

@thepullquotes: Everything, I don't have a preference on scenes. Bad Brains has the most notable influence on me. Probably the first LP I ever bought was the yellow album on a friends recommendation. That being said, I like a lot of proto-punk (more recently) and post-punk as well.

I would list all my favorites but it would be way too long. Here's just some selections from the top 5:

Minor Threat's Self-Titled EP
Dead Kennedys' Fresh Fruit For Rotting Vegetables
Black Flag's Damaged (of course)
The Cure's Disintegration
Refused's Shape Of Punk To Come

I'm pretty sure I was just bitching guys. Chill. All your recommendations:

Black metal- I love me anything that sounds like Lantlos.
Doom metal - Here and there.
Born of Osiris - These are the kind of bands I'm taking about. "We have basically no ideas left, lets just remaster the shit we've already done." LAME.
Black Crown Initiate - Only in passing. They're pretty good.
Parkway Drive - First couple albums are good. Everything else is meh.
Sticky Drama - No thanks. I'll stick to Aphex Twin.
Zao - This is what made me realize I'm just being stupid. That album is gold.
Akercocke - Sounds like Extol. I like this.

@viking_funeral: Valid point.

@tommycallahan: Ever heard Send More Paramedics, there was a bit of a Thrash revival around 2004 (Bands like Consumed from the 90's were more punk than thrash) in the UK that time which meant you had these punks and metalheads forming these crossover bands, we had some post hardcore, that was great, but more on the easy side. (Reuben, Hundred Reasons) it's weird to say, but often looking at an international attempt at a scene that is more common to you on a national level can really show you some new things.

Like we all know 94-98 was Ska Punk in the US, but The UK also had a wave, with bands like Howards Alias, Lightyear, Capdown and Shootin' Goon. Bands that have a very different sound to Third Wave Ska's common assumption of a sound, but still that third wave, it's just where US 3rd wave was bouncing off UK Two Tone + Trad and like early 90's punk, UK Ska was more like a combo of Two Tone, Hardcore, and mid 90's punk. so breakdowns with fucking aggressive sax parts. we had a lot of bands that were both ska bands and chasing that New Noise.

Point is Genre's are the be all end all, and also absolute bollocks, being able to pin point the sound you're after is the real benefit of specific Genres.

Capdown were fucking massive here(local, but not to them) and they were the first songs I downloaded with Napster, and the first band I'd support, at a proper gig (like seven years later).

Botch will always be the ultimate anything-core band to me. Also lmao at people who say 'real metal'. Wish I could be so fucking boring that I only like 'real' anything.

@alexw00d: I should note that I didn't mean for that to be taken seriously. Besides, I mentioned liking Killswitch Engage somewhere in this thread.