Since its birth in the 80’s, the Death Metal genre has taken all kinds of turns and has branched out in several directions. In 2008 there are many different subcategories of the Death Metal genre. From Melodic Death to Technical Death, this loud and ferocious style that came from grungey bar basements in England and garages in Florida has evolved tremendously and given so many listening options to its legions of fans. However, one of these newer iterations has got “old school death metal” fans’ blood boiling. That style is Deathcore. The bastard child of the late 90’s - early 00’s tough guy, breakdown-laden Hardcore and fairly generic Death Metal. As of right now in the world of metal, Deathcore is the new craze for young, casual fans. These bands have taken the throne from other “Fuck You Metal” bands like Slipknot and now control their legion of pissed off fans age 16-27 (roughly). And of course, there are huge arguments all over the net about which bands get classified as Deathcore. Lets try to get to the bottom of this, shall we?

As I mentioned above, breakdown based Hardcore was one of the genres that lead to the creation of Deathcore. In fact, those breakdown bands are FAR more influential to Deathcore than actual Death Metal has ever been. Bands like Bury Your Dead and Death Before Dishonor paved the way for the Deathcore movement to explode. So who were the emerging bands that started this genre? The Acacia Strain, The Red Chord and Through The Eyes Of The Dead were three big names. At the time, people were calling them Hardcore bands. They aren’t now, and never have been Hardcore bands. So the world of metal looked back at the creation of the Metalcore genre and basically said “Ok so this has death metal growls but contemporary ‘Hardcore’ elements, lets just slap the name Deathcore on them.” Frankly, I think the Deathcore name is a misnomer and full of bands that don’t belong there. Of the three bands that emerged as the creators of Deathcore, all but one still belong there: The Red Chord. While they still toe that line every so often, their latest release has shown FAR more experimentation and expertise than anything released by those other two bands (The Acacia Strain and Through The Eyes Of The Dead). Another issue is that many new Death Metal bands are getting thrown into the the Deathcore genre because they are young and play a newer style of death metal that isn’t familiar to the old school ear. Here are a few and of course, my two cents attached.

Job For A Cowboy - The fact that people consider Job For A Cowboy to be Deathcore is preposterous. While many old school Death Metal fans may not like them, Job For A Cowboy is straight up Death Metal. While it may sound a bit different than Suffocation or Dying Fetus, its still Death Metal. I would guess that MOST JFAC haters are saying this because they have been picked to be the next Slipknot. Their t-shirts are at Hot Topic and any metalfest is loaded with high school aged kids with JFAC shirts on. Metalheads hate kids at shows and will hate the bands they like, just to say they do. I used to be that way and dislike this band a lot. But I took a step back and didn’t pay attention to that BS and find that I actually really enjoyed them. When it comes down to it, they have all of the elements of Death Metal and negligible Hardcore elements. If you don’t like JFAC, fine. But don’t just throw them into the Deathcore genre because you’re lazy and want to group them in with other bands that you don’t like.

The Faceless - Simply put, The Faceless are one of the best bands around today, period. Akeldama was a tremendous rookie release and Planetary Duality is a fantastic follow-up. Their technical prowess is unmatched by a band of their age and their song writing is impeccable. Just because they all don’t have long hair is no reason to hate them. If you like Technical Death Metal in the vein of Necrophagist, Spawn Of Possession and Psycroptic, The Faceless will be your new favorite band.

All Shall Perish - Ok, now we have an aberration: A so-called Deathcore band that got it right and sounds cool. All Shall Perish has found their niche and do what they do very well. While I am not a fan of music that is reliant on breakdowns, All Shall Perish mixes in varied vocals, impeccable guitar work and pretty badass breakdowns. Are they a Deathcore band? Because of the breakdowns, yes. Are they better than most other real Deathcore bands? Absolutely.

Animosity - Yet another technically proficient band that doesn’t rely on breakdowns that ultimately gets balled up in the Deathcore genre. I’ve seen this band three times now and they just keep getting better. They aren’t really pure Death Metal but they are closer to that than Metalcore or Hardcore. Think of them like Converge and a Death Metal band mixed together. I don’t know what you’d call it, but not Deathcore.

So you’re probably asking yourself, what bands are Deathcore then? Very simple:

Emmure, Vanna, Ligeia, Born Of Osiris, Despised Icon, With Blood Comes Cleansing, Through The Eyes Of The Dead, The Acacia Strain, Trap Them, White Chapel and many, many more.

Beyond categorizing this young genre and trying to get things straight, my main point of this article is to like what you like and not to just toss around what you don’t. Doing something like that is just a sign of laziness and disrespect. In recent weeks here on AMR there has been a discussion about liking/disliking a band for its fashion or look. You shouldn’t dislike a band for its look. While I think the guy in Five Finger Death Punch who wears the Kung-Fu garb looks retarded, thats no reason not to like them. However, 5FDP sucks musically and that’s why I don’t like them (just to clarify). Just because the Death Metal bands of 2008 may not have long hair and be hulking beasts, doesn’t have anything to do with the music at all and should not reflect on why you like or dislike them. But for many people out there, it does. And while I hope my little article here will open somebody’s eyes, I don’t see the trend changing and that is unfortunate.

Written by COLE