2003: The Origin of Deathcore

As much as we here at AMR tend to short change or downright bash the sub-genre known as deathcore for all it’s  run of the mill crapola it tends to seep out onto the metal world, and the resulting sustainable popularity of said crapola within our community, it’s hard to deny it has had a lasting, persistent effect on metal. So, as an appreciator of metal as a whole and it’s many avenues of evolution, I have decided write up a brief origin story of the earliest two albums I could discover that could identify as modern deathcore.

First and foremost, props have to be given to Dying Fetus who are really the “Faith No More” of the deathcore movement. Their combination of modern hardcore and death metal has had a dramatic impact on the movement, to the point that they are almost revered as Gods by deathcore kiddies who sport Dying Fetus shirts much like goth kiddies did 10 years ago with the likes of Cradle of Filth. Dying Fetus is a great band, and last year’s album Descend Into Depravity was a highlight death metal album of the year, so these guys should feel honored that they have kind of become the highlight of an entire movement.

Despite Dying Fetus’ influence, I don’t think they can be classified as “deathcore”, which to me, is a complete death metal transformation of the metalcore movement with modern hardcore breakdowns, chugga chugga riffs, and downtuning. Obviously this description of deathcore is a bit basic, but this is exactly how to describe it; it’s as if some dudes playing metalcore suddenly realized that Napalm Death, Dying Fetus, Cephalic Carnage and Suffocation were cool, so much so that they began to form their core sound around the tenets set forth by these  extreme death metal greats.

The first two bands I have discovered to make this transformation, are California’s All Shall Perish and Animosity, both of whom released their debut records in 2003. All Shall Perish released Hate.Malice.Revenge in 2003 on Amputated Vein Records, and represented one of my favorite death metal records at the time, and really, still holds up for it’s unbridled brutality and incredible gutterals courtesy of Craig Betit, who almost single handedly laid the groundwork for modern deathcore gutterals with “pig squeals” (which were prior used by underground goregrind bands to great effect) and high yielding screams. I have yet to see on the Internet a true tribute to Craig Betit and the band that really paved the way for brutal death metal combining metalcore’s primal breakdowns and rhythms.

Next up was Animosity’s Shut It Down, released only a few months after Hate.Malice.Revenge, and while it doesn’t have as much brutality and vocal elements as later deathcore could contain, this is most certainly one of the earliest examples of pure metalcore making the transition to a much heavier element much like Possessed did for early death metal in the 80’s.

To many modern metal fans, 2003 probably doesn’t seem like that long ago to be engaging in a retrospect, but 7 years is a long time in metal! Consider for a moment the history that transpired in metal from 1983 to 1990, that 7 years introduced thrash metal, black metal, death metal, grindcore, modern hardcore, stoner metal, etc; essentially the largest progression in metal happened in under 10 years, so really looking back 7 years ago from 2010 to 2003 is an absolute necessity for continuity sake. We, as fans, need to know where our history comes from, and deathcore, whether we love it or hate it, is a major part of that history. So as true connoisseurs of metal, do yourselves a favor and check out these albums. Do you disagree with my selections? Leave a comment!

CODY