Melodic Metalcore

A common misconception that I see advertised across less-cultured corners of the online metal community is that "metalcore is not metal." This is astonishing to me, considering the differences between Lady Gaga and, say... Converge. If anyone tries to look me in the eyes and claim that Converge isn't metal because of the suffix -core, that may prompt a punch to the gut. So why did this misconception become so widespread? Well it is due, in part, to the arrival of melodic metalcore. Commonly used synonymously with metalcore, melodic metalcore is actually quite different from its predecessor.

If metalcore, sometimes known now as "metallic hardcore" to make up for this genre confusion, is hardcore punk with metal tendencies, then melodic metalcore is metal with hardcore tendencies. Taking influence particularly from thrash metal and melodic death metal, melodic metalcore is a much more technically proficient, musically-minded substitute in comparison to metalcore's raw, chunky riffage and aggressive beatdowns. While maintaining the hardcore-influence through midtempo breakdowns, melodic metalcore focuses significantly more on standard song structures and have choruses in which clean vocals are used.

The genre began in the late '90s with bands like Shadows Fall, Darkest Hour, Unearth, All That Remains, God Forbid, Prayer for Cleansing, and Killswitch Engage, but it took until the early 2000s for these bands to really gain traction and release their now-quintessential works. The style boomed after this early surge of bands, with major releases and relatively mainstream success coming from subsequent bands such as Atreyu, As I Lay Dying, Avenged Sevenfold, Parkway Drive, Trivium, August Burns Red, and Bullet for My Valentine, among others. It's here where our core misconception was established. Progressive metalcore bands like Protest the Hero, Between the Buried and Me, SikTh, and The Human Abstract also began to arrive on the scene.

A handful of these bands, most notably Atreyu and Bullet for My Valentine, made use of whinier, more emo-tinged clean vocals, often singing of lyrical themes more prevalent in emo, pop punk, and post-hardcore such as breakups. This would continue on as the genre became more and more popular: the late 2000s brought bands like The Devil Wears Prada, A Day to Remember, Bring Me the Horizon, blessthefall, and Asking Alexandria into the fray, which, combined with the onset of things such as Warped Tour, resulted in a wave of "scene" listeners, primarily of a younger audience. This negatively associated the genre with the "teenybopper label," despite many of the bands that had originated the style still being relatively respected and enjoyed by "true metalheads." It is important to note that public reception and subjective opinion has no legitimate correlation to musical quality, as I enjoy many of the bands that are considered "non-metal" by elitist crowds.

Recommended '00s melodic metalcore listening:
1. Killswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing (2002)
2. Shadows Fall - The Art of Balance (2002)
3. Unearth - The Oncoming Storm (2004)
4. Protest the Hero - Kezia (2006)
5. Darkest Hour - Deliver Us (2007)

The 2000s also brought about two significant subgenres of melodic metalcore. The first to surface was nintendocore, an offshoot of melodic metalcore that took influence from video game music, particularly chiptune and bit music. It often is a melting pot of melodic metalcore, post-hardcore, mathcore, and noise rock sensibilities, with bands sometimes being far more abrasive than many of their melodic metalcore counterparts. Lyrical themes are often gaming references, and full of tongue-in-cheek early internet-era humor. The most popular of these artists would have to be HORSE the Band, though others such as Sky Eats Airplane, Totally Radd!!, Iamerror, I Shot the Duck Hunt Dog, Heccra, and Random Encounter.

Recommended nintendocore listening:
1. Totally Radd!! - Shark Attack Day Camp (2004)
2. Sky Eats Airplane - Sky Eats Airplane (2006)
3. HORSE the Band - Desperate Living (2009)
4. Monomate - Grand Battle (2010)
5. Heccra - Heccra-Kazooie (2013)

The other, more prominently-featured melodic metalcore offshoot of this time was trancecore. Sometimes referred to as electrocore, electronicore, and most infamously crabcore, trancecore mixed aspects of melodic metalcore with trance, pop punk, synthpop and a plethora of other genres as well. Being rooted in electronic dance music, trancecore was far more accessible and catchy than some of the earlier waves of melodic metalcore (and most metal in general). As a result, many of the bands blew up in popularity such as Enter Shikari, Attack Attack!, We Came as Romans, The Word Alive, Asking Alexandria, I See Stars, Crossfaith, and Jamie's Elsewhere.

Recommended trancecore listening:
1. Enter Shikari - Take to the Skies (2007)
2. Attack Attack! - Someday Came Suddenly (2008)
3. We Came as Romans - To Plant a Seed (2009)
4. Asking Alexandria - Stand Up and Scream (2009)
5. The Word Alive - Deceiver (2010)

In the 2010s, melodic metalcore began to tie itself closer to its metallic hardcore relative. Bands that had previously or concurrently established themselves as hardcore-influenced metal acts also found ways to include melodic choruses and passages, blending the styles in a seamless fashion. Among these were While She Sleeps, Erra, Architects, Wage War, Phinehas, Bury Tomorrow, Miss May I, Ice Nine Kills, and melodic hardcore giants Counterparts. Other lesser-known artists took the reigns on developing their own sounds such as Silent Civilian, Malrun, and Times of Grace. Many giants of the genre jumped ship in favor of more alternative metal-centric sounds such as All That Remains and Avenged Sevenfold, but others continued to grow and thrive in their own ways, with Parkway Drive and August Burns Red laying considerable claim on the metalcore community at large.

Recommended '10s melodic metalcore listening:
1. While She Sleeps - This is the Six (2012)
2. August Burns Red - Rescue & Restore (2013)
3. Erra - Augment (2013)
4. Architects - All Our Gods Have Abandoned Us (2016)
5. Counterparts - Nothing Left to Love (2019)

As quickly as "true metal fans" are to discredit music that's catchy or appeals to a wider audience, melodic metalcore stands as a testament as to why progression in music doesn't always mean becoming more underground. Listening to death metal and black metal bands like Cannibal Corpse or Mayhem, one would never really guess that metal-related things could ever reach as wide of an audience as these melodic metalcore bands have. Music serves to inspire, to reach out with whatever message the listener needs to hear. To some, Avenged Sevenfold's Waking the Fallen may be a first step towards a life of metal listening. I know it was mine. Without these bands to bridge the gap between popular music and underground metal, a good chunk of today's modern fanbase may not exist. It's up to music like this to continue to innovate, to initiate a wake of new metal listeners.

Note: Hello all! It's bittersweet to inform you all that this is the last entry of Zach Buddie's Guide to Metal... It seems as though I've covered, in a general sense, all there is to cover. Of course, there's always going to be more music, there will always be bands that I miss, and there will always be new innovation that could lead to all-new genres! But for now, it's time for me to continue onward. With that being said, I might take up another project: a guide to alternative music, of sorts. I've been getting into a lot more post-punk, dream pop, shoegaze and the like... perhaps I'd take on that challenge sometime. Who's to say? But for now, thank you all so very much for reading, I hope you've enjoyed listening to things you may not have listened to before!
~Zach