Album Rating: 2.5

Lol wow. All of those bands are not "good Metalcore"?



I'm sorry but that is a horrendous take.

Album Rating: 4.0

I’d like to add Polaris (Australia), Currents and Crystal Lake to your list, but i remember your stance on Crystal Lake.

Album Rating: 2.5

The 'progressive' sound has been firmly grounded in djent riffs and basic chugs with occasional sweeps or solos thrown into the mix in order to sound 'original' and distract from the fact that not much is actually happening. Song structures are typically linear, plagued by breakdowns, and dominated by screaming tenor vocals that blend into each other after listening to them for years on end.



There are obviously exceptions to the rule--I enjoy Napoleon (rip), Afterimage's debut (also rip), and Invent/Animate (I guess these examples are all dead)--but for the most part it is shockingly generic considering the 'progressive' label.



Those that enjoy something like this will be comfortable with that kind of style, and that's fine, more power to ya. But I cannot understand the appeal. Dismissing acts like Noise Trail and Rolo Tomassi is pretty poor considering they actually are pushing the genre in new directions, whether that direction appeals to you or not.

Album Rating: 4.0

"The 'progressive' sound has been firmly grounded in djent riffs and basic chugs with occasional sweeps or solos thrown into the mix in order to sound 'original' and distract from the fact that not much is actually happening. Song structures are typically linear, plagued by breakdowns, and dominated by screaming tenor vocals that blend into each other after listening to them for years on end."



I don't agree with this stance at all, that's a pretty bottlenecked way of looking at the genre

Album Rating: 2.5

Time and time again that is all that it boils down to though. Perhaps there are more technical releases, sure, but they flaunt that technicality as obnoxiously as would a modern tech-death band. I've tried all of the supposed champions of the scene and they all fall flat under any degree of scrutiny.



Like I said, that approach has an appeal to some, but it's not one I can perceive. Much like deathcore it is shackled by cliches.

hard agree metalcore is in a much better spot than deathcore right now. idk what bands would make anyone say otherwise.

Album Rating: 4.0

I don't hear a lot of bands wave around their technicality flag unnecessarily, a lot of the flair sounds genuine and a fluid addition to the overall sound. As for the chugging, yea you can argue that a lot of bands use it as a foundation but a lot of the more acclaimed bands use polyrhythmic chugging to great effect, and it never sounds shoehorned in as a means of "oh we couldn't figure out what to do at this point of the song."



The biggest example I can think of is early Erra, because there was just riff after riff after riff with grandiose leads and sparkly yet bleak atmospheric passages in every song. I get it if chugging isn't somebody's cup of tea, but like 10 seconds of it won't hurt, and I'd argue it accentuates certain parts of songs and augments it to greater heights.



The technicality as a whole can sound pretentious when overused (looking at the last release by The Afterimage), but if there's no technicality yet you still don't like the breakdowns, then what is there left to appreciate? These bands don't just rely on the bottom string, they make some masterfully crafted riffs that go up and down the fretboard, and sometimes these riffs aren't even in the foreground of the music. I dunno, I just don't get the hate

Album Rating: 2.5

"oh we couldn't figure out what to do at this point of the song."



So Car Bomb's entire career?



And I'd like to clarify that I DO enjoy breakdowns, but when they are compiled lazily, predictable, linear, and overused, they quickly lose their luster.

Album Rating: 4.0

I agree with Steak.

Album Rating: 2.5

Well I woulda figured

Album Rating: 4.0

There aren't a lot of bands anymore that use breakdowns poorly tho, at least none of the bigger names

Album Rating: 2.5

That's debatable my guy.

don't mean to interrupt but i don't see how Coletta or Aviations are metalcore in the common sense of the word

Album Rating: 4.0

Coletta most certainly is not

Album Rating: 2.5

Coletta I admit is more like poppy post-hardcore, but Aviations takes influence from the more progressive sector of metalcore. It's certainly more of a mixture but the sound is there.

Isn't originality in a genre more about modifications made to a set of core conventions than anything? Like, we don't shit on the greatest house acts because they use four on the floor beats on all their records. That'd be stupid. Genres "exist" because conventions are mimicked. You seem to dislike the conventions of progcore but are speaking as if the conventions of progcore are why the bands operating within it are unoriginal or uninspired. I'd be able to empathise with you if you were instead pointing out why certain bands within progcore are unoriginal relative to the genre, but instead you are implying originality within progcore being an exception rather than the norm somehow doesn't apply in literally every genre.

If I wanted to write an original sounding mathcore album, I'd imagine using odd time signatures and tritones wouldn't phase anyone because people know those are core conventions which don't define originality. It's everything else on top that'd help differentiate me from another math group. You are treating syncopated chugs or linear structures or breakdowns like they are intrinsic to a band's attempt at separating themselves from their peers, and not like the foundational conventions they are of which bands build off of. It's a bit of a jank, practically ad hominem line of thought that seems to be quite common regarding core circles.

It is useless to call Frontierer and Sectioned uninspired even if their sounds largely mirror amped up Tony Danza/Ion Dissonance worship because the increased energy is what gives them identity, not the conventions they copy. Same goes for shitting on NTI for the innumerable Thantifaxath/Dodecahedron/tri-tone-chromatic-run-disso-bm conventions they use and not for the way in which they mix those with light core elements. There isn't much out there that is truly inspired when you treat conventions across the board with a heightened level of importance. It'd subsequently be in poor taste to hold the importance of conventions used in one genre/scene with a higher or lesser degree of reverence than conventions used in another when assessing individuality amongst artists.

Album Rating: 4.0

Agreed with everything the ramon man said

Album Rating: 4.0

ramon noodles

Album Rating: 3.5

He just gave your meat a good ol' rub

I agree with everything ramon said

But that won’t stop me from thinking certain conventions are much preferable to others

That’s why metalcore has a lot of both the my favorite and least favorite kinds of bands