Album Rating: 2.0
'That's interesting. When I think of metalcore, I think of anything that spawned as "less metal/more core", bands like Botch, DEP, Converge, Norma Jean.' (2)
It kind of blows my mind that anyone would think of these guys as being a primary example of the genre, but I guess my perspective is skewed by being a mid-30s internet music nerd who's amassed several years of finding stuff via places 'like Sput'.
I didn't get all the way through this on the first go, but I definitely get classic thrashy melo-death or even power metal vibes from this - moreso than the core element.
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pretty cool!
but to actually answer the topic:
metalcore has been one of those genres whose definition seems to have changed over time (biggest offenders off the top of my head would also include dubstep and emo) ... i'm still not entirely sure how or why, but bands like killswitch engage, as i lay dying, all that remains etc have ended up redefining to mean, well, basically what they're known for. generic vaguely thrash vaguely melodeath slaughter of the soul type riffs, melodic accessible clean sung choruses and pantera-style breakdowns on almost every song.
whether definitions should be allowed to change so drastically over time... depends on who you ask really, but the meaning has shifted since the 00s, esp w/ myspace scene having been a thing
also:
Shai Hulud was one of the first hardcore/metal crossover band that used the term "metalcore" to describe their music (as shown in the back cover of That Within Blood Ill-Tempered) and by some fans the band is still considered to be "a true metalcore band",[13] while others, including band members have discarded the term due to their current meaning, e.g., the melodic death metal influenced metalcore, when this genre became a commercial success in early 2000s as "metalcore" and it differed from what the band was playing at that time.
Taking the term literally, and breaking it apart, yes, we definitely are a true example of 'metalcore,' a hybrid of hardcore and metal. When we used to joke with the term, it was just a clever (or not so clever) way of describing a metallic hardcore, metal-influenced hardcore, or hardcore-influenced metal band. My friends and I would listen to Deadguy and say 'this isn't HARDcore, it's METALcore,' which made sense based on the music they played, combined with the attitude and ethic of the band. Same thing used to be said for Earth Crisis, Integrity, Coalesce, Unbroken, and a lot of the 90s bands that incorporated heavier riffs and more progressive structuring and ideas into their songs. When the term 'metalcore' was thrown around back then it was very tongue-in-cheek; this, obviously, long before it became a legitimate genre, it's [sic] current legitimacy being highly debatable, of course. 'Metalcore,' the actual genre in 2008 doesn't usually seem like a hybrid of hardcore and metal as much as it just seems like metal, only written by people who imitate it rather than love it, typically resulting in trite and shallow music. If this accurately describes 'metalcore' then we clearly do not embrace the term. Conversely, if Earth Crisis and Deadguy define 'metalcore,' count us in.
— Matt Fox[14]
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