My Favorite Metalcore: Another List
Another compilation of my favorite overlooked, obscure, or underrated metalcore records. Ten years since the last one! |
| 1 |  | Grimlock
Crusher
No kidding. |
| 2 |  | I GOT SHOT IN THE FACE
How Am I Not Myself
Growin’ beards, doin’ drugs, and listening to grind. |
| 3 |  | The Rodeo Idiot Engine
Malaise
Blood, sweat, and feedback. A thoroughly French metalcore. |
| 4 |  | Engineer
Reproach
Some bands know that Starkweather were the first metalcore band and pay their dues accordingly. |
| 5 |  | Carol
1996 reconstructed
A lost artifact of Bremen metalcore history returns to wreak havoc on the modern world. |
| 6 |  | Wanderer (MN)
Liberation From A Brutalist Existence
The brutalist existence: |
| 7 |  | Suicide Note
You're Not Looking So Good
But You Sound Great! |
| 8 |  | Breather Resist
Charmer
A social worker’s nightmare. |
| 9 |  | Akimbo
Forging Steel and Laying Stone
Lays pipe. |
| 10 |  | Keelhaul
Keelhaul II
“A loud, heavy, annoying rock band for people with short attention spans.” Shares a member with Those Who Fear Tomorrow-era Integrity. |
| 11 |  | Paria
The Barnacle Cordious
A metalcore cabinet of curiosities. |
| 12 |  | Joy (NC)
No Light Below
The keg will return. |
| 13 |  | Symphony in Peril
Lost Memoirs and Faded Pictures
Like a transmission from a lost future where Christcore went all-in on mathy dissonance in a moral panic over tritones. |
| 14 |  | For the Love Of
Feasting on the Will of Humanity
These guys used to bring literal anvils to shows lol |
| 15 |  | Yuth Forever
10 Code
The first and last word in downtempo. |
| 16 |  | The Power & The Glory
Call Me Armageddon
FKNTHNDR |
| 17 |  | Congress
Blackened Persistance
Essential H8000. |
| 18 |  | Bleed the Sky
Paradigm in Entropy
What everyone pretended Pass Out of Existence was. Austin D’Amond even joined Chimaira! |
| 19 |  | MouthBreather (USA-MA)
Pig
A couple of seconds shorter than The Saddest Day but just as unhinged. |
| 20 |  | Cannae
Gold Becomes Sacrifice
YOU’RE FOREVER DREAMING OF ANGELS WHEN IT’S THE DEMONS THAT YOU LIVE WITH |
| 21 |  | Living Sacrifice
The Hammering Process
Destroy Erase Improve (for Jesus). |
| 22 |  | Advent
Naked and Cold
Beloved, six years on Cursed. |
| 23 |  | Subsist
Lessons in Brokenness
Strips copper for a living and lives in a junkyard. Shares one member with the earliest incarnation of Dead To Fall. |
| 24 |  | Darkest Hour
Hidden Hands of a Sadist Nation
Veritas, aequitas. |
| 25 |  | Early Graves
We the Guillotine
Here there be monsters. |
| 26 |  | Achilles (USA-NY)
Hospice
Messengers if August Burns Red traded all the shred for fight riffs. |
| 27 |  | .tourniquet.
I Hate The Way This Makes Me Feel.
Eighteen Visions worship that knows they did their best work before the ink ran out. |
| 28 |  | A Life Once Lost
Open Your Mouth for the Speechless...
Full title: “Open Your Mouth for the Speechless, In Case of Those Appointed to Die.” Alternate cover: headless angel statue. An extended demo of “A Fall River Farewell” featuring Anthony Green: on YouTube. Verdict: metalcore. |
| 29 |  | Arkangel
Dead Man Walking
Sere, righteous evil. Nobody riffs like Arkangel. |
| 30 |  | Leeched
To Dull the Blades of Your Abuse
Bitter and then some. |
| 31 |  | Employer, Employee
Discography
Bonafide MySpace falsegrind from 1998. Either a successful Robotic Empire psyop or definitive proof of time travel. |
| 32 |  | Cattlepress
Hordes To Abolish The Divine
Coalesce worship that anticipates metalcore’s slide into sludge adjacency by a solid fifteen years. |
| 33 |  | Will Haven
Muerte
Everything Will Haven does is chronically overlooked. This glass crusher of a record is no exception. |
| 34 |  | Training for Utopia/Zao
Split EP
One of the great metalcore splits. Catches both bands in states of transition—TFU on their way to the wry mecha-stomp of Throwing A Wrench, Zao on the brink of Liberate Te Ex Inferis—firing on all cylinders. |
| 35 |  | The Psyke Project
Guillotine
WE PRAY FOR SOMETHING THAT WILL NEVER HAPPEN |
| 36 |  | The Chariot
Unsung
Real ones know about the Matt Goldman demos, “Elvish Presley,” “Give It A Name, Call It A Franchise,” and “Some Things Just Never Burn, Some Giants Just Never Fall.” |
| 37 |  | Stray from the Path
Villains
Ascetic, athletic, acerbic. Stray’s finest half-hour. |
| 38 |  | Eighteen Visions
Yesterday Is Time Killed
Negative and violent. The best of Eighteen Visions. |
| 39 |  | Crowpath
Son of Sulphur
Fire. |
| 40 |  | Strongarm
The Advent of a Miracle
Christcore this good is indeed a miracle. |
| 41 |  | Drawing Last Breath
Final Sacrifice
The evolutionary dead end of metalcore revivalism and the ultimate send-off for the Dead To Fall/Rifles at Recess/early As I Lay Dying days of the genre. |
| 42 |  | Throes (USA)
In The Hands Of An Angry God
Math-sludge from the band formerly known as Bone Dance. Covered “Eraser” by Nine Inch Nails and put out a split with Great Falls in case you didn’t know this band is the business. A truly godless 33rpm alternate version of this record is currently streaming on their Bandcamp. |
| 43 |  | Hang the Bastard
Hellfire Reign
Avada kedavra, Leicester Square. A bloody rollicking good time. |
| 44 |  | The Armed
These Are Lights
These are bops! “Party At Pablo’s” still makes it onto Armed setlists for a reason. The second band on this list with a left-field Nine Inch Nails cover (“Gave Up”) to its name. |
| 45 |  | Heaven Shall Burn vs. Caliban
The Split Program
One of the great metalcore splits [2]. Heaven Shall Burn’s side is good, but Caliban’s When Forever Comes Crashing-era Converge impression is the star of the show. |
| 46 |  | A Textbook Tragedy
Rain City State of Mind - EP
What’s pit beef? |
| 47 |  | nineironspitfire
Seventh Soul Sacrificed
Himsa, Kiss It Goodbye, Undertow, These Arms Are Snakes, Narrows, Akimbo, Great Falls, Fleet Foxes, and the Blood Brothers can all trace their lineage to or through this monster, but all nineironspitfire’s legacy seems to amount to is “that band Botch did a split with”. |
| 48 |  | Jesuit
Discography
Essential to understanding how modern metalcore came to be. |
| 49 |  | Swarm of the Lotus
The Sirens of Silence
Swedish metalcore from Baltimore, Maryland. |
| 50 |  | Khann
Tofutopia
Brutal Truth, one year on militant vegan state radio. |
| 51 |  | In Reverent Fear
Written in the A.M.
Drop Dead, Gorgeous on amphetamines. Finch’s The Opposite of December. |
| 52 |  | Colonial Wound
Degradation
Swedish metalcore from Jacksonville, Florida. |
| 53 |  | Yautja
The Lurch
Metalcore for predators, but not like that. |
| 54 |  | Woe, Is Me
Number[s]
A glossy magazine page of a metalcore record with white’n’b choruses so sugary Jonny Craig had to contribute a (bizarrely tasteful?) feature just to remind everyone what’s what. |
| 55 |  | Shattered Realm
Broken Ties...Spoken Lies
Black Air Force 1’s-core. |
| 56 |  | Thumbscrew
Enlightenment
All is quiet within hearts of redemption. |
| 57 |  | Prayer for Cleansing
The Tragedy
Prayer For Cleansing discover structure, restraint, and The Cranberries on their swansong EP. |
| 58 |  | It Dies Today
Let the Angels Whisper Your Name
Mostly a ploy to get "Bloodstained Bed Sheet Burden" onto another list and hopefully into more ears, but this is an outstanding demo for a band that would never quite manage to make good on their promise. |
| 59 |  | Creation Is Crucifixion
Antenna Builder / Rerecorded Splits + Live In Gene
It’s slim pickings for good metalcore live albums. This is pretty much the platonic ideal. The collected rarities are all incredible, too. |
| 60 |  | Chimaira
Crown of Phantoms
Mark Hunter hires Daath as his backing band, the best record of their career ensues. More at 11. |
| 61 |  | Converge
No Heroes
Let’s not pretend the ramp-up from “Heartache” through “Plagues” and the blitzkrieg of “Orphaned” through “To the Lions” wouldn’t make another dozen bands’ careers. |
| 62 |  | Himsa
Hail Horror
Darker and more abstract than anything else in Himsa’s increasingly overlooked discography. |
| 63 |  | Driven
Cowardice Consumer of the West
Riff producer of the east. |
| 64 |  | Idylls
Prayer for Terrene
Converge, one month lost in the Australian outback with nothing but Bill Pullman's Lost Highway sax solo to listen to. |
| 65 |  | Minus
Jesus Christ Bobby
Now we’re cooking with propane! |
| 66 |  | *shels
Plains Of The Purple Buffalo
Metalcore rebuilt from shoegaze and post-metal. A spirit bomb from the heart of the UK’s mid-00s metalcore scene. One-of-a-kind. |
| 67 |  | Mahumodo
Waves
Devil Sold His Soul’s A Fragile Hope rebuilt from sulfur and kerosene. |
| 68 |  | Eden Maine
To You the First Star
Hail Satan. I was so wrong about this record for so long. |
| 69 |  | Taken
And They Slept
We sure did! |
| 70 |  | Bird Eater
Dead Mothers Make the Sun Set
Gaza (literally Gaza), but metalcore. |
| 71 |  | Officer Jones and His Patrol Car Problems
Memorial
ACAB, except |
| 72 |  | When Knives Go Skyward
A Thousand Miles of Rope
The Orange Danza Mathematics Extravaganza. |
| 73 |  | Cave In
Beyond Hypothermia
They’d still be remembered if this remarkably fluid demo compilation was all they ever achieved. |
| 74 |  | Gift Giver
Daddy Issues EP
Undeniably obnoxious. Undeniably sickkkk. |
| 75 |  | Underneath
Nothing Here is Held Sacred
Hot off the press. Go blow this up before this starts showing up on “overlooked metalcore” Sputnik lists in 10 years. |
| 76 |  | All Else Failed
Archetype
If only it were! |
| 77 |  | Calvaiire
Forceps
Tout ce que nous aimons nous laissons derrière nous quand vient s'écraser pour toujours. |
| 78 |  | Ore Miner
Onism
Hellraiser-core. Their demo is uglier and more off-kilter, but was deleted from their Bandcamp after some stuff came to light about a former member. |
| 79 |  | Violent Ends
Invisos
Human life begins on the far side of despair. |
| 80 |  | Heartscarved
...And Tomorrow We Escape
Undead. |
| 81 |  | Nursing
Self Care
Corpsepaint and Converse. |
| 82 |  | Left Behind
Blessed by the Burn
WEST
BY
GOD |
| 83 |  | Brotherhood of the Lake
Desperation Is The English Way: Vol. 1
It's meant |
| 84 |  | Brotherhood of the Lake
Desperation Is The English Way Vol. 2
to hurt. |
| 85 |  | Totem Skin
Still Waters Run Deep
Man is the only creature who refuses to be what he is. |
| 86 |  | Dead and Divine
Antimacy
New Junk Aesthetic (Disambiguation) |
| 87 |  | All Out War
Give Us Extinction
L'appel du metalcore. |
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