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Subreddit Guidelines

1. Please try to keep bands like Wage War, Fit For A King or Northlane out.

We have no issue with these bands as musicians, nor do we determine genres by whether we like or dislike a band. The reason why we disallow these bands is because they just happen to be far from traditional metalcore.

2. Bands that aren't from the '90s are totally allowed and encouraged.

Just keep it sonically relevant, as in either traditional sounding or have actual hardcore/crossover connection.

3. Please be civil during discussions.

If you disagree with a person's point of view, you are free to argue them. However, be nice, and follow proper etiquette during the discussion.

4. No bigotry or hate speech.

This is self-explanatory.

A Brief History of Metalcore

References and footnotes here.

In the 1980s, various bands in both hardcore punk and metal scenes worldwide were crossing over. In terms of metalcore, the mid-1980s New York hardcore scene in particular is arguably the most influential. The likes from this scene, such as Cro-Mags, Leeway, and Sheer Terror, took inspiration from popular metal bands of the time such as Venom, Motörhead, Celtic Frost, Metallica, and Slayer. At this point, "metalcore" was used to describe some of these bands. In the early 1990s, Starkweather, Integrity, Ringworm, Earth Crisis, and Rorschach have expanded this fusion in their influential recordings, and, by the time the mid-1990s have arrived, many different metalcore bands took note and started to push the genre into more extreme territories.

In West Flanders, Belgium, a vegan straight edge scene called H8000 was spearheaded by the likes of Congress and Liar. These bands heavily incorporated aspects of death metal and thrash metal, musically aligning themselves with contemporaries outside the scene such as All Out War, Merauder, and Kickback. Meanwhile, in Bremen, Germany; Acme, Systral, and Carol played a dissonant and fragmented metalcore style heavily inspired by Rorschach. Others like Deadguy and the aforementioned Rorschach experimented with noise rock and post-hardcore, being a large influence on mathcore in the process before Botch, The Dillinger Escape Plan, and Converge expanded and popularized it years later.

During the late 1990s, a style of melodic metalcore was popularized by Massachusetts bands Shadows Fall, Killswitch Engage, and Unearth, who were mainly inspired by the Gothenburg melodic death metal scene. By the time the 2000s came around, both of these styles' accessibility paved the way for a large number of bands, some even polishing the sound for wider commercial appeal.

In recent years, traditional/'90s-style metalcore bands such as Knocked Loose, Code Orange, and Jesus Piece have gained large amount of following, indicating a renewed interest towards the sound as a whole.

Where did 'metalcore' as a term come from?

References and footnotes here.

What we know so far is that the term was first used around the mid-1980s. The term appeared in popular zines of the time like Maximumrocknroll and Flipside, and was used quite loosely in its literal "metal meets hardcore punk" sense. This usage also naturally extends to bands that are now more commonly referred as crossover thrash. In an interview with All Out War's vocalist, Mike Score, he remembered "the first time [he] saw the term metalcore was actually in one of these [heavy metal] magazines from the '80s, like RIP," and "they were talking about Crumbsuckers and they said they were a metalcore band." Its usage continued in the 1990s, and, at some point, the term became somewhat well-defined. Merauder's vocalist, Jorge Rosado, mentioned in an interview that his band named their distinctive sound 'metalcore' as a result of their Cro-Mags and Slayer influence. Additionally, Matt Fox of Shai Hulud have also used the term to refer "bands like Burn, Deadguy, Earth Crisis, [and] even Integrity," however, he further stated its usage was tongue-in-cheek.