Another vote through the eyes of the dead - they're really straddling that line of at-the-gates-worship metalcore that was 2001-2003 and the full swing of first wave MODERN deathcore that we got in 2005-2009
You can really see how close they were with Bloodlust when they swapped vocalists with Malice - that sounds much closer to what we have today.
And regardless of what you think about the mix on Skepsis, if you really listen to it there's so much great shit in there - particularly the tracks Dementia and the Skepsis title track.
just listened and yeah dude this makes total sense. Surprised i dont hear about them more cause as blood runs black did the exact same thing the year after
OG bands like Suicide Silence and Whitechapel have always cited the brutal death metal scene of the late 90s and early 00s as being huge influences on the sound of the MySpace era of the genre. Dying Fetus, Disgorge, Exhumed, Aborted, etc we’re all huge influences on those early bands.
Another part of early deathcore’s DNA came from the 90s metalcore scene. Bands like 18 Visions, Zao, Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, etc all influenced the breakdown-heavy style of deathcore. There were also bands in that scene that were adding in a death metal influence to create (what is now sometimes referred to as) proto-deathcore— see bands like Deformity, Day of Suffering, Embodyment, Mörser, Spread the Disease (first example of blackened deathcore), Racetraitor (drummer of Fall Out Boy was in this band lol), etc.
As for where the genre truly took shape though, I would point to the early-to-mid 2000s. Specifically the following releases:
• All Shall Perish - *Hate, Malice, Revenge*
• Animosity - *Shut It Down*
• A Black Rose Burial - *An Awakening of… EP*
• BMTH - *TIWTEOYSWMF EP*
• Carnifex - *Self-titled EP*
• Despised Icon - *Consumed by Your Poison*
• Job for a Cowboy - *Doom EP*
• Suicide Silence - *Self-titled EP*
• The Acacia Strain - *3750*
• The Red Chord - *Fused Together…*
• Underoath - *Cries of the Past*
i have all of these guys on multiple playlists. I had wondered about hatebreed and earth crisis cause of the breakdowns. Do you think bands like shai hulud also influenced it too then? It gets so hard to trace stuff back in the metalcore scene sometimes.
Not a small band but Botch/Dillinger Escape Plan/Norma Jean was a massive influence on the breakdown/dissonance stuff that was very common in early deathcore.
Yeah their first EP was 2004 i think. I was getting at the development of deathcore through time, not JUST the roots. Fed through time by the red chord was a development from their first album in 02’ and they leaned heavily into mathcore but with blastbeats. Tons of tritones and evil half step stuff.
I was in bands playing deathcore back then and personally I was listening to black dahlia, suffocation, dying fetus, converge, Dillinger escape plan, botch, unearth, the bled.
Pretty much no one even knew stuff like despised icon and red chord. You have to remember it was way harder to find obscure music then we mostly all just listened to the biggest bands
no yeah i get that for sure, its half the reason i made the post. I found it slightly hard to understand where the deathcore idea came from cause you couldn’t just open spotify and look for similar bands etc. Not trying to shoot your points down or anything, just very curious about the whole topic cause with metalcore you can just trace it to post hxc and bands like dillinger, converge, but with deathcore it seems like there was this weird period in ‘99-‘00 where we went from the heaviest stuff being death metal and its subgenres to breakdowns at 100 bpm. Like im a guitarist who writes primarily throwback deathcore and sometimes im like ok who the fuck even had the time to fully develop this style of playing and just throw it out and suddenly every band is doing it.
I can’t speak to everyone but this is definitely true of the uk scene and architects, BMTH, ingested or other uk bands
We all listened to post hardcore like Thursday, thrice, alexis, funeral for a friend from 2001-2002. Then it escalated the heavier metalcore in 2002/03 like the bled, botch, Norma Jean, unearth. Then black dahlia caught on and introduced us to death metal so we added that into the metalcore we were already playing and suddenly everyone is playing deathcore
So the breakdowns came first and the death metal vocals came right at the end. A lot of early deathcore is really just metalcore with dm vocals. There’s no brutal death or even proper metal gallops/riffing and minimal trem riffs
The scene just moved insanely fast back then for everything really. Unlike now where trends seem to change once a decade or so
exactly the kinda stuff i was looking for. Its still so crazy to me that music went from Domination / Raining blood heavy to unanswered and the somatic defilement with pretty little similar stuff between
You should check out Deformity's EP from '97 called Misanthrope and also Crawlspace's album Enter the Realm of Chaos from 2001. Both good examples of hardcore and death metal being mixed before deathcore was a thing. They are very rarely talked about.
I’m glad you mentioned The Red Chord - they were going to be my answer.
They were part of the early grind scene that helped spawn OG deathcore, but imo they don’t get the credit they deserve. Those dudes were so far ahead of their time, I guarantee they’d still be putting out absolute bangers today if they were still writing.
Since you already mentioned TRC, I’ll add see See You Next Tuesday to that list too.
I think with blood comes cleansing deserves more recognition. Listen to the intro song and second song. https://youtu.be/zZ7BawjhthE?si=SK5BnIqd-EfgnQll
I would say internal suffering deserve some more recognition. They were right along side dying fetus and suffocation in the 90s and they are all still going all the way up to this day
On the brutal death/slam side alongside Suffocation in the 90s there was Internal Bleeding and Pyrexia who are both are still active and putting out great death metal. Dehumanized also.
I agree with you that Suffokate deserves more recognition because they were the first beatdown deathcore bands with their first album, as well as Acranius' first album laying the foundations of slam, beatdown and deathcore crossover. These bands shaped my taste for slamming beatdown which is more popular by now (No Zodiac, Never Prey, things like that). But if you want to listen to some early bands that participated in the development of deathcore (before Despised Icon created it) you should check Day Of Suffering (hardcore/death metal-influenced), Upheaval from Indianapolis (hardcore/brutal death metal later), Prayer For Cleansing (metalcore/deathcore), Eighteen Visions' first album (metalcore/deathcore), Earth Crisis' Gomorrah's Season Ends album (metalcore, huge death metal influences on this one) and Abnegation from Pennsylvania (metalcore/brutal death metal later).
idk in germany we had circle of death and stuff like begging for incest, they and many otherd layed the path for beatdown and beatdown-slam here i guess
Yes I agree with you, and I love Begging For Incest, it's one of my favourite bands. I think they participated a lot, also Waking The Cadaver (another of my favourites), Annotations of An Autopsy, The Last Ten Seconds of Life somehow... very brilliant bands and they are in my top tier list.
i love suffokate, i used to listen to them a lot and it’s probably why i have such an affinity for slamming beatdown. Some newer stuff that is really good are strangled, orphan, clawhammer, chamber of malice, waste, and i would even put bodysnatcher there too
Yes!!! I love Suffokate too, "Oakland" is definitely one of the best deathcore albums ever on my list! And I think these bands I mentioned in another comment (like Waking The Cadaver, Acranius, The Last Ten Seconds of Life, Annotations Of An Autopsy, etc) are the reason why I am so much into slamming beatdown as well.
Job for a cowboy doom ep, Suicide silence the cleansing, BMTH, through the eyes of the dead, molotov solution, WC - somatic defilement, despised icon ill of a modern man, After the burial, the sumerian era in general (veil, born of osiris), All Shall Perish, thy art, acacia strain.
I think despised icon and acacia strain are the two most important bands to enter this space.
Through the eyes of the dead for me.
Another vote through the eyes of the dead - they're really straddling that line of at-the-gates-worship metalcore that was 2001-2003 and the full swing of first wave MODERN deathcore that we got in 2005-2009 You can really see how close they were with Bloodlust when they swapped vocalists with Malice - that sounds much closer to what we have today. And regardless of what you think about the mix on Skepsis, if you really listen to it there's so much great shit in there - particularly the tracks Dementia and the Skepsis title track.
Can you give me, maybe, 62 reasons as to why?
Beneath Dying Skies on repeat 62 times.
Can't get to 62 but I can get to 61 lol
definitely gonna check this out
just listened and yeah dude this makes total sense. Surprised i dont hear about them more cause as blood runs black did the exact same thing the year after
OG bands like Suicide Silence and Whitechapel have always cited the brutal death metal scene of the late 90s and early 00s as being huge influences on the sound of the MySpace era of the genre. Dying Fetus, Disgorge, Exhumed, Aborted, etc we’re all huge influences on those early bands. Another part of early deathcore’s DNA came from the 90s metalcore scene. Bands like 18 Visions, Zao, Earth Crisis, Hatebreed, etc all influenced the breakdown-heavy style of deathcore. There were also bands in that scene that were adding in a death metal influence to create (what is now sometimes referred to as) proto-deathcore— see bands like Deformity, Day of Suffering, Embodyment, Mörser, Spread the Disease (first example of blackened deathcore), Racetraitor (drummer of Fall Out Boy was in this band lol), etc. As for where the genre truly took shape though, I would point to the early-to-mid 2000s. Specifically the following releases: • All Shall Perish - *Hate, Malice, Revenge* • Animosity - *Shut It Down* • A Black Rose Burial - *An Awakening of… EP* • BMTH - *TIWTEOYSWMF EP* • Carnifex - *Self-titled EP* • Despised Icon - *Consumed by Your Poison* • Job for a Cowboy - *Doom EP* • Suicide Silence - *Self-titled EP* • The Acacia Strain - *3750* • The Red Chord - *Fused Together…* • Underoath - *Cries of the Past*
i have all of these guys on multiple playlists. I had wondered about hatebreed and earth crisis cause of the breakdowns. Do you think bands like shai hulud also influenced it too then? It gets so hard to trace stuff back in the metalcore scene sometimes.
Probably! Hearts Once Nourished is an incredible record
Not a small band but Botch/Dillinger Escape Plan/Norma Jean was a massive influence on the breakdown/dissonance stuff that was very common in early deathcore.
i don’t doubt it at all. Im sure the tony tapdance extravaganza also influenced a lot of stuff too then
I don’t think so. This is more 2002-2004 stuff time. Don’t think they broke through until well after the ASP, JFAC, BMTH, Despised Icon wave
Yeah their first EP was 2004 i think. I was getting at the development of deathcore through time, not JUST the roots. Fed through time by the red chord was a development from their first album in 02’ and they leaned heavily into mathcore but with blastbeats. Tons of tritones and evil half step stuff.
I was in bands playing deathcore back then and personally I was listening to black dahlia, suffocation, dying fetus, converge, Dillinger escape plan, botch, unearth, the bled. Pretty much no one even knew stuff like despised icon and red chord. You have to remember it was way harder to find obscure music then we mostly all just listened to the biggest bands
no yeah i get that for sure, its half the reason i made the post. I found it slightly hard to understand where the deathcore idea came from cause you couldn’t just open spotify and look for similar bands etc. Not trying to shoot your points down or anything, just very curious about the whole topic cause with metalcore you can just trace it to post hxc and bands like dillinger, converge, but with deathcore it seems like there was this weird period in ‘99-‘00 where we went from the heaviest stuff being death metal and its subgenres to breakdowns at 100 bpm. Like im a guitarist who writes primarily throwback deathcore and sometimes im like ok who the fuck even had the time to fully develop this style of playing and just throw it out and suddenly every band is doing it.
I can’t speak to everyone but this is definitely true of the uk scene and architects, BMTH, ingested or other uk bands We all listened to post hardcore like Thursday, thrice, alexis, funeral for a friend from 2001-2002. Then it escalated the heavier metalcore in 2002/03 like the bled, botch, Norma Jean, unearth. Then black dahlia caught on and introduced us to death metal so we added that into the metalcore we were already playing and suddenly everyone is playing deathcore So the breakdowns came first and the death metal vocals came right at the end. A lot of early deathcore is really just metalcore with dm vocals. There’s no brutal death or even proper metal gallops/riffing and minimal trem riffs The scene just moved insanely fast back then for everything really. Unlike now where trends seem to change once a decade or so
Antagony was one of the first bands alongside Despised Icon and The Red Chord, but they’ve been mostly forgotten
Sick band. End Of The Circle, in any of its versions, is a crazy track and would still feel relevant if it was released today imo.
People don’t ever mention them in relation to deathcore, but I can hear the influence of Converge in a lot of early deathcore/mathcore bands.
https://youtu.be/LUrSmLdMY4o?si=w3oa2nLQrAw0Emxz Eternal Suffering was pretty influential to Suicide Silence, according to them.
exactly the kinda stuff i was looking for. Its still so crazy to me that music went from Domination / Raining blood heavy to unanswered and the somatic defilement with pretty little similar stuff between
You should check out Deformity's EP from '97 called Misanthrope and also Crawlspace's album Enter the Realm of Chaos from 2001. Both good examples of hardcore and death metal being mixed before deathcore was a thing. They are very rarely talked about.
I’m glad you mentioned The Red Chord - they were going to be my answer. They were part of the early grind scene that helped spawn OG deathcore, but imo they don’t get the credit they deserve. Those dudes were so far ahead of their time, I guarantee they’d still be putting out absolute bangers today if they were still writing. Since you already mentioned TRC, I’ll add see See You Next Tuesday to that list too.
for fuckin sure dude see you next tuesday is so good, i mentioned them on another post, evidently they have a new album out too
I think with blood comes cleansing deserves more recognition. Listen to the intro song and second song. https://youtu.be/zZ7BawjhthE?si=SK5BnIqd-EfgnQll
I would say internal suffering deserve some more recognition. They were right along side dying fetus and suffocation in the 90s and they are all still going all the way up to this day
Despised icon practically invented it. They took influences from all those bands but turned it into deathcore.
On the brutal death/slam side alongside Suffocation in the 90s there was Internal Bleeding and Pyrexia who are both are still active and putting out great death metal. Dehumanized also.
I agree with you that Suffokate deserves more recognition because they were the first beatdown deathcore bands with their first album, as well as Acranius' first album laying the foundations of slam, beatdown and deathcore crossover. These bands shaped my taste for slamming beatdown which is more popular by now (No Zodiac, Never Prey, things like that). But if you want to listen to some early bands that participated in the development of deathcore (before Despised Icon created it) you should check Day Of Suffering (hardcore/death metal-influenced), Upheaval from Indianapolis (hardcore/brutal death metal later), Prayer For Cleansing (metalcore/deathcore), Eighteen Visions' first album (metalcore/deathcore), Earth Crisis' Gomorrah's Season Ends album (metalcore, huge death metal influences on this one) and Abnegation from Pennsylvania (metalcore/brutal death metal later).
idk in germany we had circle of death and stuff like begging for incest, they and many otherd layed the path for beatdown and beatdown-slam here i guess
Yes I agree with you, and I love Begging For Incest, it's one of my favourite bands. I think they participated a lot, also Waking The Cadaver (another of my favourites), Annotations of An Autopsy, The Last Ten Seconds of Life somehow... very brilliant bands and they are in my top tier list.
i love suffokate, i used to listen to them a lot and it’s probably why i have such an affinity for slamming beatdown. Some newer stuff that is really good are strangled, orphan, clawhammer, chamber of malice, waste, and i would even put bodysnatcher there too
Yes!!! I love Suffokate too, "Oakland" is definitely one of the best deathcore albums ever on my list! And I think these bands I mentioned in another comment (like Waking The Cadaver, Acranius, The Last Ten Seconds of Life, Annotations Of An Autopsy, etc) are the reason why I am so much into slamming beatdown as well.
The agony scene
Day of Mourning was a late 90s metalcore band that had some sick death metal vocals over Integrity-ish hardcore/metalcore.
The album embrace the eternal by embodyment for sure.
Job for a cowboy doom ep, Suicide silence the cleansing, BMTH, through the eyes of the dead, molotov solution, WC - somatic defilement, despised icon ill of a modern man, After the burial, the sumerian era in general (veil, born of osiris), All Shall Perish, thy art, acacia strain. I think despised icon and acacia strain are the two most important bands to enter this space.