The Oral History of Metalcore (Ft. Killswitch Engage, Ice Nine Kills + More)

[@Tiedy88]

Raised by Metalcore

[@InTheEyesOfFire]

16:19 I FUCKING KNEW IT! I always used to refer to Parkway as "Aussie Unearth" back in the Killing with a smile and Horizons days. Such sick albums.

[@Midnight_Wave_1989]

Freakin stoked y'all got Of Mice & Men here!

[@cwrichardson3]

Good for you 👍

[@Themartinezjoeshow]

What got me into metalcore was v.o.d. and diecast . Then killswitch soon after

[@PositivelyPessimistic42]

I remember buying a Diecast album at Best Buy back in the day. Internal Revolution was S-tier.

[@chrisgirth7373]

@@PositivelyPessimistic42 I've seen VOD but forgot all about Diecast.

[@joshdrumheller4920]

This genre is what got me addicted to metal. Thrash was my go-to for a long time. In high school, I got into Trivium, In Flames, Killswitch Enagage, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God, and All That Remains, and I've been addicted since!!!! Most of my bands I still listen to, even now, are metalcore!!! Also, it's awesome how they are doing this and the bands mentioned in the New England scene, Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, and Shadows Fall all have new music or new albums coming this year!!!!

[@doordashdriver]

All That Remains has definitely evolved a lot since their inception. Those first few albums were metalcore/thrash hybrid. They expanded in more radio-friendly songs and even entire albums. Today it's hard to put a label on them. That's why Phil Lebonte always describes himself as "The lead singer of the heavy metal band All That Remains" whenever he's on Tim Pool's show.

[@PrimetimeBJJ]

My first show was new england metal and hardcore festival at the Worcester Palladium. Killswitch Engage 25th anniversary show. I'll never forget that day

[@mh13382]

I was at that festival too. I was cold and wet from the rain on Saturday but I didn't cared i had an amazing time!

[@loganbiery1009]

Growing up in new hampshire, it's kinda cool to hear bands being named off that I've hung out with at local venues when I was growing up

[@DavidGoku25]

The Freddy vs Jason soundtrack was my first hand experience with metalcore. Now I love Ice Nine Kills, ADTR, Blesethefall, August Burns Red, Fit For A King, Killswitch Engage.

[@swedishtime6910]

Constellations by August Burns Red still my favourite metalcore album.

[@fastilafuska]

This or Horizon by parkway

[@InTheEyesOfFire]

@@swedishtime6910 Constellations is so fucking sick. I’d say it’s right up there with The Oncoming Storm, and Horizons for me. Definitely would have a hard time picking between Constellations and Messengers though haha

[@alexlang6639]

gotta give some props to Darkest Hour too!

[@whobeewhatee]

Mine began in 2003 wirh As I Lay Dying and began following record labels catering to this sound. Ferret, Metal Blade, Hopeless, Tooth and Nail, Epitaph, Roadrunner and Victory records was my home for all the 2000s. To be a kid again in 2005, hearing this for the first time would be incredible.

[@daveymeds]

How the hell is Converge not mentioned among early metal core influences?

[@erintucker2116]

In 2006, I accidentally made a best friend out of metal drummer when he introduced me to The End of Heartache. 19 years later, we’re married with kids. Oli and Jonas (yes, BMTH and the Blue album). Yesterday, they surprised Dad with 4 tickets to see Killswitch in Birmingham for his 41st birthday. And then today I saw this video. I’m not sure if I should feel ancient, thankful, or awed at the full-circle moment.

[@dgk6661]

The first time I heard of metalcore was The Freddy vs Jason soundtrack. Killswitch Engage released a early mix version of When Darkness Falls. That started on my path of being a core kid

[@thomasweidemannjensen7327]

As i lay dying. Killswitch Engage. Heaven shall burn.

[@ajrod85]

I'm from springfield massachusetts where KSE, Shadows Fall, and all that remains and that scene was amazing and it's very hard to have a regional scene like that anymore since the internet helps the bands market which is great but in that time you needed a tight community. That community was what fueled the creativity and sound. I used to work in the Holyoke mall right across the hot topic where Phil labonte worked and Vince from Acacia strain walked the mall on Sundays lol.

[@chrisgirth7373]

The early days of Metalcore were indeed incredible. I feel like they snubbed a few extremely important bands in the timeline of the genre. First and foremost the earliest archetype of melodic hardcore/metalcore: Merauder - Master Killer. They then neglected the Florida bands from the late 90s like Poison the Well, Shai Hulud and Evergreen Terrace who were all there at the ground floor. How can you talk about the New England scene in the early 2k without mentioning Unearth in the big 4 or 5 (though Winston mentioned them)? I wish they would have given more credit and made this longer as the metalcore genre is definatly the most important thing in heavy music in the past 20 years. Then the bands that carried the torch (Misery Signals, ABR, After the Burial, Texas in July etc) during the "decline" in the late 2000s when the scene bands started to really water down the genre. This needs to be a full length documentary on this.

[@supermariodrumflow]

🤘🏼 HELLYEAH 🤘🏼 We need more Loudwire! ⚡️

[@frankunodostres473]

I find it very interesting how metalcore as a term has changed meaning over time. what people called metalcore in the 90s is different than what most of us (?) now know as the subgenre from the late 2000s and 2010s. well post-hardcore is another one but those 2 are almost interchangeable nowadays lmao the only other subgenre that went through a similar change is death metal. compare early death metal to what is described as death metal these days and it's night and day.

[@daviddr115111]

Metalcore got me into death metal back in the mid 2000s. This death metal dude at work, was in his late 30s and was a big death metal head. He showed me thrash bands like sepultura but he also let me borrow bloodbath album resurrection through carnage and that album changed me a bit. Before I was all into deathcore and metalcore back then.

[@bostons_departed3631]

I miss the acoustic versions. Those were the days. Here’s Demon Hunter. Acoustic. 😂.

[@doordashdriver]

when you see and hear metal musicians just talking like regular people it really shatters the veil lol

[@smokesorrow8827]

Poison the well, on broken wings, the bled were my first interactions with the metalcore sound will forever be my goats

[@troyfrink]

This is rad, but I’m surprised Poison The Well didn’t make an appearance or get a mention.

[@xj4maroon5dude]

I love this video so much! I love how they spoke about hardcore and influential it has made for the metalcore community. Especially when you look into the more hardcore driven(metallic if you will) metalcore now with all of the newer bands in the scene. The waves that metalcore has produced has stood the test of time but Spencer is right; there has to be outside influences to create something different. This is just me(come on haters I’m ready) but I feel like Poison the Well, Hopesfall, Everytime I Die circle; to me that is more driven hardcore-metallic metalcore. Bc they still bring the spirit of hardcore but adding flavors from the past that give us that breakdown feel yet still honing on hardcore. Even death metal, overseas death metal brought the first few waves of metalcore to life which we need to give OS death metal their flowers. Without them, we really wouldn’t be where we are in the newer waves of metalcore. As well as hardcore, death metal has influenced a more hardcore/death metal adjacency which hella bands are doing very well. I mean come on Dying Fetus has some of the best mixes of hardcore and death metal. Morbid Angels first 2 records bleed hardcore. Everyone is related somehow whether the gatekeepers hate it or not; they still should give their flowers to the respected scenes for helping boost one another and making something new.

[@conker1oo]

Oral me up... with history

[@Jerrid_86]

😳

[@EnfiladedProductions]

What an extremely surface level and metal centric ‘history’ of metalcore. No mention of Integrity, Deadguy, Coalesce, Botch, Converge, Poison the Well etc.

[@kanetielemans8475]

That’s what I was gonna mention!! No Hatebreed? Earth Crisis? Unbroken? Definitely focusing on the later more metal side of the genre 😅

[@DestroyFearmetal]

Love Metalcore!!! Great video

[@atvena]

Melodic metalcore forever

[@atvena]

I never actually thought these melodic metalcore bands actually listened to at the gates slaughter of the soul album it was just perceived they must have or just looking for a reason to justify the existence of the sound these bands were creating but this confirms they had actually heard the album before they wrote their own material

[@heelgill]

Funny cause Jesse and Adam aren't a fan of the "metalcore" label but they were a part of that history. Jesse in Corrin and Adam in Aftershock.

[@gshon09]

Trivium e Killswitch Engage são meus top 1 e 2 das bandas de metalcore.

[@CicconeRitchie1]

So weird that Fear Factory isn’t mentioned in the singing/screaming section. Burton Bell really pioneered that style of vocals in 1995 on Demanufacture. Not saying that the goth metal influences isn’t valid or anything.

[@doordashdriver]

Didja ever notice most metalcore bands have a 3 word name? All That Remains, Miss May I, Motionless in White, Ice Nine Kills, August Burns Red, In This Moment, Devil Wears Prada, Texas in July, The Amity Affliction.

[@7ChaosBlack]

Converge Botch Integrity Starkweather Rorschach Earth Crisis

[@victorthemusicman7243]

2000's Metalcore was peak. Nuff said.

[@maxwelld23]

No mention of poison the well?

[@benjaminvasquez5826]

Soilwork Natural Born Chaos is a metalcore masterpiece

[@Siolarty19]

It's not even a metalcore album at all.

[@heelgill]

The closest to me would be Figure Number Five.

[@chadgautier2864]

Loved a band called neck. They had the most ridiculous singer with growls then he would sing. Just insane.

[@luwalke35]

Was this recorded before/during the Atonement cycle for KSE?

[@deathblow777]

The disrespect of not mentioning undying, prayer for cleansing, end this day, or any h8000 bands, metalcore wouldn’t be what it was without those bands

[@lemmeteluboutaplayer]

Not sure that H8000 bands influenced all that much metalcore after them. I doubt things would be that different considering we had American bands doing the same thing.

[@deathblow777]

@ h8000 did its part in what it could, either way they had the core components of the sound and it’s sad how people don’t acknowledge it as much

[@mohnjark1990]

How about Zao?

[@User-54631]

I remember fuse tv

[@gp32]

Me and my band did our owen thing 2010. Tech death with Jazz parts and black Metal vocals, and the Lyrics where about gardening, cocking and everyday stuff. We had a contract offer from Napalm, but one person within the Band turned it down.

[@PeppertheDachshundgoodboy]

Metalcore is peak before then divides when Attack Attack came out.

[@scottstefani7876]

Og metalcore KSE Shadows Fall Unearth overcast are one of my favorites

[@xangrycatmanx5104]

As a relatively young fan of metalcore, I really dislike this new wave of poppy "octane-core". Metalcore is at its best when it has its roots in the hardcore scene. Killswitch, Parkway, Dillinger, Hatebreed, Converge, even more traditionally "metal" bands like Shadows Fall, Heaven Shall Burn and Unearth all come from the 90's hardcore scene. Even going back to bands retroactively considered "90s metalcore" like Bloodlet, Disembodied, Integrity, Ringworm, Earth Crisis and a lot of 90s New York bands like Merauder, Madball, Denied, Neglect and Rorschach. Need to also give flowers to early European bands like Acme, Kickback, Systral, Mörser and the entire H8000 scene (bands like Arkangel, Congress, Liar, Deformity, Sektor and Spineless). 90s and 2000s metallic hardcore is the best because you can find so many underground bands that sound nothing alike.

[@Alfredo78666]

Funny how after the tour promoting Slaughter of the Soul they decided to call it quits because nobody gave 2 f*cks about them.

[@josephsison8721]

Adam D. Cap is the highlights

[@Sk8rMom23]

My favorites. 🖤🤘

[@cwrichardson3]

Ok 👎💩

[@deadmemoryrecords]

Nice hat Adam D

[@Sourlife.]

Does anyone know, which hairproducts Spencer uses?

[@junioribarra1991]

When I Hear Big Bands Shout out It Dies Today ❤

[@atvena]

Melodeath + mathcore = melodic metalcore

[@eerosoots]

Nobody really heard Slaughter of the Soul (and In Flames for that matter) before file sharing started to become really big around 1999. A great example of how file sharing totally circumvented the American record label gatekeepers.

[@cwrichardson3]

I heard of In Flames since Colony

[@WizardDoom]

Listening to As Daylight Dies and The End of Heartache, still top notch stuff

[@anthonyjillali4287]

Aaron Pauley looks exactly like you Jack Black. It's the Tenacious gene.

[@josephcorso5081]

It started in the early 90s. Karl from Earth Crisis coined the term in interviews from the firestorm Era. Integrity, bloodlet, marauder that was metal-core . Not the break down chugga bands and mall metal of the early 00s.

[@nathanthomson1931]

I can't listen to JUST screaming; it's too percussive and abrasive, and it's so emotionally flat. I really love the emotional variance that metalcore gives with both harsh and clean vocals, and I find that going from screaming to big, anthemic choruses sung with cleans just elevates the emotional experience to such a bigger height. My personal fav band is Wolves at the Gate, and I think they do this better than anyone

[@anthonyjillali4287]

*Young

[@cosmosblackmetal]

🔨🐐🔨

[@johnmccoy5923]

Bring back Howard! And also keep Jesse. Y’all don’t know the potential gold mine you’re sitting on with that idea. Figured it oat

[@JN-xb6pq]

This is not a complaint but, when did "metalcore" go from being a hardcore subgenre to a metal subgenre. It used to be hardcore with metal elements and then it became metal with breakdowns. Thats fine, these things change - but when did it happen?

[@kanetielemans8475]

With all these bands they’re talking about here pretty much 😝 when the default metalcore sound was thought of as Killswitch and All That Remains

[@Siolarty19]

It sort of evolved that way because second wave metalcore bands weren't influenced by hardcore itself, but by the original metalcore bands. Combine that with the gigantic impact of melodic death metal, and you start getting a significant disconnect from the hardcore scene. And the same thing happened about 10 years later, when the genre started to grow distant from metal as well. Nowadays we have multiple generations of metalcore bands who weren't influenced directly by metal/hardcore, but by previous generations of metalcore bands. And it has spiraled so much that it's basically a whole standalone genre at this point.

[@JN-xb6pq]

@@Siolarty19 Thanks, that's a satisfying answer. With the earlier comment, to me KSE was still connected to the hardcore scene - Howard Jones was straight edge and in courage crew so culturally at least.

[@dgk6661]

Before Killswitch, there was Aftershock. Aftershock was Adam’s band and they were the earliest band that perfected combining hardcore with metal ambient riffs

[@mrbrimstone7115]

I dont care what all the neckbeard elitists and gatekeepers say, metalcore is metal, and it's cool af. Deal with it.

[@atvena]

How old is this surely mark is grey by now

[@xjoemallardx]

Asking Alexandria, Of Mice & Men and Attack Attack ruined metalcore, it became all about image after that.

[@MetalheadSailor]

I wouldn’t necessarily blame just those bands and others like them but also the fans for lumping them in that scene. I always looked at those bands who were in that emo hipster look as more post hardcore than anything due to their pop punk sounds. Metalcore was always about mixing the melodic death sound from the Scandinavian scene and fusing it with hardcore so there is definitely a big difference.

[@stonecoldsteverharvey7862]

Best genre.. AILD is the best band and it’s not even close lmao

[@jasonvegan5761]

Hate metalcore but Killswitch rules 🤘

[@Intermentor]

I think the problem with a lot of metalcore bands is that there are a lot of formula bands that don`t take changes. I also dislike a lot of bands in the genre, but Killswitch Engage, Chimaira (if they are metalcore??), Shadow Falls and God Forbid are great

[@7ChaosBlack]

Slaughter of the Soul is one of the BIGGEST mistakes ever. If I could go back in time, I'd prevent that horrendous record from ever being written and I'd make sure Alf Svensson never left the band after With Fear I Kiss the Burning Darkness.

[@frankfranks2946]

There was nothing cool about metal core, In high school we called them breakdown bands 20 years ago. As fast as most of those bands showed up they disappeared, now 20 years later they're all trying to be relevant again. What's the next one gonna be saying emo and scene we're cool at 1 time? LOL. Metal is metal, metalcore is far from it

[@mrbrimstone7115]

I bet you think Metallica is "real" metal

[@markmac5943]

Metalcore is actually just Metal and only a handful of those bands are truly connected to the Hardcore scene.

[@drgonzo9148]

If it's core, it's a bore.

[@markmac5943]

Most of your favorite Metal bands would say otherwise. 😅

[@markmac5943]

I was under the impression that the true original "Metalcore" bands like Merauder and All Out War would get a mention here. No Converge or VOD either? Come on.

[@Elegies22]

Found the metal elitists in the comments. Cry me a river. Metalcore is the biggest genre of metal right now. Whats your subgenre of metal known for right now? I'll wait

[@cwrichardson3]

Nintendocore

[@mastathrash5609]

BuT ITs NoT KvLt!! “The rIFfs R ToO CatCHY!” -they cry. 😅😉

[@jcfontaine0017]

@@Elegies22 "eww good singing, catchy riffs, and good song writing? DISGUSTING" - self proclaimed metal head

[@Jerrid_86]

Suffocation started a whole genre with one song and are still kings in death metal

[@Ziri1506]

Biggest genre of metal 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

[@CaleBenner]

Who plays the song at the very end? So familiar and I can’t place it! @loudwire

[@Metalholic7of8]

I like a lot of metal core was into hard-core before that been listening since late 80s I must say with metal core. There’s so many horrible band names that could not have helped the scene very much especially when the music is garbage

[@johncarter1852]

🤮

[@mrbrimstone7115]

cry me a river you elitist