Metalcore

Metalcore is a broadly defined music genre combining elements of heavy metal and hardcore punk, originating in the 1990s United States and becoming popular in the 2000s. Metalcore typically has aggressive verses and melodic choruses, together with slow, intense passages called breakdowns. Other defining traits are low-tuned, percussive guitar riffs, double bass drumming, and a highly produced sound. Vocalists typically switch between clean vocals (melodic, emotional singing) and harsh vocals (including shouting and screaming). Lyrics are often personal, inward-looking and emotive. It is debated whether metalcore is a subgenre of metal and hardcore, or a genre of its own. Many metalheads do not regard metalcore as a heavy metal subgenre, due to differences musically, vocally, lyrically and subculturally. Metalcore grew out of hardcore in the late 1980s and early 1990s and was pioneered by bands such as Integrity, Earth Crisis and Converge, whose style is sometimes referred to as metallic hardcore. These bands combined hardcore with elements of thrash and groove metal. During the decade, the genre diversified, with Converge, the Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch and Coalesce pioneering mathcore, while Overcast, Shadows Fall and Darkest Hour merged metalcore with melodic death metal to create melodic metalcore. During the early 2000s, melodic metalcore bands such as Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, Trivium, As I Lay Dying, Atreyu, Bullet for My Valentine and Parkway Drive found mainstream popularity. In the subsequent years, the genre saw increased success through social networking on Myspace and internet memes such as crabcore. During this time, artists began to draw influence from a wide variety of sources, which led to genre cultivating a plethora of fusion genres including electronicore, deathcore, Nintendocore, progressive metalcore and nu metalcore. In the 2010s and 2020s, the genre saw even greater commercial success and became the most popular style of heavy rock...