Old School Deathcore 101: A Starter Pack
While deathcore today is often lumped as
part of the scene stuff that most staunch metalheads would not dare to explore
and outright assume its shit for the most part, the initial deathcore wave was
actually great shit, believe it or not.
I'm not talking about Suicide Silence or
stuff like that, where kids over-chug their guitars to showcase how damn
knuckle-dragging and "br00tal" they are nor the wanky, atrocious and
obnoxious stuff like Rings of Saturn. No. This is where the trve shit is y'all.
This is where bands beat the living shit out of the likes of Pantera or Amon
Amarth or any lame ass band that metalheads seem to put them high on the
pedestal for some bizarre reason, even though the majority of these deathcore
bands I'm gonna show you are much, much better.
To put it simply, deathcore is a fusion of
death metal and metalcore. Being a broad term it can mean anything from
"downtempo" deathcore, melodic deathcore, grindy deathcore, technical
deathcore, symphonic deathcore and obviously, old school deathcore. However,
let it be clear the use of the term "old school deathcore" is similar
to its cousin old school death metal (OSDM), meaning it's a quite broad term
too that can include multiple stylistic deviations of the genre.
If one take a harder look, one can see that
deathcore isn't a recent fusion as it goes all the way back in the early 1990s.
1992 was most likely the starting year for
deathcore. There are three bands that were notable for layering out its initial
template. The first one being Cross Fade, with their emphasis on a peculiar,
thuggery hardcore groove was noticeable on their '92 technical death metal demo
"Ruined". The next one is Lethargy (consisted of soon-to-be members of
Mastodon interestingly enough), who were also playing a technical death metal
style, but with a much more proto-mathcore derived sound in their demo.
Australian band Damaged (now known as Terrorrust) on the other hand were much
more notable: their early material is a mixture of death metal, metalcore and
NYHC, sounding extremely similar to mid to late '90s deathcore.
Deathcore gained a lot of traction in the
mid '90s. Metalcore itself has already flirted with a fair amount of death
metal at this point, though there are bands that took this to the limit. During
this period militant, vegan straight edge "hardcore" bands went
harder and aggressive in their stance and started to embrace death metal in
their music, which in the end becoming a major and influential force in
deathcore. In the US, bands like Abnegation, End of One, Upheaval and Day of
Suffering were some of the notable bands that actually began mixing a
considerable amount of death metal influences in their framework.
Meanwhile in Europe, the Belgian H8000
scene -- which is also vegan straight edge -- is an entirely different monster.
Congress and Liar pretty much changed the scene's landscape by opting a much
technical and hateful sound with low-key death metal influences (with Master being
name dropped in a Congress interview once), but it was Solid, Deformity,
Legion, Sektor and Striker that started exerting it stronger than their
predecessors. Other bands in the continent -- some of which were inspired by
the H8000 scene -- such as Reprisal, Jane, Shaft, Ashlar and Crawlspace went to
a similar route. The majority of these bands have always stated in interviews
that they took notes from death metal, making the deathcore tag much more
legitimate.
Damaged – Do Not Spit (1993)
To say Damaged is incredibly influential in
deathcore is uncertain since this band is possibly the most obscure when
compared to the other ones in this list – it just happens to be that they
played the original deathcore style that a lot of bands in the mid-late ‘90s
would play. Is this album good? I mean, yeah. Tracking it down might be hard,
but it’s an album well worth getting down especially if you’re down on getting
into old school deathcore 101.
Lethargy – Lost In This Existence (1993)
Here's a surprise for ya; Mastodon actually
helped pioneering deathcore and mathcore/metalcore -- or in their previous
incarnation called Lethargy to be more precise. This stuff is spazzy, filled
with dissonant and technical-laden riffs that would find old school deathcore
and some mathcore bands would later emulate. Assuming you have working ears and
know a thing or two about those genres I've mentioned earlier, you really can't
deny the resemblance being showed here
in this demo. Unfortunately they dropped their DM sound and went straight up
mathcore in their debut album, which was released in 1996. Oh, Brann Dailor and
Bill Kelliher were in this band, if you're curious.
End of One – The Aftermath (1996)
The holy grail of old school deathcore?
Probably. I'm pretty sure some of y'all would know about this peculiar EP
assuming you looked up the history of the genre. For the most part this band
fused death metal and trad-metalcore quite evenly, you would find metalcore
chugs and breakdowns being intertwined tastefully with downtuned, chromatic
NYDM-riffing backed by double bass assaults. Unfortunately this is the only
release that this project ever made, but nevertheless it was an interesting
piece of deathcore history.
Mörser – Two Hours to Doom (1997)
This is absolutely chaotic. What is
interesting to note here is that a lot of this stuff in this album is quite
unique in a way. To understand how this band sounded like is we have to take a
look at Acme. Now, Acme was notorious for their noisy and disso-grindy-sludgy
approach on Rorschach (a band that is also unique in metalcore even to this
day), and that approach made them extremely influential in European metalcore.
Acme's sound was intense, and so are the bands that they influenced. On one
hand, you got Stack making Acme-ish powerviolence, Carol fusing themselves with
screamo, and Mörser with deathgrind. After Acme disbanded some of the members
went and form Mörser. You'll find that this project is a logical, sonic continuation
of the former.
Upheaval – Downfall of the Ascendancy of Man (1997)
"Downfall of the Ascendancy of
Man" can be considered as an exemplary release for old school deathcore.
Murky production, thick and quite inventive riffs and excellent drumming are to
be expected. Some of the best highlights from this 20-minute record are the
middle chugs in "The Descending Path" as it was undeniably heavy,
considering the intense build-up beforehand. The closer "Abhorrent
Traditions" featured a noticeable brutal death metal influence (I'm dumb
because I can't name names at the top of my head right now) where the drumming
are much more dynamic.
Day of Suffering – The Eternal Jihad (1997)
If you haven't noticed the band came up
their name from a Morbid Angel song. This wasn't merely a coincidence; they
took major influence from the aforementioned band, playing fat and heavy OSDM
riffage for any traditional death metal fan to enjoy. An exemplary album for
old school deathcore, Day of Suffering managed to balance out their DM/MxC
influences, so for those who are still sceptical about this genre then
"The Eternal Jihad" is the best place to start.
Jane – A Doorway to Elsewhere (1998)
Interestingly, Jane was quite unlike when
it comes to approaching deathcore. Hailing from Germany, their vocal style in
this album was extremely similar to the likes of Carol, Forced to Decay and
various German emotive hardcore-tinged metalcore bands at the time (which, in
turn, they took major ideas from the legendary Acme like I mentioned earlier).
These bands tend to use emotional, raw and abrasive and drawn out screams, and
Jane more or less did that but with the additional inclusion of gutturals.
Their playing style is somewhat similar too in that style in a way, utilizing
clean guitars to aid introspective, atmospheric-esque parts á la Acheborn, all
the while alternating between heavy ass, mid-tempo stompers. Great band though,
might be my favorite as time goes on.
Spread the Disease – We Bleed From Many Wounds (1998)
This band may probably helped bridging the
gap between H8000-styled deathcore and the US bands like Embodyment and
Despised Icon. They alternated those sinister trems that you can find in
Deformity and Sektor alongside with the "bouncy" chugs and breakdowns
End of One was playing. Though that's just me.
Embodyment – Embrace the Eternal (1998)
Oh hey. Embodyment is actually quite
well-known here I think considering people would often bring them up when it
comes to discussing old school deathcore. Kinda spazzy at times, probably
influenced a lot of the later bands I reckon. This is a classic deathcore
album.
Beneath the Remains – Quest of the Last Souls (1998)
Solid US deathcore that is often
overlooked. If I recall correctly this band came from the scene All Out War and
End of One came from, which is interesting. Anyway, this got some mean ass
groovy riffs and tastefully used heavy chugs for days, but it was the vocalist
that carried this album into mean ass territory. I ain't kidding. He sounded
very pissed off about something, which kinda threw me off at first amusingly
enough. Whatever it is this album bangs.
Deformity – Murder within Sin (1999)
"Murder within Sin" is the
epitome of what deathcore bands should strive for, as the band was able to
faithfully play a brutal mixture of death metal and metalcore without making it
sound tacky in the slightest. The band's musicianship was tight; chromatic
riffing and chugs are varied and technical enough to capture the attention of
the listener, and not to mention the pummeling drumming managed to drove this
album into headcrushing territory. At first glance this might seemed like a
brutal death metal album, but when you take a closer look you can find tons of
similar licks and riffs that bands like Liar would play.
Reprisal – Boundless Human Stupidity (2000)
Reprisal is basically a death metal version
of Arkangel, and that's a great compliment. Both bands were obviously notorious
for preaching the righteousness of straight edge (a common practice for a lot
of metal-leaning hardcore bands at the time), and both bands were often hailed
for making some of most heaviest metalcore sounding records (arguably even
heavier than the modern chugcore bands these days tbqh), but I would willing to
argue that Reprisal perfected the formula Arkangel was heading for. All of the
technical-sounding-and-somewhat-melodic-yet-somehow-brutal-and-mean-ass riffs
and licks that you can find in Arkangel and other bands at the time such as
(early) Deformity, Reprisal has it and amped up the death metal influence hard.
The end result is this cult classic record, filled with tons of fucking riffs
that'll stuck in your head.
Structure of Lies – Abacus (2002)
This is a bit of a unique record. There are
some Mörser in this and probably Unruh too (not surprising considering a member
from this band was the guitarist for the latter). Expect a lot of non-obnoxious
twists and turns when it comes the songwriting here.
The Red Chord – Fused Together In Revolving Doors (2002)
"Fused Together In Revolving
Doors" is essentially mathy-grindy deathcore for freaks who couldn't get
enough of spazzy stuff since they have attention spans that's comparable to the
size of an ant like yours truly. Jokes aside, this stellar album rips hard from
start to finish. Often regarded as a classic too, as it should be.
Despised Icon – The Healing Process (2005)
This is kinda pushing it especially in
regards on how "old school" this album really is considering this got
those dissonant machine gun breakdowns that the likes of Norma Jean and later
most MySpacecore bands were worshipping. In other words you can consider this
album as a modern take on deathcore without the "scene" thing, I
guess. For real though, this album is quite chaotic and full of heavy as fuck
riffage that's capable of making people knocking their teeth out at each other.
Oh, and those pig squeals man.
The link below will redirect you to a list
of old school deathcore bands. A friend of mine originally made it but now it's
a collaborative effort between me and another friend. I wasn't able to provide
a much deeper insight on deathcore on this blog but that list includes a ton
more that you'll probably find surprising thanks to our research ;) Updated
regularly whenever we find "new" bands and info.
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