Deathcore

Blast, squeal, drop

The heaviest branch ever grafted onto the hardcore tree, deathcore was hauled out of metalcore and lowered into the abattoir of death metal in the early 2000s, and it fires blast beats and tremolo riffs at full speed and then slams into half time, where single palm muted notes pound the open low string of a seven or eight string guitar like a pile driver sinking into wet concrete. The vocals split in two. A cavern growl answers a shredded shriek.

What separates deathcore from its two parents is what it refuses to keep. From death metal it takes the growl, the blast and the tremolo but mostly leaves behind the guitar solo and the long winding song, and from metalcore it takes the breakdown and the hardcore two step but throws the sung chorus out of the window. The production is brick wall loud, the kick drum triggered until it clicks like a nail gun. The pig squeal, an inhaled gurgle pitched high, is the signature. Nobody mistakes it.

Deathcore from Glendale to Sydney

The map starts with a handful of bands and one EP. Despised Icon in Montreal are credited alongside Antagony as the true pioneers, and All Shall Perish released Hate, Malice, Revenge in 2003. Formed in Glendale, Arizona, in December 2003 by musicians no older than sixteen, the band with the least threatening name in extreme music, Job for a Cowboy, put out the Doom EP in December 2005, watched it rip through the underground and then walked off toward death metal with Genesis. The deathcore template stayed behind.

California built the canon. Suicide Silence from Riverside sold 7,250 copies of The Cleansing in its first week in 2007, among the best selling debuts in Century Media's history, Carnifex came out of San Diego County, and Whitechapel, three guitarists strong and named after the London district where Jack the Ripper killed, answered from Knoxville, Tennessee. Australia sent Thy Art Is Murder, the first extreme metal band ever to crash the ARIA top 40, with Hate. Nobody expected that.

The deathcore revival arrived with an orchestra. The New Jersey band Lorna Shore hung choirs and symphonic keyboards over the blast and saw "To the Hellfire" go viral in 2021, while Shadow of Intent from Hartford built their songs around the Halo novels. The borders stay narrow. Slam keeps the brutal death metal chassis and hands the wheel to the groove, metalcore keeps its chorus, and death metal proper keeps the solo.

Where to start

Eight deathcore albums, from a Bay Area record of 2006 to the orchestral flood of 2022.

• All Shall Perish The Price of Existence Nuclear Blast, 2006

  Eddie Hermida's first album with the band, recorded in Emeryville with Zack Ohren, and counted among the records that defined the style.

• Despised Icon The Ills of Modern Man Century Media, 2007

  Two vocalists trading growls and squeals, Yannick St-Amand producing, and a first video shot at forty degrees below zero on a mountain near Quebec City.

• Suicide Silence The Cleansing Century Media, 2007

  Number 94 on the Billboard 200, produced by Tue Madsen, and in AllMusic's reading a sensory assault for the sake of sensory assault.

• Carnifex The Diseased and the Poisoned Victory, 2008

  The San Diego County band's second album, number 19 on the Heatseekers chart, before black metal began seeping into the sound.

• Whitechapel This Is Exile Metal Blade, 2008

  Three guitars, Jonny Fay producing, and a turn away from the Ripper murders toward anti-religious themes and a society rotting from the top.

• Thy Art Is Murder Hate Halfcut, 2012

  Will Putney behind the desk, number 35 in Australia, and a Nuclear Blast reissue the following spring once the band had signed.

• Shadow of Intent Melancholy Self-released, 2019

  Francesco Ferrini of Fleshgod Apocalypse orchestrating, Trevor Strnad guesting, and a concept about mass suicide that turned the Hartford band away from Halo.

• Lorna Shore Pain Remains Century Media, 2022

  Will Ramos on his first full album with the band, a three part title suite to close, and number 6 in Austria.