Genre Histories

Ion Dissonance on a club stage, the bassist in a white shirt lit blue in front, the drummer and a guitarist behind him in red stage fog

Before the Word: The Proto-Deathcore Records

Jonah Pike with Rafael Quintero · Jun 29, 2026

Tom Angelripper of Sodom playing bass under an open sky in 2019

Tape Trading: How a Demo in a Padded Envelope Built a Genre

Declan Rourke · Jun 28, 2026

Atreyu bassist playing a white bass at full stretch on the Rock am Ring stage, drum kit and a skull backdrop behind him, 9 June 2019

Orange County and the Metalcore Boom: What Deathcore Grew Out Of

Jonah Pike · Jun 27, 2026

Blasphemy performing live in Melbourne

Canadian Black Metal

Eirik Solvang · Jun 27, 2026

Pestilence on stage at Hellfest in 2019

Thrash Bands That Became Death Metal

Declan Rourke · Jun 25, 2026

Dawn Ray'd on stage

British Black Metal

Eirik Solvang · Jun 25, 2026

Angra on stage at Bangers Open Air in Sao Paulo in 2026, the singer and a guitarist at the front

Latin American Heavy Metal

Declan Rourke · Jun 25, 2026

Winds of Plague on an outdoor daytime festival stage, the vocalist mid-scream between two guitarists, the crowd at the barricade Chapter 2

The MySpace Years: How Deathcore Became a Scene

Jonah Pike · Jun 25, 2026

A festival crowd in front of the main stage at dusk

Thrash Festivals: Wacken, Hellfest and the Reunion Circuit

Declan Rourke · Jun 24, 2026

Earth Crisis vocalist Karl Buechner leans off the stage with the microphone toward a wall of raised hands, one fan's forearm marked with a black X, at the Firestorm 30th anniversary show in Syracuse.

Earth Crisis, Integrity and the Hardcore Roots of Deathcore

Jonah Pike with Gareth Llewellyn · Jun 24, 2026

Alice Cooper on stage at the OVO Hydro in Glasgow in October 2024, cane raised above his head

Madness and Asylums in Metal Lyrics

Declan Rourke · Jun 24, 2026

Brujeria performing live on stage

Mexican Death Metal Bands

Rafael Quintero · Jun 23, 2026

A Dying Fetus guitarist on stage at Filmstudion in Gothenburg in January 2026, head bowed over a black seven-string guitar, his shaved head and beard lit from the side against a dark stage

Suffocation, Dying Fetus and the Death Metal Roots of Deathcore

Jonah Pike with Rafael Quintero · Jun 23, 2026

Despised Icon's two vocalists at the front of a smoky, backlit festival stage, one in a cap leaning out with the microphone, the other bearded beside him, the bassist at the right edge

The First Deathcore Album

Jonah Pike with Rafael Quintero · Jun 22, 2026

Bulldozer in a 1985 band portrait

Italy and Spain: Bulldozer, Necrodeath, Legion

Declan Rourke · Jun 21, 2026

Helloween on stage in Budapest beneath a hanging carved pumpkin and a backdrop whose forty is closed by a jack o lantern face

The Heavy Metal Mascots

Declan Rourke · Jun 20, 2026

King Diamond, band portrait, circa 2000. Photo: courtesy Metal Blade Records

From Shock Rock to Heavy Metal

Declan Rourke · Jun 19, 2026

Tom Angelripper of Sodom with his bandmates

How German Thrash Fed Black Metal

Declan Rourke · Jun 19, 2026