If you happen to be familiar with some or all(!?) of the following bands or albums, or if you’re determined to make yourself familiar with them (since the majority can be found on Bandcamp and YouTube), you’ll notice right away that these collectively represent a darker, uglier, and more violent breed of metalcore than what you may be accustomed to. What we have here is by no means definitive, nor would I argue that these are even the very best metalcore in our “alternative” history. More often than not, my criteria comes down to two very simple, overarching premises: bands that were playing ahead of their time, and bands that created something that has gone, as of yet, unduplicated.
It wasn’t easy narrowing it down to six. Believe me: as difficult as it is to assemble a list of classic metalcore albums, at the very least, I have a number of sources and cemented opinion on which to fall back for support or to remind me of what I’ve missed or neglected. No such safety net here. Metalcore is one of the most elastic subgenres in metal; it’s capable of accommodating some of the widest genre-hops and strung-out inspirations, the maddest flights of fancy and the most baroque performances. The sheer number of unique metalcore visions with the potential to revolutionize the subgenre is well beyond my ability to catalogue or to even acknowledge. So I’m not going to try! These six albums that we do have are highly creative, idiosyncratic - what are “quirks” for other bands typically wind up as full-fledged songs here - and, as mentioned, were often way ahead of the curve at their times of release. While I will dive in for more in-depth looks, I want to point out that each of these is as much of an anomaly within the artist’s discography as they are within the scene, except for Drowningman’s Busy Signal at the Suicide Hotline, which is only the first gem in a career’s worth of them. Again, they’re here because they were doing what others weren’t, years in advance. The emphasis As The Sun Sets places on their grind influences, as another example, is a shockingly sleek precursor to what Converge were only just perfecting in 1999. Training For Utopia’s Plastic Soul Impalement, with pre-Demon Hunter alumni Don and Ryan Clarke, is a stunning merger of late-90s metalcore, noise rock, and straight-up noise almost too evil to stand alongside its Christian themes. And to bring up Drowningman once more, those familiar with Every Time I Die’s Last Night In Town will come to realize it sounds an awful lot like an embryonic version of Busy Signal’s armor-plated, emo-injected hardcore. It’s about as sugary as metalcore gets without compromising its ferocity. Without further ado: As The Sun Sets Each Individual Voice is Dead in the Silence Buried Inside Chronoclast Drowningman Busy Signal at the Suicide Hotline The End Transfer Trachea Reverberations From Point: False Omniscient Kiss It Goodbye She Loves Me, She Loves Me Not Training For Utopia Plastic Soul Impalement Most of these albums are debuts, and if there were follow-ups, they were often radical departures. It’s almost as if the bands themselves hadn’t quite realized what they’d made. I suppose that’s more accurate than to presume that they simply didn’t know where to go with the sound they created, but that may well have been a factor in a transition like that of Buried Inside’s progressive and deeply melodic Chronoclast to the straight Neur-Isis sludge of Spoils of Failure. I think it’s more likely that the boundary-pushing nature of that album, and of the other five, too, led their respective bands to pretty logical results: since the music rubs up against so many other extreme metal subgenres, the jump to sludge, grind, or even more conventional styles of metalcore wasn’t such a long one. I don’t think it reflects poorly on the bands at all - in the long run, it’s a smart move. Outsourcing for a moment, I want to refer to a comment made by Roderic, drummer of Swiss metalcore titans Knut, during an interview. I will be pulling from a transcription posted to ilma.orgfree.com. Asked whether he could ever see Knut becoming a full-time occupation, his response is illuminatingly honest: i'd like to state that these answers only reflect my personal opinion. no, i don't see us doing the band full time cause although it pretty much takes all the free time we have beside our jobs, living off it would mean playing music that appeals to a lot larger bunch of people (which i don't imagine us doing with this band). or it would mean touring all the time like some bands do, living on the road and not having a place of our own to live and well, i doubt that's the kind of life any of us wants to have. It’s easy to forget that these bands consist of people. That’s true of any artist or entertainer working in just about any genre. Roderic goes on to describe the day jobs of some members of Knut, making a clear point of the fact that they have responsibilities outside of pioneering and advancing obscure subgenres of a relatively unpopular style of music, just as the majority of listeners, casual and committed alike, probably have better things to do than trash someone else’s work. That sort of thing is manageable in doses: let’s not underestimate the role of the disenfranchised, the misunderstood, and the outcast in the origins of both punk and heavy metal. Alienation is our lifeblood. But before going much further, I do want to highlight this issue, because it is an issue. I mentioned that the metal and hardcore communities can be stubborn and hostile, and I think that bears repeating more than once. Maybe several more times than once. Innovation can be accidental, and contrary to the opinions of some, the folks that write, record, and perform the music we love don’t have all that much of an obligation to cater to the whims of its fanbase, and they have even less reason to start customizing their art to the complaints and “fixes” of “experts.” I bring this up only because the maligning of metalcore, worse in the past than at present, is half the reason it’s still maligned: some use the term “bandwagon,” less-approachable people “sheep,” but the fact is that once a certain style is designated outré, the scene is quick to keep it that way. Let’s stop that!, I can say from atop the little soapbox I’ve built for myself here, but even Henry Rollins gets tired of inspiring people. See, inspiration requires a focal point. A motivator. I’m offering you six, with the possibility of many more. The you I’m addressing here is still very much you, doubtful/curious/converted reader, but recognize that there is a larger emphasis on you with a guitar leaning against your bedroom wall or a drum kit sitting in your garage, your basement, maybe right next to that guitar. Most out of all, it’s you who have played a show or put out an album and heard the term metalcore bandied about, and balked at it. Maybe you use the term freely, in reference to yourself. Even you - all of you yous - can find something to admire in these albums, some whacked-out chord progression or experimental tangent dropped all too soon, amid a flurry of others, that you want to hear more of; that you want to learn; that you want to play. Like those folks who wanted out with Jacob Bannon, whose shit was thoroughly rocked by the mere idea of a song like “43% Burnt,” who never thought they’d see synchronized rollerblading metalheads in a music video for a song named Ebolarama, no less: there is something for you here in the dark. A new motivation. A new personal classic. A new mentality.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Brian LesmesWherein Brian hilariously overanalyzes a subgenre of metal! Archives
May 2018
Categories |