Metalcore | |
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Metalcore pioneers Converge live in 2007
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Other names | Metallic hardcore |
Stylistic origins | |
Cultural origins | Late 1980s, United States |
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Fusion genres | |
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Metalcore is a broad fusion genre of extreme metal and hardcore punk. The word is a blend of the names of the two genres. Among other genres blending metal and hardcore, such as crust punk and grindcore, metalcore is noted for its use of breakdowns, which are slow, intense passages that are conducive to moshing. Pioneering metalcore bands—such as Integrity,Earth Crisis and Converge, all of which had formed by 1990—are described as leaning more toward hardcore, with their style sometimes being called metallic hardcore, whereas later bands—such as Killswitch Engage, All That Remains, As I Lay Dying, Bullet for My Valentine, and Parkway Drive —are described as leaning more towards metal.Pantera (who influenced Trivium, Atreyu, Bleeding Through and Unearth) and Sepultura have been particularly influential to the development of metalcore in the 2000s, which saw many bands in the genre achieve considerable commercial success.
Black Flag and Bad Brains, among the originators of hardcore, admired and emulated Black Sabbath. British street punk groups such as Discharge and the Exploited also took inspiration from heavy metal. The Misfits put out the Earth A.D. album, becoming a crucial influence on thrash. Nonetheless, punk and metal cultures and music remained fairly separate through the first half of the 1980s. Cross-pollination between metal and hardcore eventually birthed the crossover thrash scene, which gestated at a Berkeley club called Ruthie's, in 1984. The term "metalcore" was originally used to refer to these crossover groups. Hardcore punk groups Corrosion of Conformity,D.R.I. and Suicidal Tendencies played alongside thrash metal groups like Metallica and Slayer. This scene influenced the skinhead wing of New York hardcore, which also began in 1984, and included groups such as Cro-Mags, Murphy's Law, Agnostic Front and Warzone. The Cro-Mags were among the most influential of these bands, drawing equally from Bad Brains, Motörhead and Black Sabbath. Cro-Mags also embraced straight edge and Krishna consciousness. Another New York metal-influenced straight edge group of this time period is the Crumbsuckers. 1985 saw the development of the hardcore breakdown, an amalgamation of Bad Brains' reggae and metal backgrounds, which encouraged moshing. Agnostic Front's 1986 album Cause for Alarm, a collaboration with Peter Steele, was a watershed in the intertwining of hardcore and metal.