With it's roots stretching back some 20 years, today's more popular metal strain, metal-core, is a blend of two different genres, hardcore punk and thrash metal. The ratio of the blend is not defined or regulated and can sometimes rely on the particular band or fans to categorise the music. Metalcore bands such as Chimaira, for instance, rarely use clean, melodic vocals in their tracks, as opposed to groups like killswitch engage who regularly include a more melodic approach through the chorus sections. The latter approach is often attacked by fans of 'classic metal' for not being true to the game, how-ever, others simply see it as an evolutionary path and the bands in question exercising their right to make the style of music they feel comfortable with. Lyrically, the metalcore scene typically revolves around feelings of inner strength, determination, rejection, unity, personal loss and anti-authoratirianism.
Some examples of Metalcore bands :- killswitch engage, war of ages, as i lay dying, chimaira, 36 crazyfists, devildriver, the agony scene, darkest hour, god forbid, ill nino, panic cell, a perfect murder, a love ends suicide, all that remains, bleeding through, carpathian, diecast, e town concrete, hatebreed, it dies today, lost eden, machinehead, shadows fall, souls harbor, still remains, throwdown, unearth, machinemade god, kataklysm, senses fail, atreyu, endwell, mudvayne, mercury switch, dance gavin dance, sick of it all, soilwork, dry kill logic, bury your dead, lamb of god, swift, himsa, clifton, swift, alterbridge
by metal master September 12, 2007
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An incredible genre of music. Unfortunately, what old-schoolers used to call metalcore has turned into the trashy crap that teens think is cool these days. Converge were, by leaps and bounds, the forefathers of the genre. Other influences were Gothenburg's death metal scene, as well as a lot of groove metal bands (Pantera, Sepultura, Prong, Helmet, etc.). It is not defined by breakdowns, but was actually a term given to hardcore punk bands with high levels of technicality (such as some Agnostic Front, Sick of it All, Bad Brains, etc.). Some bands, such as Converge or Botch, began incorporating these influences into music heavier than one of King Kong's turds, hence the birth of metalcore. Do not confuse this with post-thrash or thrashcore, which most of the bands in the "not metalcore" section are.
METALCORE BANDS: Botch, Deadguy, Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between the Buried and Me, Buried Inside, Starkweather, Coalesce, Zao, Curl Up and Die, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Ed Gein, Caliban, Earth Crisis, Into the Moat, UnderOath (first two albums), The Red Chord, Ion Dissonance, Norma Jean, A Life Once Lost, Becoming the Archetype...

NOT METALCORE: Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, A Perfect Murder, Atreyu, Bleeding Through, All That Remains, Shadows Fall, Unearth, Trivium, Still Remains, Bullet For My Valentine, Darkest Hour, Every Time I Die, Hatebreed, It Dies Today, Manntis, etc.
by fuzz-oid April 9, 2006
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Metalcore is a mix of heavy metal and hardcore music. It originated in the 1980's with bands like Integrity. Metalcore used to be refered to as Cross-Over Thrash, as stated by bands such as Dirty Rotten Imbecilesand Nuclear Assault.

Today, Metalcore and Cross-Over Thrash are considered two completely different genres of music. Nuclear Assault was among the first bands to call themselves Heavy Metal/Hardcore Punk band. Breakdown was arguably one of the earliest to fuse heavy metal-influenced riffing with a more traditional hardcore sound without being a thrash metal band.

Breakdowns are essential part of metalcore. Typically, the guitars play a set of rhythmically oriented riffs, usually on open strings so as to achieve the lowest sound the guitars are tuned for. These riffs are often accented by the drummer with double kick bass drums.
Examples of metalcore are: theBLED, Haste The Day, Bleeding Through, Underoath (Act Of Depression & Cries Of The Past), Killswitch Engage, As I Lay Dying, The Black Dahlia Murder, Bury Your Dead, Norma Jean, The Chariot, Darkest Hour, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Between The Buried And Me, Escape The Fate, Every Time I Die, Evergreen Terrace, Hatebreed, The Haunted, Misery Signals, The Number Twelve Looks Like You, Parkway Drive, Unearth, Vanna, and Walls Of Jericho.
by STEVECORE September 20, 2006
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a hardcore type of metal, with very fast hardcore type riffs, fucking ownage music.
by pakibeater May 31, 2003
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A genre of good music combining metal and hardcore and sometimes the hardcore/punk attitude. In the past months it has become overly popular and was being featured on MTV's "Battle for Ozzfest". Only the watered down and/or shitty metalcore bands have become popular though: NEW Atreyu, Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, Unearth, Bleeding through, Avenged Sevenfold (who are possibly the poorest excuse for metalcore ever), and hatebreed. The genre has become very flooded with bands looking to become the next atreyu/KsE. There are still some great metalcore bands out there: Zao, Glass casket, The Agony Scene, Symphony in Peril, Lamb of God (even though they're popular), Martyr AD (some of the most brutal metalcore out there), Preminitions of War, The Red Chord, Dead to Fall, Haste the Day, Summer's End, etc.
wait for the fad to pass,just like nu-metal shit
by Liberate te ex Inferis February 21, 2005
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metalcore tends to have somewhat indecipherable lyrics and awesome, though distorted, instrumentals featuring the guitar. Metalcore tends to be nfluenced by various themes including, at times, the strait edge, anti-drug/sex them.
lamb of god, unearth and other groups are considered metalcore.
by chris January 2, 2005
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