Blasts From The Past: Deathcore

NOTE: Anyone under the age of 16 look away now, things are about to get very nostalgic and very embarrassing.

For those who don't know, back in 2007 deathcore was a super big deal (deathcore being a portmanteau of death metal and hardcore) and basically encouraged me not only to get back into death metal, but also to get into hardcore (I can feel people already firing up the comments box with the simple phrase "trend jumper") but let me first warn you before you read the rest of this post, that this is an appreciation and an exploration of the classic era of deathcore (2005 or some shit) and should serve not only as an education to people who want to learn the difference between MySpace deathcore and commercial deathcore (I totes just made this up) but as a reflection for people who might no longer listen to deathcore but want to re-connect with their beloved slamz, so let's take a walk down memory lane and into the world of tight jeans, tight shirts, white belts and ridiculous haircuts.

To make our adventure slightly easier I have broken it down into three bits: The Music, The Merch, The Music Videos but just to ease you in here is what would be considered the pinnacle of deathcore's achievement:




The Music
To truly understand deathcore you have to understand the music and that in itself is a vast and interesting journey. From the outset bands like Suicide Silence, As Blood Runs Black and Carnifex have always been considered the poster boys for deathcore, with Suicide Silence even attain a KISS level of merchandising by literally putting their logo on every single type of tee-shirt you could imagine. But the music was always something special and instantly recognisable as DEATHCORE, and this is what I would put in the category of "commercial deathcore". These sorts of bands were signed onto some label like Summerian or Nuclear Blast and had a high level of production value and were essentially like professional bands, going on large tours, being internationally recognised and lauded as deathcore pioneers and bringing more sub-drops per second than physically possible. However I feel I am digressing away from the point of the music, so here are the three key elements to making commercial deathcore:

1. HIGH PRODUCTION VALUES: this could be anything from having super clear sounding drums and guitars and having a polished sound all the way up to having more guest vocalists than physically possible, with at least one of them having some form of metal credentials.
2. HIGHLY INTENSE BREAKDOWNS: this is the main key to deathcore is having a super insanely heavy beatdown and with commercial deathcore you could bet your money there would be a sweet bass drop followed by some snare sounds turned so high up you could feel your pelvis shattering,
3. GANG SHOUTS: a thing borrowed from hardcore, but made their own with such classic lines as "THE DOCTORS WON'T BE ABLE TO RECONGIZE YOUR FUCKING FACE" or "WHAT THE FUCK!" being bellowed super loudly before going into a ridiculous beatdown (see 2).
   

however this reasonably easy to follow formula triggered a whole slew of bands which I like to refer to as "MySpace deathcore", which is applied to any band who basically decided to form a deathcore band but were for some reason or another never able to make it to the levels of "commercial deathcore". These bands usually could be divided into two categories and below outlines these two very different points

1. GOOD: these bands may have faded from existence but at the time the recordings on their MySpace were clear (mars needs cheerleaders) free to download (the red death) or did something a bit different such as something daring like having two vocalists (in b4 despised icon crying) or being from Europe so instantly making it more relatable and also slightly more sketchy (the juliet massacre)
2. BAD: imagine the worst local band you have ever seen and just before it gets to the end they tell you to check out their recordings on MySpace and what follows is a dreadful din and super low vocals. Many deathcore bands that didn't "make" it fell by the way side by the fact they didn't have particularly good recordings or were highly generic which never really bodes well if your already going into a genre which has exploded with millions of bands (as cute as a button, swimming with sharks, basically any Australian/American band that added you on MySpace and had only played 1 show at their local youth club)

also 90% of bands in deathcore used to have pig squeals as some form of special treat almost so many MySpace deathcore bands were full of them and many commercial deathcore bands dropped them in favour of having a more overall deathcore growly sound.

THE MERCH

you've heard the music, now get the tee shirt! was a phrase that was commonly seen on MySpace bulletin boards and you could be sure that there would be a lot of it. Lots of deathcore merchandise was basically band logo on the front with some lyrics on the back, in bold. Although some people could dispute Suicide Silence as the kings of this style of merch, it was the band killwhitneydead that cinch the prize for this as literally every piece of merch was the same thing just in a different colourway so some people ended up having collected 34 shirts of the same thing just in different colours.

However if you fancied going for something a bit more stylish on the merch front you could always get a tee that some form of super gruesome cartoon gore on it or even just an image copied off Google images with the bands logo slapped over the top of it. It's a common sight now to see that all the large and xl tees of bands sell out first as its currently the fashion to have a super baggy tee-shirt but back in 2007 most bands would have tees in xxs to medium and they would sell out in flash as this would normally be paired with fashionable items of the day including: tight jeans, slip ons, white belts and a new era cap with your MySpace address written on it.

The MUSIC VIDEO

so you've lost loads of weight, and sucked into your tightest deathcore tee-shirt, illegally downloaded the new Molotov Solution EP and spent you first show scheming on girls you've recognised on MySpace and moshed super hard to that suicide silence breakdown that has a family guy quote in it, but now comes the final step: the music video!

Music videos for deathcore bands were no different from music videos today, they were either: super serious, super cheesy, or super crappy. However they contain a few differences in the fact most of these videos had some crazy wobble effect on the drummer for every time he hit the cymbal, a girl in some form of mortal peril (deathcore, much like emo had some serious girl angst) and would contain at least one shot of either an anti-religious symbol or a wide shot of super slow-mo head banging.

1. Super Serious was always a forte of bands like Whitechapel which always had something really deep and meaningful going on to show how thoughtful and serious they are as musicians

1. Super Cheesy was never intentional and although its definitely a late pass, Despised Icon take the prize for the video for Day Of Mourning being one the most cheesy and most ill planned things ever conceived (check out those sweet suits and slightly out of time lip synched brees)

1. Super Crappy was a main stay of any "MySpace deathcore" band and it would be unfair for me to single one out for special mention but I will so i present to you without comment:

so there you have it, a vague and skimmed over visit through deathcore. we've cried, we've cried some more and you've sighed but the classic era of deathcore should never be forgotten, so next time you're lurking in your room listening to whatever flavour of the month hardcore band it is, remember that not even 4 years ago, half your friends and half the bands you were listening to, were wearing slip ons and practicing their pig-squeals in an attempt to make good on the musical craze that was deathcore.

owen

xoxoxo