My 2004 and 5. A Metal Retrospective. Part Three.

So what lead to the downfall of metalcore. Well saturation of the market really. A new metalcore band released an album or was debuting a song every single day it felt like. It got to the point to where you had to wade through the imitators to find something truly special. That's never fun, especially with music. Then came the destruction of the fans unity. People started to talk badly about the ones who pioneered the genre and those pioneers had a hard time bringing their sound up to date or up to the listeners standards. This was true about a lot of metalcore bands. They had a hard time bringing new stuff or would try and change their sound too much.

Another problem that metalcore had was the advent of deathcore. Which was the mixing of death metal and hardcore. Because people were looking for the next thing deathcore caught on like the plague. Bands like Job for a Cowboy were becoming more popular while KSE and Soilwork were struggling to make new stuff and good stuff. Deathcore practically killed off metalcore over night.

Deathcore wasn't the only style to change the scene. A resurgence or thrash was and still is prominent in the metal scene. Some bands like Shadows Fall made the transition into a more thrash sound very well while other bands didn't change at all. With the trash revival came the wave of 80's metal legends such as Megadeth a Metallica were coming back to the limelight. This seriously hurt the chances of metalcore making a come back.

So what can these bands do to bounce back and will metalcore ultimately make a comeback? Well the bands need to realize they can't rely on old tricks. Bring something new, fresh, and exciting. Don't use the tried and true  format that has become stale and over done. Show some passion in your music. Make it exciting again! As far as a come back goes. All styles of music make a come back sooner or later. I truly believe that metalcore as a genre has more staying power than other sub genres of metal. I think if the bands who do it well figure out a new way of doing things they will be able to make a glorious come back. I personally am looking forward to that day!

I've enjoyed this look back into my metal history and I hope that you have too. If you have questions and comments feel free to use them and if you have bands that you want to see if I've not heard of I'm down with that as well.

Caliban - "Vicious Circle"


As I Lay Dying - "The Darkest Nights"