Swedecore

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Metalcore
Stylistic origins:	Hardcore punk – Heavy metal music
Cultural origins:	late 1980s North America
Typical instruments:	Guitar - Bass - Drums (Double kick)
Mainstream popularity:	Little to none during the careers of the bands, has gained much popularity in recent years
Subgenres
Deathcore - Moshcore - Mathcore - Swedecore
Other topics
Breakdown - Fashioncore - List of bands

Swedecore (also known as Gothencore and melodic deathcore) is a nickname for the most common style of metalcore music today, combining the melodies and guitar harmonies of melodic death metal bands such as In Flames and At the Gates with the aggressiveness and breakdowns of late 1980s American metalcore. This style is most commonly played by North American bands, though it has been made popular in Europe as well by bands like Caliban and Heaven Shall Burn.

1 Origins
2 Characteristics
3 Popularity
4 List of Bands
- 4.1 North America
- 4.2 Europe/Australia/New Zealand/etc.

[edit] Origins

While death metal and hardcore had always intermingled to an extent, the first clearly identifiable instances of melodic death metal being combined with metalcore seem to have sprung almost simultaneously, with Undying's This Day All Gods Die, Darkest Hour's The Prophecy Fulfilled, Prayer for Cleansing's The Rain in Endless Fall, and Unearth's Above the Fall of Man, all being released within a year of each other (1998-99). It is unclear who first got the idea to combine the two styles. Darkest Hour had released an EP called The Misanthrope in 1996 which arguably contained elements of their later sound but was for the most part metalcore in the vein of Damnation A.D. On the other hand, Day of Suffering's 1997 album The Eternal Jihad is cited as an influence for many of the North Carolina bands that followed, such as Undying and Prayer for Cleansing, and Overcast is seen as having started the genre in Massachusetts.

From the above list of bands one can see that the two main points of origin for Swedecore were the Washington D.C./North Carolina and Boston scenes, though Florida's Morning Again may have been influential as well. However, it can be argued that strides to bridge the gap between the two styles were being made in the European metal scene as well. In the early '90s, the band Entombed began to incorporate elements of hardcore punk, and Carcass, who are considered to be one of the pioneers of melodic death metal, had a strong hardcore element all along. The band that most metalcore bands take their cue from, however, is At the Gates, whose landmark 1995 album Slaughter of the Soul eschewed the layered melodies and folk-style acoustic guitars used by their peers Dark Tranquillity and In Flames in favor of a much more raw and energetic sound. In the liner notes of the album's rerelease, vocalist Tomas Lindberg recalls that many of the band's American fans consisted of "straight edge kids".

[edit] Characteristics

There is a great deal of variation within the subgenre itself. More popular bands, such as Killswitch Engage and Atreyu, tend to rely on a thicker, polished sound, conspicuous breakdowns, and frequent use of clean vocals, while bands on smaller labels, such as Undying or Beyond the Sixth Seal, tend to have a faster, rawer sound that is often virtually indistinguishable from traditional melodic death metal.

The lyrics of Swedecore bands are often more complex than those of standard Swedish-style melodic death metal bands, if for no other reason than that English is usually not the latter's first language. Often, they reflect hardcore rather than metal themes; for example, Darkest Hour focuses on socio-political commentary, while Undying focuses on veganism and environmentalism. Oddly enough, the apocalyptic nature of the music also suits it to Christian themes, and Christian metalcore is nearly a genre unto itself.

[edit] Popularity

Swedecore became unexpectedly popular around the year 2000, along with emo, probably due to its overlap with some of the heavier hardcore emo bands. Among the bands that helped popularize it and are considered its foremost representatives today are Killswitch Engage, God Forbid, and Unearth. Because of its popularity, it is often criticized as a 'sell-out' genre, being called "the new nu-metal". The validity of this argument is supported by the fact that Ozzfest lineups in recent years have begun to consist mainly of metalcore bands, whereas the festival had been dominated by nu-metal in the late nineties. Defenders of the genre say that the style has simply become more popular, while critics counter that the music itself has become watered-down and stale.

Currently, Swedecore possesses a sort of second-degree popularity, prevalent among fans of heavy music in general, but lacking the mainstream appeal of emo. However, its influence is visible in the mainstream, as many popular emo/metalcore bands, such as Alexisonfire or Silverstein, often conspicuously incorporate melodic death metal riffs into their sound.