Deadwater Drowning - Deadwater Drowning EP (2003)
This obscure EP by a band with no other releases is both a simplistic and odd amalgamation of influences that sound both cohesive and randomly flit from one to the other. Being such an early deathcore album this doesn't at all sound like the stereotype, so you have beatdown hardcore, late 90s metalcore, dashes of mathcore, brutal death metal, grindcore, and even a bit of melodeath that I'm guessing they borrowed from Unearth, all fighting to be heard over the others. And yet the band is too Neanderthal for it to be confusing because they don't how to do anything but beat you down with all the subtlety of a sock full of quarters.
In fact, even with all of that going on, what this really is is an absolutely crushing beatdown hardcore/metalcore band ala Disembodied (please tell me you know them) who take their extreme metal flirtations even further. It makes for a bit of a muddled sound, but everything still works for the most part due to Deadwater Drowning's goal of kicking ass and not much else.
I'm on my second listen of this album, and I'm not even judging this as a deathcore album anymore. As far as I'm concerned this is proto-deathcore that is otherwise planted firmly on the metalcore side of the fence. And that is ****ing alright with me.