The Batlord's Thread of Metalcore that Doesn't Suck but In Fact ****ing Rules

[The Batlord]

I've heard (very passingly, so take that for what it is from a n00b) that hardcore is kind of stale right now, but from the last few bands I've listened to (Twitching Tongues and Homewrecker) who've had their first releases in or just short of this decade then I'm calling bull****. I already declared earlier that metalcore might have been the most exciting metal genre of of the mid-late nineties (death metal was stale by then, but black metal surely challenges that claim), but I'm now confident that, again, perhaps beside black metal again, (non-Killswitch Engage) metalcore is the current throne holder of "normal" metal's crown.

Death metal's old school revivalism and the continued quality of certain brutal DM bands maintains its relevance through sheer quality, if not innovation---Severe Torture is pretty wizard brutal DM of the skull-shattering-est kind, and if you haven't already checked them out, Obliteration continues to pick up where Obituary and Autopsy left off with ever-improving results.

Old thrash metal bands, along with a select few non-parody bands, sometimes show promise that the genre has a legitimate position in the middle ground between extreme and non-extreme metal when it embraces modern levels of sonic beef and perhaps some tasteful post-thrash influences---Exodus, Onslaught, and Overkill have been showing for years that stripped-down, blue collar metal can exist today without just being anachronisms; and Evil, Toxic Holocaust, and Diamond Plate prove that newer can plunder the eighties without being merely jokes.

Black metal, doom, and grindcore's futures seem to be in ever greater and weirder experimentation, so they're immune from this rant (though I've certainly heard the odd metalcore band with more than their share of experimentalism).

Metalcore, however often puts even the most brutal death metal to shame, and is an even tighter, more modernly relevant alternative to thrash. As far as pure headbanging music goes, I think the working man's metalheads are missing the boat on what's going on with metalcore these days. Get over your elitism and get with it.

As you can see, I've become somewhat of a fanboy in only a few short days. End rant.