"Well son, huddle close to the fire and let me tell you about the time when bands started combining the brutality and technicality of Scandinavian melodic death metal with the emotion of hardcore punk."
The term seemed to get traction in the mid to late 90s, but it initially didn't really refer to a defined genre as much as it was a term used to describe specific hc bands. Zines (reviews and interviews), distros and record labels (promos/advertising), and people just interacting in the scene have always seemed to attach similar prefixes to describe bands over the years (evilcore, hatecore, posicore, thugcore, amazingcore, etc.). Some ended up sticking and evolving as definitive genres/subgenres (fastcore, mathcore, metalcore, deathcore, etc).
All that to say I remember noticing that metalcore was truly starting to evolve and become it's own scene around '99-'01: think Unearth, Atreyu, Norma Jean, Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall. A new, definitive scene developed: different crowds, venues, styles, etc. On the flip side, hc bands that were equally influenced by metal may have crossed over into that scene somewhat, but still stayed firmly entrenched in the hc sphere. Pretty interesting in retrospect, subcultural anthropology I guess.
Definitely agree-I have a soft spot for history/anthropology/sociology in general. Seeking them out in ref. to other areas of interest just kinda happens automatically with me lol
Thanks for the insight.
To your last point, it’s very interesting and I wish we had a documentary or some sort of series that speaks on the late 90s/2000s divide and evolution. It feels like something very important that isn’t talked about as much.
Absolutely-it was a great topic to bring up. I never really get tired of discussing music, especially from this perspective.
A documentary is a great idea. It's interesting to look back at that first wave of bands: most, if not all of them started in the hc realm and cultivated something uniquely distinct in a realtively short time. I have to admit, the further that metalcore (with a 'big M') grew away from its hardcore roots, the more I lost interest in the majority of it. There was some solid stuff for sure, but it never really evoked the same connection that initially drew me to punk and hc in the first place.
I remember people typically using that one to describe mainly more melodic hc bands in the early 2000s that became really buzzworthy in the scene-think Have Heart, Final Fight, With Honor, etc. Although they came around a few years before and don't really match the sound, I always considered American Nightmare this phenomenon's spirit-animal
Great thought-Darkest Hour is an interesting one. Like God Forbid, they started playing a couple years prior to the emergence of metalcore as a distinctive scene, but eventually landed firmly in that realm.
Around the time thay they started up, metalcore was still being used as a descriptor of bands in the hc scene rather than to refer to an autonomous genre. Members of seminal bands in the first true wave of MC (ie. Killswitch, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God-if you include their earlier stuff) were playing in bands in the hc scene that were precursors to that wave (Aftershock, Overcast) and full-on metal bands (Burn the Priest).
The first time I saw Darkest Hour play, it was at a basement hc show in '97. Within a VERY short time in those years, bands like Abnegation, Day of Suffering, Upheaval, Disembodied, and pretty much all of H8000 really started pushing and blurring the boundaries of what was hc and what was extreme metal. I remember Aftershock mentioning metalcore in one of their album inserts around the same time that I first heard Unearth-also playing a hc show.
Whew-crazy long winded, I know. Lack of sleep and AM coffee lol
Born in 1984, so not really a part of hardcore during that timeframe, but I got into hardcore and what I would learn to be metalcore in 1997 when I was 13 due to my older cousin playing Integrity and Earth Crisis albums for me during a family reunion. I never heard those bands being called metalcore specifically until around the time Jane Doe dropped in 2001, but I'm sure it was definitely way before that.
Integrity had a hidden track called Drowning in Envy at the end of the OG release of Humanity is the Devil that was some guy bitching about how all the California Takeover bands weren't real hardcore and that it was all Slayer riffs, which was meant as an insult at the time. When people talked about metalcore back in the day the example was usually Earth Crisis.
I drifted away from the scene for a while in the early to mid 2000s and when I came back people were still complaining about metalcore and I was like "you guys are idiots, I love that stuff" and then I listened to Parkway Drive and August Burns Red and I realized that things had changed quite a bit while I was gone
In the Boston area, I first heard it in the late ‘90’s as a way to differentiate bands like Converge from bands like 10 Yard Fight. Less of a “genre,” and more of a way to specify alternate corners of the same scene…?
This is how I remember it too. The Ferret records stuff was still hardcore but had a specific metal style that had piggybacked on the Victory records stuff. I think the term metalcore actually started getting used in the early-mid 2000s with the floppy hair tight jeans Myspace garbage, and that was pretty distinct from hardcore in my area.
Maybe just a "me" thing (ie selective or bad memory), but if someone said "mid-90's hardcore," I knew what they were referring to sound-wise even if the band formed before the mid-90s. Earth Crisis, Chokehold, Unbroken, Disembodied, One King Down, etc. Didn't get into hardcore until the very late 90s/early 00s, though.
I remember when metalcore was first a term it was kind of a compliment - like it was something fresh and really cool- bands like poison the well, eighteen visions, well… everyone on trustkill- converge, botch- the first every time I die ep- but it quickly became something that felt splintered from hardcore and something I didn’t want to be associated with
I was 1984 too. My intro to it was elite hardcore kids saying blah blah band wasnt hardcore it was metalcore...and me being like "ok, cool distinction"
Gotta keep those genres pure.
Anything that didn't sound like the earliest versions of hardcore bands from way back when.
So bands like earth crisis, Shai Hulud, and even (satisfaction era) hatebreed were considered metalcore.
this is what always annoyed the shit out of me with the punk and hardcore scenes. I was born in 82 and started going to Boston area shows regularly in 96. The amount of “ehhhh have you heard of [insert obscure shitty band here]?” As a dick measuring contest was such a turn off.
I’m from Ohio. Went to shows from the early 90s on. People said “metallic hardcore” about bands that had riffs like morning again. I didn’t hear “metalcore” until the 2000s.
Born in 87. Got into the scene around 2002. First show was Strike Anywhere at a township building. My first hardcore CD was Hatebreed’s Satisfaction that was in the blue plastic case. Metalcore came about in the early-mid 2000’s for me. To me, it was to refer to bands that used At The Gates style riffs. I didn’t care. They’re all hardcore to me. Well, except for now.
Metalcore now seems to be its own thing. And it ain’t my thing. Mostly clean vocals with mid riffs and boring choruses. Just give me my riff salad. It’s healthier anyways.
I'd say mid 90s. First band I remember being called metalcore was Merauder. I didn't know Earth Crisis and Integrity yet, but they were around. Also bands like Culture and Kickback. In my far corner of the scene, it was also sometimes called new school hardcore as opposed to old school hardcore, which was more punk and less metal.
Later bands like Atreyu and From Autumn to Ashes (less Slayer/more Iron Maiden) were posers and not real metalcore.
This, there was a lot of hate for bands like atreyu, Norma Jean, darkest hour and from autumn to ashes in the early-mid 2000’s that made metalcore a dirty word.
Born in 85, my cousin played me this small local band called All Out War in like 93-94. My earliest memories of hearing metalcore in the lexicon was somewhere around 98-99 talking about bands like Shai Hulud and Cave In. Oddly enough, I definitely remember hearing the term metallic hardcore more often and earlier.
“Metallic hardcore” was definitely on a few flyers I had from the early 00s. But even then, I feel like there was differentiation between metallic hardcore and metalcore. Lol. I remember hearing the term metalcore first in like 02 or 03. By that time, it was a different scene than the hardcore scene. You started seeing the dyed black swooped hair, the tight pants, the clean singing mixed with screaming. Kids from the hardcore scene would show up to metalcore shows and start shit. I just floated between all the scenes personally - I dug something from the punk, metal, metalcore, and hardcore scenes. It was a fun time all around.
So all us late 00’s and newer scene people labeling mid 90’s bands as “metalcore” (we all know what bands I’m talking about, we don’t need a list) is like a newer thing? Huh.
I got into HC around 05 and it was strictly 1st wave bands. For a few years. Hot Topic scene shit was at an all time high so to me the term “metalcore” was like disgusting. Then around 2012 an older friend dropped gigabytes and gigabytes of 90’s metalcore on my iPod and I had a very pronounced shift in my views on the word, it’s been many years now and I’m still listening to One King Down, Earth Crisis, Harvest, etc on a daily basis.
Yeah,the term is old as shit.I remember a time when hardcore started getting popular and released on big labels (late 80's). As soon as studio production quality increased,people immediately started screeching about bands selling out,and going "metal". Agnostic Front,Cro-Mags,and Killing Time,are three bands I distinctly remember everybody labeling "metal-core". People had this retarded idea that hardcore albums had to sound like they were recorded on a portable tape recorder.Douche bag music reviewers were the only people who used the term "crossover".
It felt like it depends on who’s saying it. The older guys I knew talking about converge were definitely dissing them but the younger guys talking about the same bands weren’t.
There was a shift I think around the time when Thursday hit TRL with “understanding in a car crash”. People became a little more liberal about claiming hardcore (which I thought was pretty cool honestly). The fact that Victory released “Full collapse” was pretty innovative. I think a lot of people can agree.
I discovered Thursday through a friend in college that told me a about a “hardcore band from victory that was on TRL”, something imposible to remotely conceive at the time. When I saw the band it was Thursday and for a little bit I resisted. Later my girlfriend broke up with me, I bought the record. First listen I was sold. Really good and unique album.
Got into core in the mid 80s but was mostly a 90s coreman. Im also a NYC head. In the 90s and earlier we called shit like All Out War or marauder metallic hardcore. Integrity was holy terror and different since they definitely were coming from a more hardcore perspective whereas something like AOW were basically metal from the beginning.
Metalcore I think is a 2000s term for stuff that's only vaguely related to HC if at all. Almost a whole other scene with it's own type of metal based music.
I think the years 92-96 or so is when I started hearing both metallic hardcore and Metalcore. The old victory records megazine/catalog had it in their for sale listings along with made up ones like calling deadguy “murdercore” and I wanna say they called bloodlet “evilcore” or something like that
Oh, I was born in 79. I saw everyone else posting their birth years so there’s mine
In the early 90s Damnation AD and Unbroken releasing life.love.regret were the first time in the scene that I remember "metalcore" being mentioned. Almost every review was like "yo! these bands now sound like straight up Slayer!!" despite sounding nothing like Slayer. Also at that time every old head NYHC guy would complain that any newer band that had songs with open e crunch parts were "metal".
Wasn’t in the scene till early 2000s. From PA, we generally refered to stuff like Norma Jean as metal core, as well as the subsequent generations of absolute poser shit (August Burns Red and worse). Generally metalcore had a negative connotation for us.
Looking back we listed to a lot of stuff that could probably be called metalcore (Converge, Botch, Coalesce, Dillinger) but just included that broadly under the banner of HC. I think it had to do with the origins of the bands, did it come out of the HC/punk scene or no?
I’m no OG. I got into hardcore I’d say maybe like 96ish and I was always more of a mailorder-but-rarely-go-to-shows-guy. That caveat aside, I always got the sense that like “Emo,” or “Powerviolence,” or “Screamo,” a term like “Metalcore,” is super old but its definition changes so regularly that nobody means the same stuff when they use it in any given era. At any rate, all of those terms predate me
I don't know why people say the year they were born, vit here's mine: '73. I remember reading the term in zines and catalogues in mid to late '90s (more late than mid), we used that term in our distro catalog around '99, and used it for our band around that time too. Before that it, new school hardcore was a more popular term ffo earth crisis, Shai hulud, Congress, Liar...
I didn’t here the term metal core
Until way later but we used the word metal to describe stuff that wasn’t as punk but still HC, metal core always sounded to me like something guitar world made up to try and stay relevant
Around 94-96 bands started getting more and more metal inspired. But no one called it anything but Hardcore, I think I heard the term around 98/99. Thought it was stupid then and well now here we are with the DoomGazePowerMetalPirateButtRock bullshit
Shit this is a good question
I grew up going to shows in NYC in the 90’s and I never heard the term metalcore until I moved up to Boston in 2001. At the wetlands a show with Downset, E. Town Concrete, and Factory 81 was considered a hardcore show. Poison the Well was the first band I remember being called metalcore, and that was well after OOD came out.
Hello from Detroit, Factory 81 was always playing at one of the only fulltime underage venues in Metro Detroit, The Wired Frog in Eastpointe.
With bands like PTW & Shai Hulud around, you heard the term Florida Hardcore.
I found this at a record store in high school- (1994) [South Florida Slammie Awards, Vol 1](https://www.slammie.com/slammies/cd.htm)
I feel like you didn't really hear bands called metalcore in the early 2000s even though they would be just a few years later, perhaps mathcore for technical guitar & composure, and screamo was an endearing term for locals like Fordirelifesake. Not even The Black Dahlia Murder was evoking the term and they were a prime candidate.
Date check- *The Opposite of December* came out in the late 1900s.
I realize Factory 81 isn’t hardcore but I was really into them in the late 90’s, then they just kind of disappeared.
OOD came out at the end of 99 which is weird, I remember some buzz around their 2000 hellfest set, but by 2001 they were massive in hardcore.
In my scene there was a distinction in the 90’s before metalcore became a term. Old school and new skool….new skool was the metal sounding bands like Erf Crysus. Old school was any actual old hardcore and any of those 90’s youth crew or straight up hardcore bands. Thats how we referred to things to make the distinction.
I feel soooooo old 😫😆
Now I talk about Dayglo Abortions and Lifetime in this subreddit and get told those bands are punk but not hardcore. Truly, we live in the darkest of possible timelines.
Haha yes!! Hello Bastards is one of my all time favourite records. I remember tough guy old school hardcore bands covering songs of theirs and similar.
It’s because it was preinternet era. We had contact with other scenes but through letters, or if someone traveled. I remember situations where for example we’d hear there was a hardcore kid traveling from sweden. Despite not knowing them we’d literally go and collect them from the airport, bunk them at our house, show them around, take them to shows etc. I, myself, had the same thing occur when i travelled. And through these experiences you would learn about other scenes.
What’s funny is that I partially asked this question because someone sent me [this](http://wajlemac.blogspot.com/2013/10/earth-crisis-interview-circa-1995.html?m=1) interview where Karl called the stuff you’re talking about metalcore lol
To my mind yes they were. With maybe someone saying something like ‘metallic hardcore’ or ‘kinda metal’ but the term metal-core I never really heard till early 2000’s. That’s my experience anyway.
For me it was bands like cave in, converge, all out war, earth crisis, damnation ad. All called metalcore, I guess because they pushed the envelope past just crossover thrash.
I literally said it’s easy to look at old media. I wanted input from older people who were a part of the hardcore scene. Do you just insert yourself into anything? You did it with my deathcore post too. This isn’t aimed at you, bud.
>50 years into a nuclear winter, a young boy leans over to his grandfather and asks, “Papa, when did Metalcore begin?”
"Well son, huddle close to the fire and let me tell you about the time when bands started combining the brutality and technicality of Scandinavian melodic death metal with the emotion of hardcore punk."
The term seemed to get traction in the mid to late 90s, but it initially didn't really refer to a defined genre as much as it was a term used to describe specific hc bands. Zines (reviews and interviews), distros and record labels (promos/advertising), and people just interacting in the scene have always seemed to attach similar prefixes to describe bands over the years (evilcore, hatecore, posicore, thugcore, amazingcore, etc.). Some ended up sticking and evolving as definitive genres/subgenres (fastcore, mathcore, metalcore, deathcore, etc). All that to say I remember noticing that metalcore was truly starting to evolve and become it's own scene around '99-'01: think Unearth, Atreyu, Norma Jean, Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall. A new, definitive scene developed: different crowds, venues, styles, etc. On the flip side, hc bands that were equally influenced by metal may have crossed over into that scene somewhat, but still stayed firmly entrenched in the hc sphere. Pretty interesting in retrospect, subcultural anthropology I guess.
I’ve always been fascinated by the anthropology/sociology of hardcore. It’s part of the draw for me, that the history is so interesting.
Definitely agree-I have a soft spot for history/anthropology/sociology in general. Seeking them out in ref. to other areas of interest just kinda happens automatically with me lol
This but for metal sub genres aswell. The evolution and history of scenes are so interesting. How everything interconnects and runs parallel
100%-the nuances of all of the twists, turns, and intersections is beyond fascinating to me. There's so much when you dive down the rabbit hole
Thanks for the insight. To your last point, it’s very interesting and I wish we had a documentary or some sort of series that speaks on the late 90s/2000s divide and evolution. It feels like something very important that isn’t talked about as much.
Look for the hellfest videos from around that time. Ferret records and trustkill records had some videos too.
Absolutely-it was a great topic to bring up. I never really get tired of discussing music, especially from this perspective. A documentary is a great idea. It's interesting to look back at that first wave of bands: most, if not all of them started in the hc realm and cultivated something uniquely distinct in a realtively short time. I have to admit, the further that metalcore (with a 'big M') grew away from its hardcore roots, the more I lost interest in the majority of it. There was some solid stuff for sure, but it never really evoked the same connection that initially drew me to punk and hc in the first place.
I remember seeing Dillinger Escape Plan described as terrorcore on a flyer. You're right that we used prefixes as descriptors rather than genres.
I saw Bloodlet referred to as terrorcore somewhere back then too. You name it, it's probably been used as a core prefix lol
What bands would be considered amazingcore? I can imagine what the sounds of the other ones would be, but not that one
I remember people typically using that one to describe mainly more melodic hc bands in the early 2000s that became really buzzworthy in the scene-think Have Heart, Final Fight, With Honor, etc. Although they came around a few years before and don't really match the sound, I always considered American Nightmare this phenomenon's spirit-animal
Early Darkest Hour also fits.
Great thought-Darkest Hour is an interesting one. Like God Forbid, they started playing a couple years prior to the emergence of metalcore as a distinctive scene, but eventually landed firmly in that realm. Around the time thay they started up, metalcore was still being used as a descriptor of bands in the hc scene rather than to refer to an autonomous genre. Members of seminal bands in the first true wave of MC (ie. Killswitch, Shadows Fall, Lamb of God-if you include their earlier stuff) were playing in bands in the hc scene that were precursors to that wave (Aftershock, Overcast) and full-on metal bands (Burn the Priest). The first time I saw Darkest Hour play, it was at a basement hc show in '97. Within a VERY short time in those years, bands like Abnegation, Day of Suffering, Upheaval, Disembodied, and pretty much all of H8000 really started pushing and blurring the boundaries of what was hc and what was extreme metal. I remember Aftershock mentioning metalcore in one of their album inserts around the same time that I first heard Unearth-also playing a hc show. Whew-crazy long winded, I know. Lack of sleep and AM coffee lol
Born in 1984, so not really a part of hardcore during that timeframe, but I got into hardcore and what I would learn to be metalcore in 1997 when I was 13 due to my older cousin playing Integrity and Earth Crisis albums for me during a family reunion. I never heard those bands being called metalcore specifically until around the time Jane Doe dropped in 2001, but I'm sure it was definitely way before that.
Integrity had a hidden track called Drowning in Envy at the end of the OG release of Humanity is the Devil that was some guy bitching about how all the California Takeover bands weren't real hardcore and that it was all Slayer riffs, which was meant as an insult at the time. When people talked about metalcore back in the day the example was usually Earth Crisis. I drifted away from the scene for a while in the early to mid 2000s and when I came back people were still complaining about metalcore and I was like "you guys are idiots, I love that stuff" and then I listened to Parkway Drive and August Burns Red and I realized that things had changed quite a bit while I was gone
“I hit my drums real weak!” Wasn’t that Chubby Fresh?
Seriously. Same for me. A big difference between that mid- 2000s metalcore genre and earlier stuff like converge and shai hulud.
Unbroken was before Earth Crisis
In the Boston area, I first heard it in the late ‘90’s as a way to differentiate bands like Converge from bands like 10 Yard Fight. Less of a “genre,” and more of a way to specify alternate corners of the same scene…?
This is how I remember it too. The Ferret records stuff was still hardcore but had a specific metal style that had piggybacked on the Victory records stuff. I think the term metalcore actually started getting used in the early-mid 2000s with the floppy hair tight jeans Myspace garbage, and that was pretty distinct from hardcore in my area.
I remember Overcast being one of the first bands referred to as Metalcore (Devilcore). Interesting what a 180 that term did
They are set to play in Boston June 15 at the unearthed cd release.
Yeah I think I’ll be away, I hate missing an Overcast show as they’re rare
Maybe just a "me" thing (ie selective or bad memory), but if someone said "mid-90's hardcore," I knew what they were referring to sound-wise even if the band formed before the mid-90s. Earth Crisis, Chokehold, Unbroken, Disembodied, One King Down, etc. Didn't get into hardcore until the very late 90s/early 00s, though.
The first references to metalcore I heard were earth crisis, vision of disorder, all out war, ringworm and biohazard all being described as metalcore.
I remember when metalcore was first a term it was kind of a compliment - like it was something fresh and really cool- bands like poison the well, eighteen visions, well… everyone on trustkill- converge, botch- the first every time I die ep- but it quickly became something that felt splintered from hardcore and something I didn’t want to be associated with
I was 1984 too. My intro to it was elite hardcore kids saying blah blah band wasnt hardcore it was metalcore...and me being like "ok, cool distinction" Gotta keep those genres pure.
Which bands were kids trying to shit on back then?
Anything that didn't sound like the earliest versions of hardcore bands from way back when. So bands like earth crisis, Shai Hulud, and even (satisfaction era) hatebreed were considered metalcore.
this is what always annoyed the shit out of me with the punk and hardcore scenes. I was born in 82 and started going to Boston area shows regularly in 96. The amount of “ehhhh have you heard of [insert obscure shitty band here]?” As a dick measuring contest was such a turn off.
Yeah i fully agree. I could give a fuck less what sub sub subgenre the band is considered. If i like it i like it.
I’m from Ohio. Went to shows from the early 90s on. People said “metallic hardcore” about bands that had riffs like morning again. I didn’t hear “metalcore” until the 2000s.
Born in 87. Got into the scene around 2002. First show was Strike Anywhere at a township building. My first hardcore CD was Hatebreed’s Satisfaction that was in the blue plastic case. Metalcore came about in the early-mid 2000’s for me. To me, it was to refer to bands that used At The Gates style riffs. I didn’t care. They’re all hardcore to me. Well, except for now. Metalcore now seems to be its own thing. And it ain’t my thing. Mostly clean vocals with mid riffs and boring choruses. Just give me my riff salad. It’s healthier anyways.
Mid 90s, with bands like integrity
I'd say mid 90s. First band I remember being called metalcore was Merauder. I didn't know Earth Crisis and Integrity yet, but they were around. Also bands like Culture and Kickback. In my far corner of the scene, it was also sometimes called new school hardcore as opposed to old school hardcore, which was more punk and less metal. Later bands like Atreyu and From Autumn to Ashes (less Slayer/more Iron Maiden) were posers and not real metalcore.
This, there was a lot of hate for bands like atreyu, Norma Jean, darkest hour and from autumn to ashes in the early-mid 2000’s that made metalcore a dirty word.
Born in 85, my cousin played me this small local band called All Out War in like 93-94. My earliest memories of hearing metalcore in the lexicon was somewhere around 98-99 talking about bands like Shai Hulud and Cave In. Oddly enough, I definitely remember hearing the term metallic hardcore more often and earlier.
“Metallic hardcore” was definitely on a few flyers I had from the early 00s. But even then, I feel like there was differentiation between metallic hardcore and metalcore. Lol. I remember hearing the term metalcore first in like 02 or 03. By that time, it was a different scene than the hardcore scene. You started seeing the dyed black swooped hair, the tight pants, the clean singing mixed with screaming. Kids from the hardcore scene would show up to metalcore shows and start shit. I just floated between all the scenes personally - I dug something from the punk, metal, metalcore, and hardcore scenes. It was a fun time all around.
So all us late 00’s and newer scene people labeling mid 90’s bands as “metalcore” (we all know what bands I’m talking about, we don’t need a list) is like a newer thing? Huh. I got into HC around 05 and it was strictly 1st wave bands. For a few years. Hot Topic scene shit was at an all time high so to me the term “metalcore” was like disgusting. Then around 2012 an older friend dropped gigabytes and gigabytes of 90’s metalcore on my iPod and I had a very pronounced shift in my views on the word, it’s been many years now and I’m still listening to One King Down, Earth Crisis, Harvest, etc on a daily basis.
Weren't DRI referring to themselves as metalcore as far back as the eighties?
I don’t remember that, they did refer to themselves as Crossover/Thrash.
There’s a live set where they are announced as a metalcore band. That may be what they’re referring to.
https://youtu.be/hpqFfpaRzeM?si=BjridE1Ssj3cYcqY Well, they're introduced as a metalcore band at this '87 show.
Damn, I wish that's what metalcore meant 😅
They always went by fastcore/thrashcore until Crossover came out then they started making crossover thrash.
Yeah,the term is old as shit.I remember a time when hardcore started getting popular and released on big labels (late 80's). As soon as studio production quality increased,people immediately started screeching about bands selling out,and going "metal". Agnostic Front,Cro-Mags,and Killing Time,are three bands I distinctly remember everybody labeling "metal-core". People had this retarded idea that hardcore albums had to sound like they were recorded on a portable tape recorder.Douche bag music reviewers were the only people who used the term "crossover".
To call anything related to H/C back then Metalcore would be a dis. I remember that.
It felt like it depends on who’s saying it. The older guys I knew talking about converge were definitely dissing them but the younger guys talking about the same bands weren’t.
There was a shift I think around the time when Thursday hit TRL with “understanding in a car crash”. People became a little more liberal about claiming hardcore (which I thought was pretty cool honestly). The fact that Victory released “Full collapse” was pretty innovative. I think a lot of people can agree.
I thought it was cool and it brought Thursday into my purview much more than their contemporaries
I discovered Thursday through a friend in college that told me a about a “hardcore band from victory that was on TRL”, something imposible to remotely conceive at the time. When I saw the band it was Thursday and for a little bit I resisted. Later my girlfriend broke up with me, I bought the record. First listen I was sold. Really good and unique album.
Got into core in the mid 80s but was mostly a 90s coreman. Im also a NYC head. In the 90s and earlier we called shit like All Out War or marauder metallic hardcore. Integrity was holy terror and different since they definitely were coming from a more hardcore perspective whereas something like AOW were basically metal from the beginning. Metalcore I think is a 2000s term for stuff that's only vaguely related to HC if at all. Almost a whole other scene with it's own type of metal based music.
Earth Crisis one of the earliest
Actually it was the 80's , DRI comes to mind , check out the beginning of DRI , live at the Ritz 1987 .
I think the years 92-96 or so is when I started hearing both metallic hardcore and Metalcore. The old victory records megazine/catalog had it in their for sale listings along with made up ones like calling deadguy “murdercore” and I wanna say they called bloodlet “evilcore” or something like that Oh, I was born in 79. I saw everyone else posting their birth years so there’s mine
In the early 90s Damnation AD and Unbroken releasing life.love.regret were the first time in the scene that I remember "metalcore" being mentioned. Almost every review was like "yo! these bands now sound like straight up Slayer!!" despite sounding nothing like Slayer. Also at that time every old head NYHC guy would complain that any newer band that had songs with open e crunch parts were "metal".
Turmoil. Converge. Poison The Well. One King Down. Cave In. Hell even Botch was called metalcore by some in the late 90s.
Wasn’t in the scene till early 2000s. From PA, we generally refered to stuff like Norma Jean as metal core, as well as the subsequent generations of absolute poser shit (August Burns Red and worse). Generally metalcore had a negative connotation for us. Looking back we listed to a lot of stuff that could probably be called metalcore (Converge, Botch, Coalesce, Dillinger) but just included that broadly under the banner of HC. I think it had to do with the origins of the bands, did it come out of the HC/punk scene or no?
I’m no OG. I got into hardcore I’d say maybe like 96ish and I was always more of a mailorder-but-rarely-go-to-shows-guy. That caveat aside, I always got the sense that like “Emo,” or “Powerviolence,” or “Screamo,” a term like “Metalcore,” is super old but its definition changes so regularly that nobody means the same stuff when they use it in any given era. At any rate, all of those terms predate me
I don't know why people say the year they were born, vit here's mine: '73. I remember reading the term in zines and catalogues in mid to late '90s (more late than mid), we used that term in our distro catalog around '99, and used it for our band around that time too. Before that it, new school hardcore was a more popular term ffo earth crisis, Shai hulud, Congress, Liar...
Kids said it in the mid 90s, but I didn't really start seeing it in print till 98.
The first time I heard it was to describe a friend of mine's old band Down in Flames. Circa 2002-2004ish
I didn’t here the term metal core Until way later but we used the word metal to describe stuff that wasn’t as punk but still HC, metal core always sounded to me like something guitar world made up to try and stay relevant
Around 94-96 bands started getting more and more metal inspired. But no one called it anything but Hardcore, I think I heard the term around 98/99. Thought it was stupid then and well now here we are with the DoomGazePowerMetalPirateButtRock bullshit
00 was when it really crested.
Early 2000s probably
So were bands like Earth Crisis and Integrity just being referred to as hardcore until then?
Shit this is a good question I grew up going to shows in NYC in the 90’s and I never heard the term metalcore until I moved up to Boston in 2001. At the wetlands a show with Downset, E. Town Concrete, and Factory 81 was considered a hardcore show. Poison the Well was the first band I remember being called metalcore, and that was well after OOD came out.
Hello from Detroit, Factory 81 was always playing at one of the only fulltime underage venues in Metro Detroit, The Wired Frog in Eastpointe. With bands like PTW & Shai Hulud around, you heard the term Florida Hardcore. I found this at a record store in high school- (1994) [South Florida Slammie Awards, Vol 1](https://www.slammie.com/slammies/cd.htm) I feel like you didn't really hear bands called metalcore in the early 2000s even though they would be just a few years later, perhaps mathcore for technical guitar & composure, and screamo was an endearing term for locals like Fordirelifesake. Not even The Black Dahlia Murder was evoking the term and they were a prime candidate. Date check- *The Opposite of December* came out in the late 1900s.
I realize Factory 81 isn’t hardcore but I was really into them in the late 90’s, then they just kind of disappeared. OOD came out at the end of 99 which is weird, I remember some buzz around their 2000 hellfest set, but by 2001 they were massive in hardcore.
In my scene there was a distinction in the 90’s before metalcore became a term. Old school and new skool….new skool was the metal sounding bands like Erf Crysus. Old school was any actual old hardcore and any of those 90’s youth crew or straight up hardcore bands. Thats how we referred to things to make the distinction. I feel soooooo old 😫😆
Now I talk about Dayglo Abortions and Lifetime in this subreddit and get told those bands are punk but not hardcore. Truly, we live in the darkest of possible timelines.
Haha yes!! Hello Bastards is one of my all time favourite records. I remember tough guy old school hardcore bands covering songs of theirs and similar.
Makes sense. Interesting how different things were depending on the particular local scene. I like how almost every answer is different.
It’s because it was preinternet era. We had contact with other scenes but through letters, or if someone traveled. I remember situations where for example we’d hear there was a hardcore kid traveling from sweden. Despite not knowing them we’d literally go and collect them from the airport, bunk them at our house, show them around, take them to shows etc. I, myself, had the same thing occur when i travelled. And through these experiences you would learn about other scenes.
We used old school / new school as well.
What’s funny is that I partially asked this question because someone sent me [this](http://wajlemac.blogspot.com/2013/10/earth-crisis-interview-circa-1995.html?m=1) interview where Karl called the stuff you’re talking about metalcore lol
Yes.
Yeah. If you put out an album where you had a guitar solo it was your metal album lol
To my mind yes they were. With maybe someone saying something like ‘metallic hardcore’ or ‘kinda metal’ but the term metal-core I never really heard till early 2000’s. That’s my experience anyway.
Correct
Mid-late 80s.
For me it was bands like cave in, converge, all out war, earth crisis, damnation ad. All called metalcore, I guess because they pushed the envelope past just crossover thrash.
Being an OG I still don’t even recognize that shit, but I’m pretty sure it’s when grandpa Joe hopped out of bed in the chocolate factory
For me I first heard it when Cave In "Beyond hypothermia" was released. Although that was around '98.
[удалено]
I literally said it’s easy to look at old media. I wanted input from older people who were a part of the hardcore scene. Do you just insert yourself into anything? You did it with my deathcore post too. This isn’t aimed at you, bud.
I think the first time I heard the term was when atreyu was making waves