tvtropes.org

Metalcore - TV Tropes

  • ️Mon Nov 02 2009

Metalcore (trope)

A small selection of bands with cool logos.

Secondary Stylistic Influences (Entombedcore):

Metalcore (also known as "metallic hardcore" or erroneously referred to as "screamo", names given to the more punk-influenced bands) is a combination of Heavy Metal, Thrash Metal and Hardcore Punk, and sometimes takes a more melodic approach to the songs than thrash. It is characterised by gratuitous use of the Metal Scream, as well as breakdowns — lots and lots of breakdowns (although due to, ahem, certain bands, this attribute has been Flanderized a bit). If you're not in the know, a "breakdown" is when the music kind-of slows down to induce moshing or "throwing down"...or something like that. (Illustrated with Helmet's cover of the Gigantor theme - the breakdowns are at 1:16 and 2:42.) Modern bands often tend to mix it up with clean vocals and melodic riffs (see Melodic metalcore below).

Metalcore began life as a blending between thrash metal and hardcore punk, and was used to describe bands such as D.R.I., S.O.D., and Suicidal Tendencies in the 1980's, however the term changed its meaning in the 1990's to "metallic hardcore", and the genre metalcore originally defined became known as "crossover thrash". This newer "wave" of metalcore included bands such as Integrity, Earth Crisis and Converge. By the end of the nineties, metalcore had evolved into "melodic metalcore", which slowly grew in popularity until the mid-2000s, when it was a big mainstream draw. In fact, today, metalcore is the most commercially popular form of metal.

There are several common styles of metalcore. These include:

  • Metallic hardcore: The original wave of the genre, as well as newer revivalist acts. Generally involves a heavier, more mosh-friendly approach with slower tempos than crossover and a reduced thrash presence. Famous acts include Integrity, Ringworm, Overcast, Earth Crisis, All Out War, and Rorschach.
  • Mathcore: Technical metalcore involving odd time signatures, dissonant chords (the fabled "panic chord"), and frequent Genre Mashup tendencies. Famous acts include Converge, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Candiria, The Chariot, Car Bomb, and Botch.
  • Melodic metalcore: The most famous style in the genre, this started out as a mix of metallic hardcore and melodic death metal, sometimes with thrash metal influences; occasional elements of post-hardcore or alternative metal may also be mixed in. Characterized by melodic death metal-style guitar riffs, faster tempos, frequent guitar solos, and (for many though not all bands) greater use of clean vocals. Famous acts include Killswitch Engage, Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Bleeding Through, Unearth, God Forbid, Parkway Drive, As I Lay Dying, and Trivium.
  • Modern metalcore: This style of metalcore places much greater emphasis on its post-hardcore and alternative metal inclinations, generally featuring catchy choruses, somewhat greater use of breakdowns, and gratuitous use of clean vocals; many bands also embrace electronic elements. Some bands retain vestigial influences from melodic metalcore. Famous acts include Bullet for My Valentine, The Devil Wears Prada, Asking Alexandria, mid-era Bring Me the Horizon, Ice Nine Kills, early Avenged Sevenfold, Atreyu, Wage War, Bad Omens, and Motionless in White.
    • Progressive metalcore: A spinoff of modern metalcore, typically involving more technical guitar work and more atmospheric synths, as well as featuring extremely prominent djent elements. Famous acts include Architects, Erra, later Born of Osiris, Northlane, Currents, Invent Animate, and later Veil of Maya.
  • Beatdown hardcore: An offshoot of metallic hardcore involving slower tempos, far more frequent breakdowns, and a generally much heavier, more mosh-centric approach. Famous acts include Hatebreed, Madball, Terror, 25 ta Life, Biohazard, Kublai Khan TX, Knocked Loose, and Harm's Way.
    • Slamming beatdown: A microgenre that has solidified as of the late 2010s, slamming beatdown is beatdown hardcore crossed with slam death metal, and is distinctive enough to get a mention. Most acts come from the hardcore side, but a few come from the death metal or deathcore side and skew closer to slam, using more traditional death metal gutturals (and, in the case of deathcore-based acts, atmospheric leads and occasional deathcore breakdowns). Famous acts include Bodysnatcher (the Death of Me reissue bonus tracks onward), No Zodiac, Dysentery, Acranius, The Merciless Concept, and Paleface Swiss.
  • Entombedcore: A blend of old-school metallic hardcore, old-school death metal, and often crust punk or powerviolence, typically involving the "chainsaw" guitar sound of old-school Swedish death metal (hence the reference to Entombed). Famous acts include Trap Them, Nails, Cursed, Fuming Mouth, All Pigs Must Die, Sect, and Wolf King.
  • Nu metalcore: Metalcore and Nu Metal combined, often with a rapping presence and industrial elements, as well as prominent clean vocals in the lighter acts. Famous acts include Code Orange, Vein.fm, Spiritbox, Of Mice and Men, From Ashes to New, Issues, and Volumes.

Bands typically cited as metalcore include:

open/close all folders 

Early metalcore/Metallic hardcore 

(includes beatdown hardcore and newer bands playing in the style):

Mathcore & Experimental metallic hardcore 

Modern/Melodic metalcore 

Beatdown Hardcore 

  • 100 Demons
  • 108
  • 25 ta Life (Trope Codifier)
  • The Acacia Strain (a Genre-Busting example, but it is one of the biggest parts of their sound and is also the scene that they are most heavily identified with as of the 2010s)
  • Acranius (slamming beatdown, also Deathcore)
  • All Out War
  • Backtrack
  • The Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza
  • Before I Had Wings
  • Billy Club Sandwich
  • Biohazard (also rapcore)
  • Black My Heart
  • Blood For Blood
  • Bodysnatcher (also deathcore, switched to slamming beatdown on the Death of Me reissue bonus tracks)
  • Born From Pain
  • Brick By Brick
  • Brutality Will Prevail
  • Bulldoze (Trope Namer and Trope Maker)
  • Buried Alive
  • Buried Dreams
  • Bury Your Dead
  • Carbine (slamming beatdown)
  • CDC
  • Chamber (the UK-based one)
  • Cipher
  • Clawhammer (slamming beatdown)
  • Crown Of Thornz
  • Cruel Hand
  • Code Orange (I Am King, though Forever has a few songs in that style)
  • Cold As Life
  • Cold World
  • Confusion
  • Dead End Path
  • Death Before Dishonor
  • Disembodied
  • District 9
  • Drowning
  • Dysentery (slamming beatdown)
  • Earth Crisis
  • Enemy Mind
  • E.Town Concrete (also rapcore)
  • Everybody Gets Hurt
  • Expire
  • Eye of the Destroyer (also slam death metal)
  • Filth (slamming beatdown)
  • First Blood
  • Float Face Down (also deathcore)
  • Full Blown Chaos
  • Fury Of Five
  • Great American Ghost
  • Grimlock
  • Hangman
  • Harm's Way (also Entombedcore and Industrial Metal)
  • Hatebreed (Trope Codifier)
  • Hoods
  • I Am (also Entombedcore)
  • Icepick
  • Incendiary
  • Irate
  • Jesus Piece (also Entombedcore)
  • Judge (possible Ur-Example)
  • Judiciary
  • Jukai
  • Kharma
  • King Nine
  • Knocked Loose
  • Knuckledust
  • Kublai Khan TX
  • Laid 2 Rest
  • Line Of Scrimmage
  • Madball (Trope Maker)
  • Malevolence
  • Malice At The Palace
  • Martyr A.D.
  • The Merciless Concept (slamming beatdown)
  • Merauder
  • Mourned (also Entombedcore)
  • Neglect (another possible Trope Maker)
  • No Face No Case (slamming beatdown, also Nu Metal)
  • North Side Kings
  • No Victory
  • No Wings To Speak Of
  • No Zodiac (also slam death metal)
  • Nuestra Venganza
  • On Broken Wings (coined the term "moshcore" making them another Trope Namer)
  • One King Down
  • Orthodox
  • Paleface Swiss (slamming beatdown, also Nu Metal and Deathcore)
  • Psycho Enhancer
  • Purgatory
  • Queensway
  • Ramallah (essentially Blood for Blood minus Erick Medina)
  • Recon
  • Regime (also nu metal)
  • Rise Of The Northstar
  • Sanction
  • Sheer Terror (Ur-Example)
  • Shark Punch (an Affectionate Parody of the genre)
  • Silenus (mixed with Sludge Metal, Industrial Metal, Ambient and Harsh Noise)
  • Skarhead
  • Spite (also Nu Metal and Deathcore)
  • Strangled (slamming beatdown)
  • Strength For A Reason
  • Strife
  • Swear To God
  • Sworn Enemy
  • Terror
  • Trail Of Lies
  • Trapped Under Ice
  • Unit 731
  • Varials
  • Vein.fm (also mathcore, some nu metal elements)
  • World Of Pain
  • Xibalba (also Entombedcore)
  • Year Of The Knife
  • Years Spent Cold

Entombedcore 

  • All Pigs Must Die (side project of Ben Koller of Converge)
  • Baptists
  • Black Breath (also death metal)
  • Call of the Void
  • Coagula
  • Code Orange (originally known as Code Orange Kids; has a significant overlap with beatdown hardcore on I Am King before dropping this altogether on Forever for who the fuck knows)
  • Creeping Death
  • Cult Leader (Spiritual Successor to Gaza, they started out with this sound before largely abandoning it by A Patient Man)
  • Cursed (Ur-Example and Trope Codifier for Entombedcore along with Trap Them; unlike Trap Them, they didn't stick around long enough to enjoy the fruits of their labors)
  • Early Graves
  • Enabler
  • END (supergroup featuring Will Putney, Gregory Thomas (Shai Hulud), Brendan Murphy (Counterparts), Jay Pepito (Reign Supreme), and Andrew Mc Enaney (Trade Wind, Structures)
  • Erosion (also death metal)
  • Full Of Hell (mixed with powerviolence and noise; they dropped the Entombedcore for deathgrind circa the Nails split and Trumpeting Ecstasy)
  • Fuming Mouth (also Death Metal)
  • Harm's Way (heavy overlap with beatdown hardcore, especially on Rust which also marked the start of Industrial Metal influences infiltrating their sound)
  • Homewrecker
  • I Am (also beatdown)
  • Jesus Piece (also beatdown)
  • Mammoth Grinder (Cosmic Crypt, early material was crust and mid-era material was death metal with hardcore and crust elements)
  • Mass Worship
  • Mourned (also beatdown)
  • Nails
  • Oathbreaker (Eros|Anteros, changed to a mixture of hardcore, crust punk, post-hardcore, shoegaze, and black metal on Rheia)
  • Of Feather and Bone (pre-Bestial Hymns of Perversion)
  • Poison Headache (best known for being a side project of Phil Sgrosso)
  • Rotten Sound (debatably - while primarily deathgrind with more emphasis on the "grind" part, they started incorporating Swedeath influences in their music a few albums in and even had LG Petrov himself as a guest; another possible Ur-Example)
  • The Secret
  • Sect (a side project of Andy Hurley)
  • Trap Them (overlaps with crust punk and grindcore, arguably the Ur-Example of "Entombedcore" along with Cursed and most certainly a Trope Codifier)
  • Weekend Nachos (as of Still, mixed with powerviolence)
  • Wolf King
  • Wormwood (with particularly prominent doom metal and noise influences, best known for having Greg Weeks on bass)
  • Wreath of Tongues
  • Xibalba (also death metal as of Tierra y libertad)
  • Young And In The Way (also Black Metal)

Nu-metalcore 

  • Alpha Wolf
  • Animal
  • Attila (fifth album onward, mixed with deathcore)
  • Barrier
  • Cane Hill (the most Powerman 5000-influenced band within nu-metalcore; also features some minor industrial elements)
  • Capture the Crown (second album onward)
  • Code Orange (Forever, kinda, though it's far from the only thing going on there)
  • Cry Excess
  • Crystal Lake (Ryo Kinoshita era, overlaps with deathcore on Helix)
  • Dangerkids (most obvious example of the Linkin Park influence in the sub-genre)
  • Darke Complex (although they've dropped most of the "core" elements by their first album, where some Swag Rap elements were picked up along the way too)
  • Defying Decay (Thailand's biggest metalcore act)
  • DEXCORE (a bit of a hodgepodge of Visual Kei, deathcore, and electroniccore but metalcore at their roots)
  • Disembodied (Their album Heretic provides a possible Ur-Example)
  • DVSR (mixed with Rap Metal and Djent)
  • Earthshatter (a Spiritual Successor to The Afterimage with the same lineup, but with a different sound)
  • Emmure (mixed with deathcore and brostep; among the first in the trend, beating Issues by three years. Probably the most Limp Bizkit-influenced on the list)
  • Exotype (mixed with various EDM genres)
  • Extortionist (some deathcore elements)
  • Fire From the Gods (overlaps with djent)
  • From Ashes to New (leans more heavily towards "nu" than "core")
  • Gemini Syndrome
  • Gideon (third album onward, mixed with christian metal)
  • Gift Giver
  • Hanabie (a very weird example that is a mix of deathcore and Japanese Pop Music. Also one of the few groups that is all women)
  • ill niño (third album onward, the Trope Maker for the subgenre as it was in the 2010s)
  • Infected Rain (with elements of Melodic Death Metal and Alternative Metal)
  • Issues (mixes this with, of all things, pop music; popularized the variation with their 2012 EP Black Diamonds and the second most popular in the sub-genre overall after Of Mice & Men)
  • Jynx (known for having Justin Whang on guitar)
  • Kissing Candice (the most obvious Slipknot influence within nu-metalcore; also has industrial influences)
  • Knosis (Ryo Kinoshita's main project after leaving Crystal Lake. Very much not the only thing going on here)
  • Kriminals
  • Live Conform Die
  • MAZE (mixed with Japanese Pop Music)
  • Motionless in White (Graveyard Shift onwards)
  • My Ticket Home
  • Neurotic November (probably the most hated example)
  • Nocturnal Bloodlust (mixed with Deathcore, Progressive Metal, electronicore and Thrash Metal)
  • Nothingface (On Skeletons, making them one of the earlier examples.)
  • Of Mice & Men (Band) (third album onwards, though by their fourth they almost completely abandoned "core" for "nu"; easily the most popular of the lot)
  • The One Hundred
  • Showbread
  • SHVPES
  • Spiritbox (the Spiritual Successor to Iwrestledabearonce, mixed with djent, Avant-Garde Metal and post-metal)
  • Spite (also deathcore and beatdown hardcore)
  • Stray From the Path (sixth album onwards; mixed with hardcore punk)
  • Sworn In
  • Sylar (mixed with electronicore)
  • Tallah (Noticably influenced by Progressive Metal due to having the son of Mike Portnoy as the drummer.)
  • Toothgrinder (also some prog elements)
  • Twitching Tongues (some beatdown elements)
  • Unlocking the Truth
  • Vanities
  • Villains
  • Volumes (mixed with djent)
  • Yüth Forever
  • Zealot

Bands confused for Metalcore 

The following bands are often called metalcore, but are very much not metalcore. We keep this short list here because we don't want these bands put on the main metalcore list by an earnest passerby.

  • 3 Inches of Blood: The confusion comes from the dual vocalists and early tendency to tour with core acts. While switching between clean, punk styled vocals and harsh, growled and screamed vocals is common in metalcore, 3 Inches of Blood is very much a thrash-power metal band with little to no similarities to metalcore outside of common thrash elements. Furthermore, while one of their vocalists does use similar screams to some metalcore bands, their other vocalist uses a Halfordesque screech that's far more in line with thrash metal, speed metal and Power Metal, and Jamie Hooper's harsh vocals were more influenced by crust punk and grindcore than they were by metalcore.
  • The Absence: They became a name around the same time as a lot of melodic metalcore acts and had some stylistic similarities on their first EP, but they quickly turned into straightforward thrashy melodic death metal.
  • Austrian Death Machine: Straight Thrash Metal; they are often considered metalcore due to who their singer is.
  • Battlecross: They have some minor stylistic similarities to some of the heavier melodic metalcore acts, but overall, they're thrashy melodic death metal.
  • Black Crown Initiate: Progressive death metal. The confusion comes from their frequent usage of clean vocals and some djent elements (mostly in their earlier material).
  • The Black Dahlia Murder: They qualified on their first demo and had noticeable elements of it on Miasma (Unhallowed also had bits of it pop up from time to time, but not to any major degree), but they dropped any and all elements of it with Nocturnal in favor of aggressive, brutal death-tinged melodic death metal and never looked back.
  • Capharnaum: They are occasionally lumped in with metalcore due to Matt Heafy singing for them, which was how many people discovered them. However, their music is straight-up Technical Death Metal with absolutely nothing in common with the genre aside from Matt's vocal style, and on top of that, they released one other album back in the 90s without Heafy that features a far more conventional death metal vocalist.
  • DevilDriver: Mixture of Groove Metal and Melodic Death Metal, along with some Nu Metal on their self-titled. Pray for Villains was the closest that they ever actually came to metalcore.
  • Dew-Scented: Straightforward death/thrash - they are occasionally mislabeled as metalcore due to Leif Jensen's vocal style and their sometimes Gothenburg-esque melodic sections.
  • Entheos: Technical Death Metal with some djent and electronic elements.
  • Five Finger Death Punch: Straight-up Groove Metal on their first album, thrashier groove metal along the lines of Pantera's faster songs on the second, and a bit of both on the third. Some of their mellower songs border on Post-Grunge.
  • Gatecreeper: Like Mammoth Grinder, they're death metal with very prominent hardcore and crust elements, and they also tend to tour with punk acts. Also like Mammoth Grinder, they're still more death metal than hardcore, which is what separates them from similar acts like Black Breath and All Pigs Must Die.
  • Hacktivist: They're a mix of Rap Metal, Djent, Nu Metal, and Grime. They are sometimes considered metalcore (often lumped to the nu-metalcore trend) due to the Soprano and Gravel dynamics between the two lead rappers as well as the guitarist. Outside of that, they bare nothing in common with metalcore.
  • The Haunted: Often mistaken for metalcore thanks to A) forming from the ashes of At the Gates, one of if not the most influential bands on melodic metalcore, and B) both of their vocalists having a lot in common with the genre (Peter Dolving uses cleans occasionally and comes from a punk background, while Marco Aro has a very hardcore-esque tinge to his vocals). However, their music is melodic death/thrash with some influences from groove metal, with the exception of the experimental Unseen. That being said, the second Dolving era does feature elements of the genre on some songs.
  • Human Remains: Extremely influential to mathcore and also helped influence multiple early deathcore acts, but was very grindy Technical Death Metal with some hardcore influence.
  • Kataklysm: Their albums after their move away from brutal death (In the Arms of Devastation onward) are very frequently labeled as metalcore for whatever reason (their clean production possibly being a factor), but they're groove-tinged melodic death.
  • Light This City: They mostly look like hardcore kids, and the other bands they've been in are mostly hardcore or pop punk, but the music is straight Melodic Death Metal.
  • Marmozets: They are sometimes referred to as metalcore due to their use of screamed vocals contrasted by cleans. In reality, they're a heavier brand of alternative/indie rock with some progressive metal leanings. They even mocked metalcore with a video of their own.
  • Mastodon: The confusion stems not from the music itself, but the timing. Their rise in popularity happened concurrently to the rise of melodic metalcore in the mid-'00s, and as such was often lumped into the scene. Musically however, they're a mix of sludge/groove metal that later moved to a progressive/alternative sound.
  • Ne Obliviscaris: Some might confuse them for this due to the Soprano and Gravel dynamics between Tim Charles and Xenoyr. That's where the similarities end. Their music is rooted in Progressive Death Metal, with a slew of other genres in the mix. Even in terms of vocals, Tim Charles' clean singing is far more operatic than that of a clean metalcore vocalist, and Xenoyr's is far more brutalizing than the average unclean one.
  • Neuraxis: The confusion mostly arises from their material having a mildly influenced Gothenburg sound combined with their old vocalist's style of harsh vocals and their tendency to tour with deathcore acts, but they are Melodic Technical Death Metal.
  • Pyrithion: Like Austrian Death Machine, they have occasionally been lumped in with metalcore due to Tim Lambesis. They're pretty straightforward death metal.
  • The Red Chord: They toured with a lot of metalcore acts back when they were getting famous and had a significant amount of pull with that fanbase, but they are deathcore/deathgrind. The only real stylistic similarities would be the occasional breakdown and Guy's vocals, but again, it was mostly just a mix of timing, the bills that they were usually on, and the fact that they were from Massachusetts.
  • The Resistance: Straight-up Death Metal; they are occasionally mistaken for metalcore thanks to Marco Aro's (from the above-mentioned The Haunted) vocals.
  • Revocation: Back when they were first signed to Relapse Records, the metalcore label was thrown at them here and there due to Dave Davidson's somewhat shout-y vocal style and their occasional usage of vaguely Gothenburg-esque riffing, and they also tended to tour with a lot of metalcore, deathcore, and djent acts in their earlier days. They were always an amalgamation of melodic death, thrash, and tech-death, however, and they've moved more and more towards death metal with each album, while Dave's voice has grown progressively deeper and less shout-like.
  • Soul Embraced: Possibly due to being a Christian band. They started out as a straight up death metal band, but their later albums brought Progressive Metal and Alternative Metal influences into the fold.
  • Sylosis: The confusion comes mainly from their vocalist's screaming style, as well as their time of emergence and their tendency to tour with melodic metalcore acts. Musically, however, the band is Thrash Metal with some elements of Death Metal and Progressive Metal. Hilariously enough, Syslosis frontman Josh Middleton would join Architects as their lead guitarist for a few years.
  • We Are Harlot: Straight-up Hard Rock. They sometimes get this tag because of who their lead singer is.
  • Woe of Tyrants: Some minor stylistic similarities plus a tendency to tour with core acts when they were active, but they were thrashy melodic death metal.

Tropes Common In Metalcore:

  • Christian Rock: Metalcore and Post-Hardcore are both filled with Christian bands for whatever reason. Most famously are The Devil Wears Prada, Underoath, Demon Hunter, As I Lay Dying, and August Burns Red.
  • Cover Version: The "ironic/wacky" cover choice was a staple of modern metalcore (as well as electronicore and pop-post-hardcore) during the "scene" era (roughly between 2007 and 2014), and the Punk Goes... cover compilation album series was the epicenter of this phenomenon. As of the late 2010s, however, it's fallen out of fashion, as scene itself is extremely dead, and the Punk Goes... series has not released an album of covers since 2017note  after a period of sharply declining sales, and the phenomenon of covering a pop hit for the sake of it is inextricably tied to scene and something that few self-respecting bands will currently touch (aside from Our Last Night, who made it something of a Signature Style, but still have multiple albums of original material).
  • Early-Installment Weirdness: The very first metalcore bands were basically thrash bands that played at slower tempos that were more conducive to moshing. This early wave of post-thrash acts would later establish the subgenre of Crossover Thrash.
    • Melodic metalcore's early years were chock-full of bands that were basically ripping off Swedish Melodic Death Metal bandsnote  and randomly throwing in a breakdown, clean section, or Scare Chord, creating a scene full of similar-sounding bands before acts like All That Remains, As I Lay Dying, Killswitch Engage and Trivium brought back a degree of creativity that would earn the subgenre some much-needed respect.
  • Emo: Often associated with this genre, because bands like Atreyu, Bullet For My Valentine and early Avenged Sevenfold were often influenced by it.
  • Gateway Series: To extreme metal and Hardcore Punk.
  • Genre Popularizer: Issues did this with nu-metalcore. While combining metalcore with nu metal dates back decades, they were the first to prove that combining the two can be a successful formula with their debut EP Black Diamonds. Not surprisingly, combining them has become increasingly common afterwards, with some pre-existing metalcore bands (Of Mice & Men, Emmure, Attila) even integrating it into their sound.
  • Heavy Mithril: Averted most of the time.
  • Lighter and Softer: Often characterized as such to other Extreme Metal genres, thanks mainly to the Pop Punk-oriented second wave of Melodic Metalcore that became the public face of the genre (and the main target of scorn from metal purists). Many of the more aggressive traditional metalcore groups are just as heavy, if not heavier, than most death or black metal. Take Converge for example.
  • Long-Haired Pretty Boy: Many bands that got their start in the mid-late 2000's had this look. More specifically the "skinny teens with swoopy-emo hair" look that was popular at the time. Asking Alexandria, Sleeping with Sirens, Attack Attack!, and We Came As Romans were the best examples of the look, but far from the only bands of long emo haired pretty boys. As groups aged, most bands started to evolve their look and shed the emo fringes. Though some bands still kept the emo look into the 2020s as an aesthetic choice, with DEXCORE being one of the more prominent examples.
  • Male Band, Female Singer: The metalcore scene has several bands that have this setup, many of them forming or gaining popularity in the 2020s. Some of the more notable examples include (but not limited to) Spiritbox, Jinjer, MAZE, Broken By The Scream, Lucrecia, Dying Wish, and Novelists FR (2023 onwards) .
  • The Quincy Punk: A longstanding criticism of fans of beatdown acts and, often, the bands themselves; the stereotype of the violent scumbag who makes a big show of backing friendship, inclusion, and togetherness, but really just cares about crowdkilling, starting fights, breaking stuff, and generally being a hyper-macho piece of shit is sadly Truth in Television, and certain bandsnote  have at least gained a reputation for attracting fans like this, if not attracting criticism of their own for aiding and abetting that kind of behavior.
  • Persona Non Grata: A number of bands have been banned from venues due to overly-aggressive fans (The Acacia Strain and On Broken Wings were particularly infamous for this); the Borg Ward venue in Milwaukee made headlines on metal sites by banning the entire genre because of property damage from fans, and then proclaiming on social media that most other venues in the area won't book metalcore bands or tours for the same reason.
    • Integrity became this in New York after arousing the ire of the mosh crew DMS.
  • Revolving Door Band: Not quite as bad as other forms of extreme music, but still an issue for quite a few bands. It usually comes down to bands not being financially stable (Screwed by the Network may or may not be in play), personality issues, or the fact that a lot of bands started out when the members were in high school and realized they didn't want to be in a band. Though when bands do take off they tend to stable out (We Came As Romans is a good example of this). Some of the more infamous examples of instable lineups include Zao, The Dillinger Escape Plan, Attila (Metalcore), Woe, Is Me, and For the Fallen Dreams.
  • Scare Chord: The "panic chord" (dissonant chords usually played in odd time signatures, usually right before a breakdown or before a slowdown in a breakdown) is a genre hallmark that emerged in mathcore in the late 1990s and became almost ubiquitous in the early 2000s, and while it mostly fell out of favor when melodic metalcore (and, later, modern metalcore) took over, they have started to reemerge in the late 2010s, as bands like SeeYouSpaceCowboy, Chamber, and Vein.fm have made heavy usage of them in their music.
  • Scary Musician, Harmless Music: Commonly inverted. They usually dress like an average person or androgynously, but the music is still heavy metal.
  • Screwed by the Network: Quite often, especially when metalcore was gaining mainstream popularity in the mid 2000's. The main reason being that many bands gained popularity when the members were really young, without the experience to manage a band or finances for themselves. This made the metalcore scene ripe for labels to exploit and take advantage of. Trustkill, Artery, Victory, and especially Mediaskare were infamous for terrible record deals and having a long list of bands that ended up falling off the radar or breaking up, though just about any metalcore label will have bands they screwed over. Many up-and-coming metalcore bands have embraced self-publishing their own work as a result.
  • Soprano and Gravel: Most bands have this. This unfortunately causes people to assume any metal band that uses this dynamic is metalcore. Melodic Death Metal (and even regular death metal in some cases) are the usual victims of this.
  • Surprisingly Gentle Song: Almost every band on this page will have at least one of these per album. The first-wave acts and bands that sound like them usually have something post-rock-influenced, while the melodic acts usually have a Power Ballad. Mostly averted by Entombedcore, but you'll still see more melodic songs here and there.
  • They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: A frequent issue whenever a band changes their sound in an attempt to reach a larger audience or adapt to the changing music landscape. This is more common with the softer side of metalcore and nu-metalcore thanks to many of those bands getting on bills or festivals with larger radio rock acts. While some bands have changed sounds successfully and reached new heights of popularity (Bring Me The Horizon and Parkway Drive being good examples), others changed styles and ran right into a brick wall (particularly Memphis May Fire and The Word Alive). It should be noted this mostly happens when a band goes in a Lighter and Softer direction, rarely anyone complains if a band goes heavier (see Crystal Lake).
  • Trash the Set: The Acacia Strain, Swear To God and On Broken Wings as well as many New York beatdown bands such as Biohazard, Sworn Enemy, Everybody Gets Hurt and Billy Club Sandwich are particularly infamous for extremely violent mosh pits which at times cause damage to venues (especially in TAS and OBW's cases)
    • Invoked by Years Spent Cold's song "Venue Killer" which actively encourages the audience to do their worst with lines such as "This is the end/of your shitty venue"
    • The raison d'etre of The Bad Luck 13 Riot Extravaganza. Rumors often tie their antics at Hellfest 2004 (namely throwing a pig head into the audience, and the audience shoving bleachers around) to the cancellation of Hellfest 2005. Jay Shlak would go on to form Eat the Turnbuckle, with a hardcore/death match wrestling gimmick, and their sets are also legendarily violent but (generally) less likely to involve damage to venues themselves.
    • The Dillinger Escape Plan, case in point.
  • Trope Codifier:
  • Ur-Example: Either Integrity or Ringworm for the genre in general, Starkweather for mathcore, either Atreyu or Poison the Well for melodic metalcore, The Devil Wears Prada and Bullet for My Valentine for modern metalcore, either Trap Them or Cursed for entombedcore (maybe also Racetraitor or Backstabbers Incorporated), and Biohazard for nu-metalcore (or Emmure and Issues for the modern version we know today).
    • All Else Failed is another possible candidate for Ur-Example of melodic metalcore as their material dates back to 1996, though more melodic elements of their sound started appearing in their 1998 EP, In My God's Eye
      • Skycamefalling might be another good candidate as their debut EP was out in 1997
  • Vocal Tag Team: A common trope due to the Soprano and Gravel dynamics. One is usually the screamer who serves as the primary vocalist, while other provides clean vocals (often in the chorus) for contrast. Though one-man variations exist.
  • Wangst: Occasionally, especially common with emo-influenced bands. Nu-metalcore, being that it's a fusion of metalcore and the normally angsty nu metal, can fall into this.

Metalcore songs (including metallic hardcore, mathcore, modern/melodic metalcore, beatdown, entombedcore, and nu-metalcore):