Deathcore is back, and in a big way. Five years ago, it looked like the genre's best days were behind it, its biggest acts actively moving away from their core style while elsewhere more cookie-cutter acts appeared to over-saturate the scene into stagnation.
But with (relative) newcomers Lorna Shore, Slaughter To Prevail and Brand Of Sacrifice, the doors have been blown wide open for deathcore to be Big Business again, expanding the genre's boundaries with infusions of everything from prog and nu metal to truly change what deathcore can be.
Suicide Silence were one of the scene's leading lights in the early days, and with new album Remember... You Must Die set for release in March, the way they see it the timing couldn't be better for a deathcore renaissance.
"The only reason anyone ever said deathcore was dead was because it blew up and became such a huge thing in the first place," explains guitarist Mark Heylmun. "Deathcore is where it’s at right now, a full resurgence. These young bands are doing some sick shit, really getting the fire going again.”
That in mind, we asked Mark to pick out ten bands he feels are truly bringing deathcore back to the masses...
Lorna Shore
“It’s fuckin’ rad to see these guys blow up. I’d known their name for a long time, but at first nothing I heard really blew me away. But then Will [Ramos] joined the band, and we went out on tour with them last year and watched it all happening in real time. They sound sick, they look incredible and Will is a shooting star across the goddamn sky.
We became friends and there’s nothing but well wishes for those guys. After the tour I’d periodically slide into their DMs and be like ‘I wanna see your wings grow!’ and that’s exactly what they’re doing.”
Slaughter To Prevail
“Slaughter To Prevail are a real breakout story right now. Them being Russian, having outspoken opinions and a real internet presence has helped the scene feel more present and vital. They’re unafraid and so authentic.
I saw them for the first time not too long ago in Mexico and they blew me away. Every single musician was killer and they played for a solid hour, maybe longer, and I always think if you can do that and keep people’s energy up the whole time, especially at a festival, then you’re a band worth keeping an eye on. They did that easily and it was dope – well worth the hype.”
Signs Of The Swarm
“Signs' singer David [Simonich] is killer, he’s very active on social media and he’s a very likable guy. He’s soft spoken and smokes hella weed, so he’s super chill. But when he’s on-stage, his voice is dumb, so incredible.
A bit like with Will, he’s not the band’s original singer, but its one of those situations where he joined and now the band are doing better. They’ve been around the world now, playing places like Tokyo. I listen to their music, and what I like is that I hear its deathcore, but I can’t tell you what they listen to. They transmute it into their own style so well. They’ve got a lot of room to grow.”
Left To Suffer
“It’s so funny, when I met Tayor [Barber], the vocalist of Left To Suffer, it was in Atlanta and he was with the rapper B.O.B. We were all hanging out and taking pictures in the van and whatever, B.O.B. was saying he wants to do hip-hop/metal stuff because its hard to blend authentically. After it was just me and Taylor and I’m like ‘so are you a rapper too then?’ and he tells me no, he’s the singer of this band, Left To Suffer. I was just like ‘oh shit, I’ve heard a lot about you guys!’
I did some more research after because I basically ate my foot, and found out those guys are killing it. They’re really awesome. I’ve not been able to see them live yet, but I see them online all the time and the hype they build. The music is pissed but has an overlying positive bouncy energy that breathes a different air to a lot of other deathcore stuff.”
Shadow Of Intent
“Shadow Of Intent were one of the first bands of this new school of deathcore I got turned onto, before Lorna Shore or any of those guys. They’re doing really cool stuff, it’s a lot more in line with a lot of what I like than other bands in the genre. I love Dimmu Borgir, Children Of Bodom and whatever, so hearing that kind of stuff being funnelled into a deathcore casket is just so exciting for me.
I reached out to Chris [Wiseman], their guitarist on Instagram and we became friends. He was telling me to listen to the instrumental versions of the songs if I love that kind of music, and when I did it was like ‘fuck yeah!’ Same as a lot of other stuff on this list, it’s deathcore but taking a lot of inspiration from outside that. They’ve got the same influences as Lorna Shore I guess, but done in a very different way. Plus they’re an independent band – Chris runs the whole thing, far as I can see. They’re reinventing the wheel from a business perspective.”
AngelMaker
“Angelmaker are a Canadian band with two singers. They’re fucking pissed – super slamming, inspired by pretty much everything in deathcore. They’re not all young either, Matt [Perrin, guitars] is my age, or thereabouts. He and I became really good friends. He used to be in this band called Threat Signal, but all of AngelMaker are great musicians.
I’ve had long conversations with one of the singers [Casey Tyson-Pearce] – he goes by “Lesser Beast” on Instagram – and I swear to god he lives in a van. He grows his own food and basically lives like he’s always on a hike, he’s super cool. When you read into their music and lyrics, they’re super authentic, talented and have so much going on there.”
Distant
“Alan [Grnja], the singer of Distant is sick. He told me that his first concert ever was Suicide Silence in Bratislava in 2011, which is wild. From the outside looking in, he’s the ringleader of that band and is really bringing everything together. When we toured with them, a few of the members didn’t make it on tour because they were coming from like, the Netherlands, Slovakia and whatever.
Only two members of the band actually arrived for the tour, but they were like ‘no fucking way are we not doing this’, so they called someone to get a fill-in guitarist and basically ran tracks. I’m pretty sure they ended up playing as a three-piece basically, but still went out and owned it. Alan had great banter and always had something different to say, and undeniably this band are so fucking heavy, such slamming shit.”
Ov Sulfur
“Ricky Hoover [vocals] is a star of the deathcore scene. He used to be the singer of Suffokate, but he’s so authentic and rad, so passionate. I’ve known the guy for a long time and especially with them mixing in more dangerous territories – for deathcore at least – like clean vocals, doing things that have been taboo to this scene, it feels like they’re the guys who are taking risks right now. You’ve gotta have that though, people who are going out and don’t necessarily know if something is gonna work.”
Malevolence
“A British band, Malevolence show there’s a lot of really good stuff happening around the world right now. They’re heavy as fuck, but I’ve not been able to see them yet but I really want to. A few years back I saw Whitechapel took them out on tour and it was just like, ‘smooth move man’, because that’s a sick band.
They’re probably more hardcore, beatdown stompy tough guy stuff than you get in a lot of more straight-up deathcore, but it reminds me of Bury Your Dead and there’s definitely some death metal in there that puts them under deathcore.
As far as I know they’ve not really done much touring overseas yet – definitely not much in the US – but I’m so curious to see where they go and who takes them on tour. I like that style of hardcore metal, it just sounds so classic to me and has this vibe that is almost Pantera-like. It’s cool, it’s inspired and so authentic. I saw a video of them opening for Architects and it looked fucking massive dude.”
Suicide Silence
“Shameless plug, man! So far as Suicide Silence and waving the flag for deathcore, we could have pulled the plug on this band so many times. We’ve been through so much shit and we don’t do this because we want to, we do it because we need to. We’re always gonna do authentic shit and whatever we put out, we won’t do it just because we have a contract to fulfil or whatever. We believe in this stuff.
We’re around from the early days of deathcore, but it takes bands like us to stay around, to keep it up and really champion all the stuff that’s coming through. I’m so inspired by the new bands coming up now; it’s become very tribal for these bands, all sticking together and doing things together that really makes it feel like a scene.
The first wave of deathcore was full of sick bands, but we made a mistake of not sticking together and lifting each other up – you wouldn’t see Whitechapel, Suicide Silence, Job For A Cowboy etc. touring together because we were all trying to do our own thing. These new bands don’t do that, they’re all hanging out, all the time and its making me want to get Whitechapel and JFAC on the phone like ‘this is gonna be the sickest fucking thing ever’. Fuck it, let Lorna Shore get bigger and take us all out!”
Remember... You Must Die is out March 10 via Century Media
