Five bands every metalcore fan will hear about at some point

    In every music scene, there are the bands everyone and their mother knows about. The Big Four of thrash - Slayer, Megadeth, Metallica, Anthrax - are the most notable example, but for every genre, there are artists that people flock to. What's popular is what's safe - it's when you start to stick your nose outside the mainstream that you start to draw the scorn of most people. Thus, it only makes sense that most people will cling to the large scale artists of the scene.
     Now, by no means is this a ridicule of the bands mentioned (well, at least not for most of them). Two of the artists are some of my favorite bands, and got me into metalcore in the first place. Most of these bands are by no means untalented - this is just a list of five bands any metalcore fan will either listen to or hear about at some point.


5. The Devil Wears Prada

    The only good core band to come out of Ohio (we don't talk about Attack Attack! or Miss May I), the Devil Wears Prada are infamous for their band name - taken as an anti-materialist creed from a book none of them had read - frontman Mike Hranica's piercing scream (and his missing tooth), and one of their most valuable gifts to metalcore today - the presence of a synth. I'm not entirely sure how I feel about this last addition, as ever since their rise to fame every goddamn Rise clone has been some sort of trancecore stupidity.
      In any case, the band has become one of the cornerstones of popular metalcore today. Known for their frenetic stage presence and spectacular live show, their continuous evolution as an artist repeatedly draws me back in. What stands out the most about the music is two things - firstly, the synth's role became almost nonexistent in later albums - With Roots Above and Branches Below used it almost exclusively for atmospheric effects, and Dead Throne was an almost completely organic album. Secondly, later releases incorporated almost no breakdowns.
       It's this innovation that has propelled them to popularity among metalcore fans, including myself. While not as widely accepted outside the metalcore community as other bands (artists like Converge and As I Lay Dying are deemed 'respectable' in the eyes of the mainstream metal community), and still shunned as a 'scene band', a TDWP concert in town will have fans coming out of the woodwork to buy tickets a month before.


4. Of Mice & Men
     
         And here we come to one of the reasons metalheads despise metalcore. California Rise-token boys Of Mice & Men (fronted, unsurprisingly enough, by Attack Attack!'s ex-vocalist Austin Carlile), have the swoopy haircuts, uninteresting metalcore, and dearth of breakdowns you'd expect from every other band out there. I'm not saying nothing the band has put out has been good - 'Product of a Murderer' and the djenty new tracks released this year are pretty good, and I've listened to them a few times, but invariably gotten distracted by other bands.
       But how are they live? They're okay, I guess. Carlile has a bad habit of standing in place and staring at the crowd as all the kids with haircuts identical to his do karate in the pit. Not a bad sound, although I guess it's pretty easy to do what you do when your riffs are that simplistic.
        Regardless, the band is pretty all right lyrically. It's obvious Carlile puts his heart into the lyrics, and interviews with him reveal that he's been through a lot of shit in his life. Understandably, and commendably, it comes out in his music. But I can't help but think Jerry Roush was right in starting Glass Cloud - the Of Mice & Men boat wasn't exercising his full potential. 
         The band's received a lot of attention from various publications - AP and Kerrang! notably, and it's this press that's gotten them as famous as they are. My question is why? Is it because they're heavy and kind of catchy? In any case, I think they're a good entry-level band, but should be abandoned as soon as better music is discovered.

3. August Burns Red

         My personal favorite band, Pennsylvania's August Burns Red are mandatory listening for anyone interested in metalcore or already a fan. Incorporating more metal elements than any of the bands so far on the list, including rhythm experimentation, riffs composed of rapid notes, and equal use of clean and distorted guitar (all due to the guitar masterwork of J.B Brubauker), the band has one of the most unique sounds out there today.
       Indeed, the choice to eschew chugga chugga breakdowns has given the band the surprising approval of mainstream metalheads, who, as a rule, tend to sneer at anything vaguely Christian (and, lest we forget, ABR are quite Christian) or punk-related. The band's uplifting message, and the range of frontman Jake Luhrs furthers this distinction from the pack, and they've even spawned a mini genre of imitators (Texas in July being the most well-known).
            Deeply emotional lyrics, epic sound, and an incredible live show - which now includes a salsa break - makes even a seasoned mosh veteran shake their head in admiration. That, and every album since 2005 has been an improvement. Seriously. ABR are a band that cannot be avoided when discussing metalcore simply because, in so many ways, they have defined a part of metalcore today.

2. Asking Alexandria
           And now we come to the lowest of the goddamn low. The gutter feeders that binge on the money and love of a thousand screaming scenegirls. A gang of British prettyboys with lyrics so loathsome they make Oli Sykes look like Bob Dylan , instrumentals so pathetic they make Nickelback look like Malmsteen, and egos so monstrous they make Kanye look like the Dalai Lama.
           If it's not obvious, I hate this band.
           What's the name of this sonar abomination? Asking Alexandria. The posterboys for everything that will ever be wrong with music ever. Do they lack musical skill? Thanks to excessive drug use, frontman Danny Worsnop sounds like an aged lawnmower. How about their lyrics? It's safe to say bands as heinous as Capture the Crown got their inspiration from some Asking Alexandria songs ('Not the American Average' comes to mind), and finally, the only reason the band is as popular as they are is twofold.

1. They're British.
2. Their fanbase is composed of screaming, tone-deaf tweenage girls who see an attractive singer and swoon.

        It's inevitable: the musicians with the loudest fanbase will always get on top, regardless of how good they are. Look at popular music today and tell me I'm wrong, but that's because their foundation is so loyal and so loud. What really grinds my gears is when synthcore derp bands like Asking Alexandria open for BFD bands like Slayer and Motorhead (this summer's Mayhem lineup springs to mind). Next to diehard metalheads are bouncing teenagers who put the 'dance' in 'hardcore dancing'. I think the only wall of death AA has ever seen was captured in the aforementioned 'Not the American Average' music video.            And what makes matters worse: because bands like Asking Alexandria are so popular, outsiders to the metalcore scene see them and immediately think all bands are like them. Asking Alexandria (and a few other terrible scenecore groups like Make Me Famous or Sleeping with Sirens) is what springs to mind when the average metalhead thinks of 'core' and, like us, they shake their heads in disgust. 

1. Parkway Drive
        I had to resist the urge to make all five bands 'Parkway Drive', considering almost everyone I've ever met who's into metalcore has had a huge, huge thing for this band. Straight out of who-knows-where (Byron Bay) Australia, the band is a long-standing staple of modern metalcore, debuting with bands as fundamental as I Killed the Prom Queen - literally. The bands released a split EP in 2003.
         I'd be lying if I said I shared in the incredible hype this band has received ever since. I realize I started listening to PWD with the weakest link Deep Blue, but my attempts at getting into brand-spanking new album Atlas (released literally a week ago in North America) or Killing with a Smile (widely hailed as one of the best LP entrances in the industry today) have been less than fruitful. I do like Horizons though. I respect the band's technical prowess ('Dark Days' off the newest album is particularly awesome. BEHOLD THE PALE HORSE!) and their decision to make Atlas an environmental album, but for the life of me, I can't get into them.
       However, that hasn't stopped them from being the metalcore act of the twenty first century. Go to any metalcore board or forum, and ask the question 'who likes Parkway Drive?' and I can guarantee almost everyone will start drooling. That's completely understandable - in a scene where Rise Records holds such prominence, the tasteful and fun use of breakdowns is a valuable commodity. PWD's breakdowns are as heavy as they are innovative - the chug is present, but time signature variations keep you on your toes.
        It's this unique sound, I believe, that has made the band as tantamount to modern metalcore as it is. PWD has evolved with every album they've released, and as such has avoided going stale as the genre evolved with them. In the metal community, PWD are often mentioned in the same breath as As I Lay Dying due to the prevalence of metal elements in their music - and it's this predilection for both the 'metal' and 'core' that has made Parkway Drive into the juggernaut it is today.