DT responsible for metalcore bands?

[Taotrac]

I've been trying to figure this out for the longest time, but it seems to me like DT invented a million things heard in all the new metalcore/deathcore bands out there. One big factor is the death screech growl thing. I can't find a single band before The Gallery came out to have vocals that truly sounded like the vocals heard today. Most of the death bands I've heard before that time...even Anders when he sang for Skydancer...the vocals just sounded like harsher versions of Metallica vocals. Not true growls, and even the bands that did growl, it was all really muffled, quiet, and ill-techniqued. Did Mike truly invent the 'loud, full' growling style that dominates deathcore today?

And also with appropriate guitar distortion, rapid riffs, constantly changing tempos...I really can't find a band before The Gallery that showcases all of this in one whole piece. If you look at a song like Punish My Heaven, it would only take very minor tweaks to sound just like something Black Dahlia Murder would create today. And this was almost 20 years ago when this song was written!

I mean, I do listen to a few bands like Black Dahlia Murder, Suicide Silence, Cattle Decapitation, Devil Wears Prada, and Bring Me The Horizon just because they have a few great things, but I never can help but think that all these bands sound a awful lot like DT, but dumbed down and slightly more 'br00tal' just to get crowds. I mean, I know death metal existed before DT, but I just feel like DT are that band that put everything together in a way that created the first modern death core/metal band. Before DT, it seemed that death metal was just a nerdy, underground, goth thing to do, with no bands having true production and studio support.

I mean, maybe I'm totally wrong, maybe there was a few American acts also pioneering deathcore and stuff but...I haven't heard of any that truly sounded like it by 1995. The few death bands I've heard around that time period were just that, total death, not any 'core'. Idk, it's just something I'm thinking about, it really seems like DT were the sole creators of the most characteristic ways death metal is created today and...I think they deserve credit!

(After all, Character was metalcore in my opinion, and it just sounded like a even more amplified version of The Gallery...if you can add a little guitar distortion and it sounds metalcore, then you really know you're the band that invented it.) Idk. I just think DT should be called the one true father of metalcore. At The Gates and In Flames are more like the Gothenburg Metal sound, DT is the sole father of metalcore in my opinion, definatly something way more important.

 

[Erik Erna]

I'd say early Gothenburg sound was the catalyst in general for metal/deathcore bands in America. Its just sad that bands inspired by such amazing ones, are absolute crap.

 

[Saldiac]

Carcass and At The Gates had more influence on those kind of bands than Dark Tranquillity imo.

 

[TheKorruptor]

Well.. I don't listen to metalcore.. but from what I can understand it's basically melodic thrash, or gothenburg metal.. at the very least it's inspired by bands like At the Gates, Dark Tranquillity, A Canorous Quintet.. all of which were in turn inspired by the 80's bands who were starting to incorporate a bit more melody into their thrash.. like Kreator and Sacred Reich.
If you're looking for just one band, I think most of us would agree that At the Gates was/is the role-model for pretty much every metalcore band.

 

[stizzleomnibus]

Metal slightly predates punk, but but there is a pattern of interplay between the two. After the earliest metal in the 70s, it kind of stagnated, and everybody ran to check out punk. In the NWOBHM, metal bands started experimenting with punk speed and energy in the context of metal. Shortly after that, hardcore punk became big, which was punk done in the style of metal. While no metal fan wants to admit it, over time metal and punk have functioned as extremes on a continuum, and most bands take varying degrees of influence from the middle. Metalcore is the newest fusion of metal and more mainstream punk-influenced rock.

Most people who actually take an interest in music (generally, musicians rather than fans) listen to a wide variety of music. It's more likely that elements that existed in different genres coalesced than that one band had an influence. Screamed vocals, while not quite like death metal, are more common in punk. Making punk heavier, or making metal softer, while borrowing elements from across the spectrum is what made metalcore.

That said, the melodic death revolution, which is bigger than just Gothenburg, had impact on almost all genres. Most death metal bands are playing melo-death now, and the olde-fashioned DM bands are pretty forgettable (IMO). Dutch symphonic metal, melodic metalcore and many others descend from this tradition.

 

[Naglfar]

Carcass and At The Gates had more influence on those kind of bands than Dark Tranquillity imo.

This guy wins. At The Gates then morphed into the Haunted, and there we go.

I guess KSE sounds good, even if you don't like 'em. Love their Holy Diver cover, too. So it's not like metalcore existing is necessarily a bad thing.

Not as good as the real thing, as we all know.

 

[Dreadful]

Yeah I'd say Carcass and At The Gates before Dt...though the entire Swedish melodic death/black metal in general was what was in the minds of the American bands that decided to fuse the melodic thrash riffing, the screeched/growled vocals, the brutal melodic riffs and complex songwriting into more metal hardcore.

I think it was Joel or Adam from Killswitch Engage that said when Carcass Heartwork came out they had a better idea of what sound would be ideal for them.