List all the Christian metalcore and deathcore bands.

I want to dig deep on this style.

For metalcore, too long to list,  but there are 28 pages to explore here:

https://www.last.fm/tag/christian+metalcore/artists?page=1

Personally I only like some of the first wave of metalcore in the late 90s, i.e. Zao, first two Underoath, Training for Utopia, and Living Sacrifice (Reborn album).  I also like bands that mixed in a healthy dose of death metal or other things like Becoming the Archetype, Soul Embraced, and A Plea for Purging.  I also really like the last album State of Mind by Those Who Fear, with its electronic elements and great grooves making it more of a modern industrial metal album in my book.

Personally all the rest of the metalcore bands sound the same to me and the boy band clean vocals that most of them throw in make me want to cut my ears off.  Worst genre mash-up in metal history.

For deathcore, I've really only listened to Impending Doom who are great and all I need to scratch that itch once in awhile.  There's a lot of overlap with the list above, but here are the deathcore bands:

https://www.last.fm/tag/christian+deathcore/artists

There are so many. . . how about I list the ones that I really like? Also, of course, many of these bands may or may not meet anybody's definition of "Christian," so I'm not here to debate one way or another, but are all at least on some level "Christ-influenced" or often included in the "Christian scene."

Deathcore (more or less in order of my preference):
The Crimson Armada; Guardians album is the pinnacle IMO
Saving Grace
As Hell Retreats; Revival album hugely underrated, IMO
The Burial; Winepress and Age of Deceit albums were deathcore before they moved more into death metal
Your Chance to Die
With Blood Comes Cleansing
In the Midst of Lions
Earth from Above
Becoming the Archetype; I Am album, IMO, their sound swung to deathcore here


Metalcore:
August Burns Red, especially Constellations and Messengers albums
As I Lay Dying (I know, I know, just naming bands), especially An Ocean Between Us, Awakened, and The Powerless Rise albums
Phinehas, last album The Fire Itself is fantastic
War of Ages
Oh, Sleeper, Children of Fire and Son of the Morning in particular
Overcome, especially When Beauty Dies and More than Death for old school

Thanks guys

Oooh. Nice. I like me some Metalcore/Deathcore. I'll list a few that haven't been listed yet

Deathcore
Diamonds To Dust (Newer stuff is Deathcore, older stuff is Metalcore)
As Lions and Lambs. I love these dudes, Hate Speech is a good tune to check out to see if you like em 
World Divided 
The Hearkening, start at After Dark, this ep is fantastic, these guys need way more love.

Every Knee Shall Bow

Metalcore:
Convictions, these guys are awesome, I've seen them live and they put so much heart into their music. One of the later songs The Price of Grace has actually made me cry, it's about one of their fans who committed suicide 

Still Remains, Ceasing to Breathe is an album that really went under the radar, start there, it's killer.

If I can think of any more I'll share.

I love Diamonds to Dust but there's a couple bands I don't know to check out. Thanks

Nothing Til Blood
Sleeping Giant (some Theology issues though)
For Today
Onward to Olympas
Your Memorial
Mouth of The South
Leaders

Those are some Metalcore bands I used to listen to

Black Rider wrote:I want to dig deep on this style.

Why would you ever want to do that?     (Sorry, couldn't resist!)

I never could get into the style, but if I were to... Hope For The Dying is pretty sweet.  (IIRC Grindboy recommended them to me many moons ago.)

Oh yes, I believe I did, over lobster on the bay in Dover, NH. 

I personally wouldn't call Hope for the Dying metalcore, but I see where people would. IMO they have more in common with Opeth than, say, MyChildren MyBride. But whatever they are, they're fantastic!

^Very good times!

I think it's the vocals: they're very -core sounding to my ears.  Though the instrumentation is definitely more metal.

Kerrick wrote:^Very good times!

I think it's the vocals: they're very -core sounding to my ears.  Though the instrumentation is definitely more metal.

Vocals sound "core" for sure, name sounds core, there are some occasional core elements musically. It's all true.

There's a lot that goes under these designations and I really think, for some band it is origins that matter. I would agree that Hope for the Dying isn't metalcore musically, but its where they came from and their record label. War of Ages doesn't fit that bill anymore but they began as straight metalcore. Saving Grace has massive influence from thrash and Pantera but they have clear metalcore influences. There are few bands that have lasted that haven't bent the genre in positive new directions, which has helped overall.

For me, though my tastes went from hating these genres, to enjoying a lot of it, to waning once more, these are the bands I've continued to enjoy:

Demon Hunter - clearly far more than just metalcore/nu-metal these days but they had the model down early

Wolves at the Gate - more melodic, few true breakdowns (which I'm not really a fan of).

War of Ages - guitarist Steve Brown is an amazing lead player but the band started as generic metalcore. Today they are more progressive and have members of Hope for the Dying and The Burial involved and have more thrash, prog, and death metal influences with a hardcore base. They've become on of my favorite bands and put on an amazing show live!


My Epic - doesn't really fit this tag anymore. At best they went in the post-hardcore category with a lot of atmospheric elements mixed in with some hardcore shouting. Never the less, their album "Yet" was and still is one of the best albums bent toward this style, theologically rock solid, challenging and eye-opening. Some later material is far more atmospheric and I'd say they haven't much of any "core" influence in years.

Phinehas - too many breakdowns at times but these guys are incredible players. The riffing, the solos, the melodies are outstanding. The Last Word is Yours to Speak is still my favorite though the new one, the Fire Itself, is nearly on the same level. Dan Gailey was in the last incarnation of Becoming the Archetype and currently plays in Fit for a King as well as Phinehas. He is one of the best guitar players in the modern scene.


Life in Your Way - more melodic overall with some tremendous melodies. Their album Kingdoms is still an all-time favorite and an intro to the genre for me. Still love the mix of melody with complex rhythms on this album. The shouted vocals (like those in the classic hardcore/metalcore band Overcome's material) can be hard for some to get into.

Sleeping Giant - massive groove influence in their sound, also a doomy guitar tone. Super passionately evangelistic but definitely have a charismatic bend. I understand why some would avoid. Saw them and in concert though and rarely heard a better presentation of the gospel in any concert setting.

Saving Grace - thrash, death metal and hardcore mixed together. Their first three full lengths were amazing! The last album wasn't all that great. They disappeared a year after and just recently got back together. A most anticipated album for me.

Seventh Star - their album Brood of Viper is legendary in the genre for a reason. It's a monster of an album. Metalcore before the reliance on breakdowns. Undisputed Truth is a beast as well. A powerful band.

The Burial - The winepress was metalcore and I wasn't a fan. Lights and Perfections was much better! In The Taking Of Flesh was amazing! Metalcore with massive death metal influence, probably more aptly reversed. Theologically excellent too.

Matter - an amazing band gone quickly from the scene. Their album Teraphim is absolutely amazing. A concept album about Ezekiel. One of the better examples of the melodic post-hardcore side of the scene. This band fits with what Life in Your Way was doing and some of Underoath's middle period but better.

Dynasty - straight hardcore/metalcore but something about the groove in their songs and the gang vocals worked for me. Wish they would have kept going. Probably pedestrian for most people.


Big bands for others:

Fit for a King - Dark Path is an incredible album and The Price of Agony maybe the best metalcore song I've ever heard. Too much youth angst in their lyrics though and not much hope. Haven't appreciated their lyrics much as they've gone on.

August Burns Red - the leaders in the genre. Amazing talent but wayward theologically as they've gone on. Seems foolishly but some of the openly affirmed views of band members have bothered me.

For Today - way too many breakdowns. I could never get into this band. Fired a band member for speaking biblical views about sexuality.


Funny thing about this genre is I still don't like breakdowns after all these years. The less present they are the more likely I am to listen. I used to listen to a lot more of this 10 years ago when I was desperate to find good Christian music but most of it proved generic and I've forgotten most of it. Couple that with the exceeding amount of apostasy that came with youth group kids starting metalcore bands, many of those past favorites denied Christ and left God behind. I had some pretty horrible experiences with some bands at the height of the genre's popularity.


On deathcore: Unfortunately, for deathcore, outside of some select songs and albums, I tend to think of it as just bad death metal. In the Midst of Lions, Impending Doom, and a host of others have some good material but I have never loved anything I heard. Others would better recommend those bands.

Checking out newer War of Ages and it's much better then I remember. I agree about Hope For the Dying and already enjoy their stuff. 
Couple more to check out too so thanks for the reccos.

Never got much into metalcore or deathcore, although I was in a metalcore band in college. I do like Demon Hunter and Living Sacrifice. One more obscure metalcore album from a few years back that I LOVED was Corpus Christi’s A Feast for Crows.

Interesting discussion, a ton that I'm tempted to respond to, and nice to see a core thread here that doesn't just go out of it's way to poo on the whole enterprise.


In regard to Frozen Fire's comments about deathcore, even though I like a lot of it I do in many ways see it as a disappointment. When it was first starting I was surprised and delighted that the "scene" was moving toward blast beats and death vocals, I like hardcore and all of that but death metal is my number one girl. But I agree that all too often, instead of infusing the brutality of death metal with the energy of hardcore (WIN!), bands took the brutality of death metal and put it in the tiny, uncreative box of hardcore. There are plenty of bands that do this well IMO, but even (especially?) some of the bigger ones, like so much Impending Doom, I love how they're heavy but dang, it's just boring to me. Similarly with breakdowns, if I'm listening to old (90's-00's) hardcore, it's a tempo/feel change and big groove. . . somewhere along the way it turned into "just try not to play for 30 seconds, it's ok if you hit one or two chugga-chugga's now and then but keep it to a minimum." Again I think the better bands (Phinehas, The Crimson Armada "Guardians" album) do a good job of bringing the feel change but still playing something worth hearing. In a lot of ways, like a lot of things, I think the genre's popularity and inevitable flood of similar sounding, lowest common denominator bands end up poisoning the whole enterprise for a lot of people, which is unfortunate, because there really are some amazing bands. And I remember the same type of criticisms when death metal was at it's popularity peak and 10,000 bands were doing the same thing, and I'm sure other genres before had the same dynamic as well. Anyway, just a thought-ramble paragraph.

If anyone is looking for a good 2022 metalcore record, check out Confessions of a Traitor’s Punishing Myself before God Does. It’s nothing fancy, but just well done metalcore. I’m not a huge fan of the style, but I quite enjoyed this album.

I def don't think Hope for the Dying is 'core.  Melodic death metal and absolutely amazing!!

I can see some of teh BTA being MC/DC, but still I file it with DM.

The only true 'core I listen to is War of Ages, mid-career Demon Hunter and Impending Doom...

Alove For Enemies is good metalcore without clean vocals. I am listening through their catalogue just now and it kicks some butt.

ChristianDeathMetal wrote:

I can see some of teh BTA being MC/DC, but still I file it with DM.

MC/DC
For Those About To Breakdown...We Salute You

MagnusPrime wrote:

ChristianDeathMetal wrote:

I can see some of teh BTA being MC/DC, but still I file it with DM.

MC/DC
For Those About To Breakdown...We Salute You

Yes BTA is clearly Deathcore, nothing Death Metal about it.

I am into quite a few of the bands listed above, of course

I just thought I'd throw in a few of my favorites, (sorry if they have already been mentioned)

Mychildren Mybride
The Devil Wears Prada
Norma Jean
Texas In July
Zao
Haste The Day
Impending Doom
Wage War
Fallstar
A Plea For Purging

I just discovered The Light Superior.   

I'm not normally that into Metalcore generally but I like these guys.  
They're from Texas and on Rottweiler Records.

For deathcore, Impending Doom begins and ends the discussion.  There are some honorable mentions worthy of note (including but not limited to With Blood Comes Cleansing, In the Midst of Lions, Behold the Kingdom, and maybe the second Leaders album), but Impending Doom owns the Christian side of things for sure.  

As for metalcore...too many to list in such an oversaturated genre.  But, you can't go wrong with Becoming the Archetype, Solid State era Living Sacrifice, (please forgive me) some As I Lay Dying (they were good at what they did), early Killswitch Engage (Christian-friendly, but definitely some theological concerns lyrically), and how bout this one...FewLeftStanding.  Who remembers those dudes, huh?!  Great early 2000s metalcore if I do say so!