Shadowdoom9 (Andi)'s metal genre rediscovery Part IV - conventional metalcore's earlier years

As much as I had fun with discovering early obscure releases of deathcore and mathcore, I realized that I think I've already maxed out on the 90s era for those two subgenres, and half the amount of releases I don't even like, only enjoying one song from each of some of those releases. So I'm going to continue my rediscovery journey in the genre that spawned those two subgenres... metalcore! I'm gonna time-travel my way to the mid-90s when the standard metalcore was developing and discover what I've missed when I was listening to that genre, journaling my progress in this thread. It would be great tackling the releases I somehow missed out on. It might take a long time, but I'm up for that challenge while maintaining other plans. Anyone may suggest releases if you'd like, but I'm focusing on releases from the more essential bands to have a more authentic experience. And while I'm at it, I might try discovering a few extra releases from those times to add more year variety in later Revolution playlists. Onward!

This first band I've actually gotten a head-start on checking out 3 of their albums before this thread, Zao. I can't believe I didn't explore this band before this! Zao was an important turning point in the metalcore and Christian metal scenes, and those 3 albums I've reviewed mark a perfect trio (all 5 stars), from their second and last album with the original lineup:

To their 3rd album that marked a different era:

And one more album sounding dark and sludgy with songs from the Circles of Hell:

With all that, I have a great feeling about this next chapter of my ongoing rediscovery journey, which I'll continue later. I have another album to review later today that isn't part of the journey despite having a similar style.

OK, so back to my rediscovery journey... This EP I've listened to and tried reviewing 6 months ago, but I didn't like it enough to do it. Having just given it another listen today, I've made a second attempt at a review, and well...

This EP is really old, and while I have no trouble with the metalcore oldies, which is why I'm doing my earlier metalcore rediscovery journey, it's the quality that matters. This EP is pretty difficult to listen to. In my opinion, most of the metalcore demos aren't exactly well-produced, with this one from Breach being one example. If you think I'm only up for the new complex style of metalcore, you would be wrong, I do like the rock-out hardcore songs, such as this EP's title track, a hard classic that's pretty much the only highlight here. However, there are much better releases than this poor sh*t, if you wanna please your metallic hardcore soul....

2.5/5

I seem to currently have a bit of turbulence in my journey, with a couple demo EPs that turn out to be mostly stinkers for me. Here's the second one of those:

The Absolve EP sounds nice, but the production is jacked up in a bad way, which along with the overuse of samples in the beginning, doesn't make me up for it so much. "Bleeding" is the only highlight here, having a brutal Suffocation-like slam death metal breakdown. A f***ing crusher in a mostly f***ing bland trash-fest....

2/5

Oh wow! This next release is a huge positive twist in my rediscovery journey. Let me give you a summary on this...

Morning Again are legends in the metal/hardcore scene. At that time, their frontman was Damien Moyal, a straight-edge vocalist who was also in Shai Hulud at that time. It's thanks to those two bands that the Floridian music scene has expanded to more than just death metal and *shudder* Backstreet Boys and Disney, paving the way for other metalcore bands like Trivium. Morning Again broke up after one official album, but they've since reunited multiple times and released a couple more EPs. However, Moyal moved on to melodic hardcore band As Friends Rust, and he remained vocalist for that band except for those 6 years when the other members performed as Salem. Anyway, Hand of Hope is a perfect compilation of demos from Morning Again, worth money from the buyer. There are 7 songs in 30 minutes, and I almost think of Hand of Hope as a full mini-album. So great with lots of heavy tracks! Props to Morning Again for this incredible work! If you enjoy Shai Hulud and other metallic hardcore, surely you wouldn't wanna miss this. It's an album of hardcore insanity!

5/5

Just when I thought the rediscovery journey would be back to greatness, it made another downward turn. In my 5 years of listening to metalcore, I never thought there would be a band that I find bad, like absolutely sh*tty stinker "can die in an acid volcano" bad. That is, until I found this band, perhaps the first Japanese metalcore band, State Craft. All 3 releases I've rated ranging from one to two stars. Of course, there are awesome metalcore bands from Japan like Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, Coldrain, Crossfaith, Crystal Lake, etc. But this band, State Craft? NAH. The quality is often too weak, and their only album To Celebrate the Forlorn Seasons has cheesy synth-orchestral sh*t that doesn't seem appropriate in most of metalcore. There are only 3 songs I like from that band, listed starting from the #1 best (or least bad):

1. "Season's End"

2. "Break the Cycle"

3. "After This Morning"

Here's the link to the band's releases. Beware the poor badness of the band: https://metal.academy/bands/7065

Man, this rediscovery journey has really gone up and down for me, with perfect masterpieces alternating with awful stinkers. I'm back into the perfect album zone with this band from Sweden that would later evolve through a more progressive direction:

In the 90s, Burst was in the metallic hardcore realm. The primal riff delivery laid the groundwork for the band's later sound. In a way, you can consider the band's 5 albums like the first 5 of Neurosis in terms of their stylistic evolution, starting hardcore before a more Infinite sound, except Burst's sound has a dissonant metalcore backbone throughout. This perfect offering stands out with a hardcore stampede of drumming, riffs, and shouts. Burst made grand progress in their debut with their songwriting and performing in unison. The quality is tight while in top-notch production, with solid crispy support of the bass and that metalcore backbone. Patrik Hultin might very well be a new favorite drummer of mine with his eclectic skills. His drumming is wilder than the guitars, in calculating alignment with the riff groove. The blazing fast, aggressive yet melodic short songs and one 5-minute monstrous epic are what made this album such a great beast, probably more metallic than Strife's debut. The enclosed tightness is dusted off by Burst in their most hardcore bloom!

5/5

If there's one album that sealed the deal for a band's stylistic direction, it would be 1997's stunning brutal metalcore in Living Sacrifice's career, Reborn! The cathartic power of this genre was shining for the band ever since guitarist Bruce Fitzhugh started doing growling vocals. Apparently, the band wanted to make an album with a unique sound unlike any other bands. The band released 3 albums before this with original vocalist Darren Johnson, the Big 4-inspired thrash self-titled debut and two Malevolent Creation-esque death metal albums Nonexistent and Inhabit. Reborn can indeed be considered Living Sacrifice's rebirth, taking on strong metalcore with a bit of their earlier thrash rhythm. With lots of heavy and empowering tracks, Living Sacrifice should really has much fame as P.O.D., and this album Reborn is the reason!

5/5

To be honest, I wasn't sure about giving this Strife album In This Defiance a listen and a review because their debut One Truth wasn't all that great and I even thought it was too hardcore to be metal, hence that judgement submission. But when I put this album on play, boy was I blown away! This is a higher, more metallic step from their debut, and it has just what I'm looking for from this band. Everything is at the right tone for Strife. This is a full tight metallic hardcore sound with brisk tempos. Rick Rodney has his hardcore bellowing skills that are often hard to understand, but at the same time, so compelling, all in 10 songs of metal/hardcore fury. There are a few prominent guests assisting in the action; ex-Sepultura drummer Igor Cavalera, Fear Factory guitarist Igor Cavalera, and most notably, Deftones vocalist Chino Moreno. The two other tracks each from separate ends of the album are just horror movie sound effects that almost makes the album a soundtrack for such a film, though those pointless interludes don't affect the rest of this album perfection that makes In This Defiance an astonishing stunner. This is standard E-tuned thrashy metal/hardcore at its best. I'm glad to find the greatness of Strife!

5/5

And that's the last of these albums that I had planned for this metalcore rediscovery voyage. Once again, I'm gonna try discovering a few extra releases from those times to add more year variety in later Revolution playlists, and that would be a different small journey that isn't part of this thread. Anyway...that's all in this thread, folks!