Deathcore continues to be one of the most revered and reviled genres in the scene spectrum, especially following its lofty revival in the past few years. Yet for many, the symphonic refrains, fantastical imagery and breakdown Olympics are far from what they know and love about the sound, actually being quite a distance from the roots of what made it such a boom in the first place.
And as everything comes in waves, a new selection of bands are peeling the skin of Deathcore back to expose its bare bones, delivering songs that hark back to the glory days MySpace Top 8s and Mitch Lucker stomps. Brain-melting speed, unrivalled aggression and blood-stained intentions, it’s a return to violence over virality, and it couldn’t be more welcome.
So, to show you what exactly is going on, we’ve collected nine bands bringing back that old-school brute force in style…
PSYCHO-FRAME
If there is a success story to already come out of the old-school boom, Psycho-Frame are the authors by a country mile. Gaining instant notoriety at the beginning and end of 2023 with the two EP assaults of ‘REMOTE GOD SEEKER’ and ‘AUTOMATIC DEATH PROTOCOL’, their profile has only increased upwards since. Combining the breakneck pace of Suicide Silence and the commanding and gut-churning ultra-violence of Carnifex, their take on the genre is disgusting in both style and substance. Though such unrelenting intentions have secured them a deal with SharpTone Records, with their debut album set to turn even more heads soon.
BODYSNATCHER
It’s important to make sure your output embodies the “core” as much as the “death” when it comes to this game, and that’s something which Bodysnatcher have always put at the forefront. From opioid addiction to broken home upbringings, mental health battles to giving a voice to the voiceless, all covered on the recent EP ‘Vile Conduct’, their songs bristle with the very essence of the communities and struggles that hardcore are built on the back of. Then, by combining such stark realities with breakdowns to snap your neck to and guttural refrains from the deepest depths of hell, you have the makings of a perfect deathcore experience.
CRUCIFICTION
Is there anything that Salem Vex cannot do? Initially making their name as part of the already missed Bloodbather, 2024 saw them introduce two new bands to the scene. If you’re into your majestic emo, go and listen to The Requiem, but if you’re after skin-crawling devastation, CRUCIFICTION is for you. Scalpel sharp riffs, throat-shredding screams and the sort of ghoulish world-building that only exists in your darkest nightmares, debut album ‘WILL TO POWER’ is by far the heaviest thing that Rise Records put out last year. The fact it’s only the tip of the iceberg is enough to get the blood spluttering.
GIRL OF GLASS
A big element of what made bands what they were back in the late ’00s is that they knew they didn’t need fancy studio equipment or pristine production to make something slam. The murkier, the better, and that’s what Girl of Glass, named after the Suicide Silence classic, do so brilliantly. Tin can snares, overblown bass and muffled guitars aplenty, their debut self-titled EP feels every bit of the free MySpace download as it should, and it is all the better for it. Keeping alive a sound that would be lost without them and reminding us that nostalgia isn’t always clean-cut, they are playing a vital role in this resurgence.
PEACEMAKER FL
The best Deathcore should always make you feel slightly uncomfortable whilst listening to it, with the unrelenting hatred and punishing intent washing over you like a dark cloud. Peacemaker FL have mastered such discontent and brought it to their local scene in Florida in abundance. From the gritty atmosphere that lingers throughout to their undeniable love for nose-bursting slam parts, their 2024 EP ‘First Degree’ feels like being tied up in a basement and left for dead with just a single lightbulb flickering overhead. Unrelenting and unnerving, they are a horror movie come to life in terrifying colour.
THUS SPOKE ZARATHUSTRA
Another vital element of how things used to be is just how embedded in scene culture this punishing sound became. Tight jeans, sweeping fringes and studded belts aside, the one true route to being a Pure Volume legend was songs with long, sweeping and weird song titles. Enter Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Musically pulling from the scrappy and seething sounds of early Bring Me The Horizon and As Blood Runs Black, the likes of ‘Artery Records Could Never’, ‘Who Are You, Henry Ford?’ and ‘Babytron Decepticon’, taken from their 2023 album ‘Act Like You Don’t Know’ possess the sort of smile-inducing savagery that would have lived in MSN status names in 2007.
TRACHEOTOMY
Technicality is a massive part of what made Deathcore such a formidable listen in the past, and Tracheotomy brilliantly embodies that franticness. Dealing out machine gun drums and solos that leave the frets stained red – think Beneath The Massacre and Disfiguring The Goddess – without losing any of the stell-plated aggression that is necessary to turn a venue into a warzone, it’s a fine art to master but one that they make look like child’s play. There really is something in the water down in Florida.
DEATHBLOOM
Hitting that sweet spot between utter heft and otherworldly abomination isn’t always easy. But you better run to the hills with it when you find it, much like Deathbloom do. Embodying the curb stomp-worthy belligerence of Elysia with the furious chaos of early Whitechapel, their freshly released EP ‘Suffer Through The Pain’ slots into both varieties of the genre snuggly, not content with being the face engraved on just one side of the coin.
KILLING OF A SACRED DEER
If you’re going to succeed in Deathcore, you’ve got to be open to getting a little bit weird and Killing Of A Sacred Deer do just that. On top of making sure terrifying brutality is at the forefront of their music, the ear-bending time signatures, devilish atmospheres, and brain-melting textures found on their 2024 Self-Titled EP allow them to tap into fresh and frightening waters whilst still paying tribute to what has come before them.
