When most well-adjusted, employed people think of metal, the sound they probably imagine is something along the lines of deathcore: just loud, repetitive, screaming, inane nonsense. Deathcore is one of the most hilarious ideas metal bands have ever come up with – and though I don’t normally toast an entire subgenre, it is also, for sure, one of the least inspired forms of music ever made.
YouTuber Zero_Life_Left agrees, but wanted to define exactly why bands like Oceano, Thy Art is Murder, The Acacia Strain, etc. all literally sound exactly the same, so they put together this tremendous little analysis video that (don’t laugh) breaks it all down.
Cotillion / July 25, 2016 2:22 pm
This was great
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Fredrik's stolen ones & zeros / July 26, 2016 10:21 am
Give them a break. They used all their allowance on weed, Mountain Dew and neck tattoos but forgot to purchase any talent from 7-eleven.
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Ruben van Kruistum / July 26, 2016 10:44 am
Short version: Deathcore bands use quadruplets (which is what this is type of polyrythm is actually called) a lot, especially in breakdowns. You can make a similar video about basically any other genre of music, you’ll find these kind of tropes everywhere. I’ll agree that deathcore has very little to offer musically though and the last part about using the exact same riff twice on the same album was a good find.
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Crutch / July 26, 2016 2:12 pm
quadruplets is a simple duple meter is just quarter notes. at least do some correct research before trying to be an elitist
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Ruben van Kruistum / July 26, 2016 2:26 pm
I don’t think it’s really fair to call me elitist when I’m clarifying something for an article that has the words “theoretical study” in the title :D Also I have no idea what you mean by that first sentence. All I’m saying that it’s not actually the dotted quarter note that’s the destinctive factor here, but rather the guitar(s) playing 4 notes over 3 half-notes (or 6 quarter-notes) in the drums. Something we like to call a “quadruplet”.
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Adrián Arreola / July 26, 2016 11:48 am
Deathcore fans are (including myself) like the Sponge Bob meme, just waiting for the breakdown…..
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Fuzius / July 26, 2016 12:07 pm
ehh. well it’s a very close-minded genre. but basically most ideas in music are a variation of other ideas, so that’s not really a newsflash.
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twincher / July 26, 2016 2:10 pm
The reason death core all sounds the same is because there’s only SO MANY variations a Pam muted C5 could be strummed in a measure
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Ink Deep / July 26, 2016 3:07 pm
i don’t give a shit as long as i can throw down to it you fucking square this video sucks
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E W / July 27, 2016 11:34 am
Great argument you’ve put forward there. You must be proud. If you’re not being sarcastic, the entire genre of deathcore is summed up by you. If you are being sarcastic, get a life.
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Merah / July 26, 2016 4:57 pm
It’s funny because this can be applied to really any extreme metal genre.
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Deathtripper / July 26, 2016 7:09 pm
Can’t believe people still get butthurt about Deathcore being a thing.
Alright, let’s call out anyone using what I call the “Avenged Sevenfold Unholy Confessions riff”. That syncopated riff has been used by Death, Suicide Silence, Asking Alexandria, and tons of earlier post-hardcore bands pre-dating Avenged Sevenfold. I don’t think we have anyone here who will defend any of this bands I listed (apart from Death), and perhaps this deathcore “riff” mentioned is a little too simple, but this can be applied to any genre.
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