No disrespect to Job for a Cowboy's Doom EP – it did usher in deathcore as metal's "next big thing." Doom is still a lot of fun to listen to, but its farty production and minimalist songwriting didn't exactly carry forward into present day.
Instead, these 10 albums really predicted the future of deathcore. From djenty influences, to epic soundscapes and brilliant musicianship, these records aged incredibly well.
Ion Dissonance – Solace
This album was mind blowing when it dropped in 2005. Ion Dissonance’s sophomore album is a perfect mix of deathcore, mathcore and djent, with just enough grind from their debut to keep fans happy. Solace has some of the heaviest grooves you’ll ever hear on tracks like “O.A.S.D.” and “Cleansed by Silence,” and it’s got some of the best production to come out of the mid-2000s. Blast this and tell your friend it’s a new album from this year. They’ll believe you.
Despised Icon – The Healing Process
In 2005, metalheads new to deathcore categorized the subgenre by pig squeals, shitty production and plodding breakdowns. Those metalheads hadn’t heard Despised Icon. The Healing Process was so well written, so endlessly violent and masterfully produced. Canada’s best deathcore export was well ahead of the curve, as evidenced by this killer album.
The Red Chord – Clients
In hindsight, it’s kind of crazy that deathcore concept albums existed in 2005. Again, the subgenre was seen by many as easy-to-write, uninteresting caveman scheissen. Before that stereotype really hit its stride, The Red Chord had already released Clients, a technical buffet where every song represented a different mental ailment. Clients sounds just as deranged as its concept, taking technical death metal into the deathcore realm through monstrous gutturals and chunky breakdowns.
Animosity – Shut It Down
The first thing you’ll notice about Animosity’s Shut It Down is the guitar tone. It doesn’t immediately sound like deathcore, probably because the year was 2003 and the subgenre barely existed. Shut It Down is instead the sound of a metalcore band mutating into something more vile. The record switches up between brutal death metal, post-hardcore and slam, with even a few shades of goregrind in there. It’s brilliant genre experimentation that ended up beneath the deathcore umbrella.
The Acacia Strain – Continent
It was 2008, Job for a Cowboy had disowned their deathcore label and metalheads worldwide were fiending over anything death metal related. The Acacia Strain obviously did not give a fuck about this. They flew deeper into deathcore, brilliantly finding the darker, moodier edges of what the subgenre could be with Continent. It’s dumb-guy-meets-smart-guy music, going absolutely apeshit on breakdowns while keeping a constant foreboding soundscape.
As Blood Runs Black – Allegiance
This album is such a satisfying metalcore/deathcore hybrid. The riffage couldn’t be more metalcore… the breakdowns couldn’t be more deathcore… the vocals and drumming both sit on the razor’s edge between subgenres. As Blood Runs Black’s Allegiance was really written for both fan bases, touching on everything from Avenged Sevenfold to All Shall Perish. As Blood Runs Black even handled production on the album, absolutely nailing it for their debut.
Whitechapel – This Is Exile
This is the best sounding filth bucket I’ve ever dumped into my ears. No deathcore band sounded more menacing or gritty than Whitechapel in 2008… and yet… Ben Savage’s guitar solos were just so damn classy. That push and pull between gross and sophisticated has allowed This Is Exile to age spectacularly. We don’t even need to get into Phil Bozeman’s vocals… dude’s the final boss of deathcore.
After the Burial – In Dreams
After the Burial showed incredible evolution after releasing the highly-praised tech death / deathcore hybrid Rareform. For In Dreams, the boys seamlessly melded the styles together while not being afraid to get a little artsy. In Dreams didn’t initially get the critical praise of Rareform, but a fresh listen to this album really highlights how on-the-money these dudes were. Beautiful stuff.
Born of Osiris – The Discovery
Speaking of bands not afraid to get a little artsy — THIS IS IT! Hot damn, this album is a trip. Born of Osiris’ The Discovery could’ve been an epic video game soundtrack, but it instead scored deathcore’s growth to what technical death metal and prog metal were doing at the time. Born of Osiris really leaned into what spacey and stellar production could do for deathcore, a decade before it became the norm.
Fit for an Autopsy – Hellbound
This album is just over 10 years old, and it’s gonna continue to age like oak barrel scotch. Fit For an Autopsy’s Hellbound proved that Will Putney was the producer of the future. Every note on Hellbound sounds perfectly in place, with the perfect feel. Hellbound is a landmark album for that “atom-smashing” tone, cleaning up the muddy parts from The Process of Human Extermination and ushering in a pristine, scientific brutality.
