The Big Four of Metalcore

Also known as the "New Wave of American Heavy Metal" (NWAHM), metalcore is a genre that has sort of taken hold of a lot of modern metal acts, especially about 10 years ago. The bands in particular that I want to focus on are who I call the new "Big Four". They're also sometimes known as the Massachusetts metal scene. I'm sure you can probably guess the bands I'm talking about now, but if you can't, I'm referring to Shadows Fall, All That Remains, Unearth, and Killswitch engage.

I don't exactly know what I plan to accomplish with this other than to draw attention to these bands (as if they need it). Maybe I'll just explain my history with these bands. I know these bands get a lot of flack for being mallcore, sellouts, emo, whatever, but honestly, if you think that, you're either a moron or a metal elitist (and likely a virgin), and you therefore don't matter.

The first band I really got into of the four was Unearth through their music video of The Great Dividers. Since then, they have remained my favorite of the four and I own all of their albums. Basically one of the greatest things to happen to metal in the last 10 years, easily. Ken Susi is the reason I play an Ibanez guitar. What else to say about them? They're super intense, aggressive metal. They define metal. They may not be YOUR definition of metal, but they encompass all that is metal.

After Unearth, I quickly found my way to Shadows Fall. They were the first of the big four whose album I owned. It was The War Within and I got it for Christmas. Since then, I've gotten all of their albums excluding their first one with Phil seeing as they rerecorded it with Brian Fair and called it something else. That works for me. They're always been a favorite of mine and, unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), the only one I've seen live. I missed out on Unearth just back in December with Hatebreed and Cannibal Corpse.

Killswitch Engage is an interesting one. For the longest time, the only song I knew was Rose of Sharyn, and I wasn't a big fan of it. It wasn't until years later that I heard My Curse. I learned the song and that was the end of it until I heard The Arms of Sorrow not long after. It was at this point when I realized that they really had something to them and maybe I should stop hating them for no reason. So I picked up their album, As Daylight Dies, and later, The End of Heartache. They pretty much jumped to the top of my most played for a couple months at this point. And their new album? Basically jizztastic. It's everything they were doing before, but on this album, they do it better. That's all there is to it. There's no filler (or the filler is really fucking good).

All That Remains is an easy one to explain. I honestly don't really like them. I don't hate them, but I just can't really get into them. Who knows why? Maybe I need to sit down and give them more of a chance, but as it stands, they just don't do much for me.

One band who I've yet to listen to is Overcast, which is a combination of the guys from Killswitch Engage and Shadows Fall and was an earlier project before the various members took off with their respective bands. Another couple bands are Seemless and Aftershock who similarly were composed of members of the big four, but were far less popular than Overcast (who recently got back together in 2008, I've heard). Hopefully I can listen to those other bands and I can write some reviews of their albums.

That's all for this. It wasn't a rant or a review or really even worthwhile, but here it is all the same.

-Tyler