Kerrang! recently made waves in the metal community with their map of the best bands from each state in the United States. Our own Cody Davis challenged that map with a map of his own, and both drew a fair amount of fire because subjectivity can get overlooked sometimes.
Now Kerrang! is back with their list of supposedly the "The 21 Best U.S. Metalcore Albums Of All Time," and for the most part it's pretty agreeable. Here's their reasoning for the below list.
True metalcore is, at its heart, an American phenomenon. Sure, the UK and elsewhere have spawned plenty of metalcore acts over the years. But the genre emerged wholly from the U.S. with the rise of metallic hardcore bands in the late ’80s and ’90s.
Today, the term can be defined in a million ways. Is it metallic hardcore? Punk-influenced metal? Is math-core metal – or is it something entirely different? We can debate these questions all day – and believe us, we have – but we’ve weighed up the merits of thousands of records and determined that THESE are the all-time best metalcore American albums. And as you know, we know what we’re talking about.
But if you disagree, do please let us know. We like a good fight.
The only ones I call bullshit on here is Between The Buried And Me's Colors. That album pretty much spawned a certain sect of progressive metal, though trading that off for The Silent Circus would make a lot more sense.
- Converge – Jane Doe
- Norma Jean – Bless The Martyr And Kiss The Child
- Shai Hulud – That Within Blood Ill-Tempered
- Poison The Well – The Opposite Of December
- Zao – Where Blood And Fire Bring Rest
- The Chariot – Long Live
- Integrity – Those Who Fear Tomorrow
- Vision Of Disorder – Imprint
- Killswitch Engage – Alive Or Just Breathing
- Underoath – Define The Great Line
- Earth Crisis – Destroy The Machines
- Coalesce – 0:12 Revolution In Just Listening
- Nora – Dreamers And Deadmen
- God Forbid – IV: Constitution Of Treason
- Hatebreed – Satisfaction Is The Death Of Desire
- Botch – We Are The Romans
- Cave In – Until Your Heart Stops
- Between The Buried And Me – Colors
- The Dillinger Escape Plan – Miss Machine
- Snapcase – Progression Through Unlearning
- Starkweather – Crossbearer
