Melodic metalcore is a fusion genre, incorporating elements of melodic death metal and metalcore; it has a heavy emphasis on melodic instrumentation, distorted guitar tones, palm muting, double bass drumming, blast beats, metalcore-stylized breakdowns, and vocals that range from aggressive screaming and death growls to clean singing. The genre has seen commercial success for employing a more accessible sound at times compared to other forms of extreme music.[2] Many notable melodic metalcore bands have been influenced by At the Gates and In Flames.[3][4]
Killswitch Engage released their sophomore album Alive or Just Breathing in 2002, which has been noted as a significant influence on many bands to follow,[11] such as Jinjer, August Burns Red and Miss May I.[12][13][14] By 2004 the genre saw increasing prominence, with Shadows Fall's The War Within debuting at number 20 on the Billboard album chart.[15]Trivium released their sophomore album, Ascendancy, in 2005, which peaked at 75 on the UK Albums Chart, made the band one of the more prominent bands in the scene at that point, despite changing their style away from melodic metalcore on many occasions.[16][17]Killswitch Engage's 2006 effort As Daylight Dies was described by Brandon Tadday of Overdrive Magazine as "without a doubt one of the most impactful releases for melodic metalcore during the mid-2000s",[17] peaking at number 32 on the Billboard 200 and spending 22 weeks in the charts, being certified Platinum by the RIAA in 2021.[18] In 2008 the All That Remains' single "Two Weeks" peaked at number 9 at the Mainstream Rock Tracks chart in the U.S., and on the Modern Rock Tracks chart at number 38.[19] In 2007, the song "Nothing Left" by As I Lay Dying was nominated for a Grammy award in the "Best Metal Performance" category. An Ocean Between Us (the album that included "Nothing Left") itself was a commercial success, debuting at number 8 on the Billboard 200.
Welsh melodic metalcore band Bullet for My Valentine's third album Fever debuted at number 3 selling more than 71,000 copies in its first week in the U.S. and more than 21,000 copies in the UK during 2010 alone.[20] Australian melodic metalcore band Parkway Drive's[21] third album Deep Blue reached number three on the Billboard Rock Charts in 2010,[22] along with Miss May I's album Rise of the Lion having reached number 6 in 2014.[23][24] Melodic metalcore band Bury Tomorrow's fifth studio album Black Flame reached number eleven on the Billboard albums chart in less than a week.[25][26]
^Sfetcu, Nicolae (7 May 2014). The Music Sound. While death metal and hardcore had always intermingled to an extent, the first clearly identifiable instances of melodic Swedish metal being combined with hardcore seem to have sprung almost simultaneously, with Undying's This Day All Gods Die, Darkest Hour's The Prophecy Fulfilled, Prayer for Cleansing's The Rain in Endless Fall, Shadows Fall's With Somber Eyes to the Sky, and Unearth's Above the Fall of Man all being released within a year of each other (1998-99). It is unclear who first got the idea to combine the two styles. Darkest Hour had released an EP called The Misanthrope in 1996 which arguably contained elements of their later sound but was for the most part aggro-hardcore in the vein of Damnation a.d. On the other hand, Day of Suffering's 1997 album The Eternal Jihad is cited as an influence for many of the North Carolina bands that followed, such as Undying and Overcast is seen as having started the genre in Massachusetts.
^Delia, Anthony (7 July 2003). "CMJ Magazine". No. 821. CMJ. Retrieved 27 April 2018. Poison The Well designed the template for most of today's melodic metalcore acts, spawning countless copycats in the process. The band's last two efforts, 1999's The Opposite Of December...A Season Of Separation and 2002's Tear From The Red, are genre essentials, but no one is going to argue that those albums were constructed of memorable parts, rather than complete, efficiently executed songs; you knew when to rock out and when to sing along.
^D. Taylor, Jason. "Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses review". Allmusic. Retrieved June 24, 2008. Atreyu's debut album, Suicide Notes and Butterfly Kisses, is an invigorating foray into melodic metalcore in the vein of Darkest Hour, Poison the Well, and Eighteen Visions.
^"Taste of Chaos", Revolver, June 2008, p. 110. "This is the Rockstar Taste of Chaos Tour, a night when heavier melodic-metalcore bands like Atreyu and Avenged Sevenfold intend to position themselves as the next generation of bands to actually pack arenas (...)".
