The difference, by ear
Metalcore trades a screamed verse against a clean sung chorus. Deathcore keeps the breakdown and drops the singing, and takes its riffs from death metal rather than from Gothenburg.
Metalcore is part sung, part screamed where deathcore is growled or screamed, and keeps to a narrower band: 140 to 190 bpm against 120 to 220. To hear the difference, play Job for a Cowboy next to Integrity. They share a root in heavy metal, and metalcore came first, by fourteen years. United States appears in the origins of both.
In figures
Deathcore
Where it sits
Heavy metal › Death metal › Deathcore
In short
Death metal plus metalcore breakdowns: low riffs, two vocal registers and a slow moment where the room erupts.
How it sounds
- Death metal riffs alternating with metalcore breakdowns at half tempo.
- Seven- and eight-string guitars, tuned very low, with precise digital production.
- Three vocal registers: guttural growl, high scream and, more recently, clean singing.
Key acts
- Job for a Cowboy
- Suicide Silence
- Whitechapel
- Lorna Shore
Start here
The pickWhitechapel - This Is Exile. Three guitarists, all tuned as low as they will go.
Full page →Metalcore
Where it sits
In short
Hardcore and extreme metal fused: breakdowns, melodic riffing and screamed verses alternating with sung choruses.
How it sounds
- The breakdown: a half-time section with syncopated riffing, built for dancing.
- Swedish-influenced melodic riffs alternating with hardcore passages.
- Screamed verses and clean sung choruses - the standard formula after 2002.
Key acts
- Integrity
- Killswitch Engage
- Converge
- Parkway Drive
Start here
The pickKillswitch Engage - Alive or Just Breathing. The album that defined a decade.
Full page →