Chaos Backstage: Metal vs Hardcore With Devildriver
US-based Hammer.co.uk scribe Chaos is out on the road in the US and reports back why metal will always remain his first and only love…
The ‘Thrash And Burn’ tour which consisted of Despised Icon, Emmure, DevilDriver, Thy Will Be Done, Periphery, Oceano, For The Fallen Dreams, Veil Of Maya, My Children My Bride, would partner two metal bands with seven hardcore acts. Hardcore has never made it’s way into my music collection and I was abruptly going to find out why. Being that I’m more of an ‘old school’ metal head, I can admit to somewhat resisting ‘new waves’. When I entered the venue, and took a 360 degree look around, the room suddenly started to spin, I became dizzy and was almost sick. Was this some kind of nightmare? Seven of nine merch booths had hip-hop style clothing and ‘bling’. Where the hell am I?
As my eyes regained focus I would realize that ‘your not in Kansas anymore, Toto!’ For the very first time in my life, I felt like a fish out of water at a metal show. The majority of the patrons were wearing hip-hop style jerseys, baseball caps cocked off to one side, and enough over-sized chains to make Mr.T jeaous. I would be informed at a later date by John Laux of Warbringer that this fashion/style is called ’slam’. He doesn’t get it either. The first band was They Will Be Done who heavily lean to the traditional side of metal. Seven hardcore acts would follow and the show was closed by DevilDriver who need no introduction. The most shocking thing wasn’t the discord from the metal fans towards the hardcore fans but quite the contrary. When the last hardcore act, Emmure, finished their set a noticeable amount of the crowd left. The remaining hardcore kids would seem to stick around only for a few minutes of DevilDriver to snicker and make fun.
Here’s my dilemma… even though hardcore is not my thing, I can appreciate the heavy components. Most modern hardcore seems to be mostly heavy, so why is it that a more neo-approach to metal becomes totally inaccessible to most hardcore fans? Maybe I’m just too old to get it. Somebody please explain this to me.
When speaking to Jeff Kendrick from Devil Driver before the show, I asked him his thoughts, on the hardcore bands on the tour. “I don’t want to say that I’m not into music as much anymore, just more into musicianship. This band Periphery has three guitar players and they are outstanding and are a lot younger than me, and the guy from Veil Of Maya is really really good too. At the end of the day, for me it’s a songwriting thing: you have to be able to right a song. I’ve become desensitized to a lot of heavy music, I’ve heard the heaviest shit ever written and recorded… so is it really going to get that much heavier? It’s just like, ‘write a song!’, you know? SORRY hardcore fans!”
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A lot of the bands discussed here are not really hardcore bands!!!!
They are scene/deathcore bands, which incorparate elements of hardcore/metalcore/death metal/being shit into their music.
Hardcore = Terror/Hatebreed/Born From Pain/First Blood/Integrity etc
Those are bands that a lot of metal heads will enjoy.
Don’t label wank “scene” bands in with hardcore!!!!!
Listen to a bona fide metal album like “Reign in Blood”(slayer , as if you needed telling) or “Roots” (sepultura) or Vulgar Display of Power (if you don’t know then get off this website) and then listen to some proper hardcore, they are both much more related to one another than to loser scene bands!!!
And, I’m sure many people will agree, that when your at a gig (such as when I went to see All Shall Perish, who are not scene but have been taken over by trendy scene kid fans) you don’t want some knobhead in a brightly coloured t-shirt flailing their arms about!!!!
I think Hardcore kids like that are hilarious. They are the kids who at school think the metallers are twats for listening to shit music without realising that’s what everybody in the school thinks and says about them. Except they dont see the difference between the music so think the hardcore kids are the BIGGEST twats around! I’ve known a few hardcore fans and they have all been the most narrow-minded idiots you could meet. It is aint hardcore, without listening to it they know its shit.
And thank you for the “heavy metal for pubeless beginners guide” Sam Ellis Thompson. It felt like being told about a good football team that i should go and see from someone who was gonna give me inside info to tell me to check out a team called manchester united. I thought Chaos A.D pissed all over Roots.
I do have one question though. What the fuck is ’scene’ as a genre? Is that just fancy for trendy?
*sigh* Here we go again… I’m a metalhead and I’ve fallen victim to hardcore kids who make unjustified sweeping statements about my music and fashion sense. What am I going to do? I know! I’ll show them how REAL people behave and making sweeping unjustified statements about theirs! That’ll show em. Hey boys and girls, I hate spin-kicking idiots as much as the next metalhead, but can we at least pretend to know a little better?
well i can tell you guys one thing,
i have just moved here from the heart of africa, where supprisingly Hardcore has gained a firm foothold in the young white and black generation. Why is this you may ask?
Well i can tell you one thing, i Have enough Pantera shirts and CD’s, and have all my old tickets from acts like Sepultura and metalica ect…
And fankly im sick to death of it… Why are the new generation of hardcore kids dressing like pimps out of a 50c music video? well it all comes down to one thing, its all about getting laid. No girl wants to shag some 30 something beer bellied, long greasy haired Metaler anymore do they?
Another thing is the lifestyle, one of the things that has emerged with hardcore is straight edge, shows for all ages that promote no drinking. The there are some kids out there that are seeing the older generation with thier livers ruined by drink stumbling around the venue harassing kids and making snidey comments. do you have any idea how nasty a pissed up metal header (breathing funes into your face as he tries to explain the reason for his being) is to someone who is dead cold sober? Its happened to me more times than i can count.
You know that they are there to have a good time just like you and they just want to see thier bands and they will fuck off and leave you to have yours. you know that these kids are going to be windmilling so do us all a favor, if you dont like the music dont go stand at the front where you are gonna get hit. these tiny british venues are too small for everybody to enjoy. And if they jump in your moshpit, give em hell.