An Overlook of the Hardcore Scene From 2003.
In the past ten years we have seen the rise and fall of hardcore artists, however despite this, hardcore seems to just keep hitting back; bringing heavier breakdowns back with it. 2003 seemed to be the year in which hardcore music started to increase it's commercial popularity. One strong example of this being Avenged Sevenfold's third album "Waking the Fallen" which incorporated strong metal riffs with scream and harmonising vocals, blended it all together and brought out a masterpiece. This album is still regarded as the band's breakthrough album, receiving strong support, even getting them onto the Vans Warped Tour for the first time in 2004. The following Avenged Sevenfold albums saw a decline in the hardcore style, into that of a more metal/heavy rock sound; a direct result of singer M. Shadows damaging his voice whilst touring.
Hardcore music was beginning to spread, Britain was soon catching onto this revived style. In Sheffield, local lads formed the group Bring Me The Horizon and showed the world all you needed was guts, some loud guitars and the power to growl. Their 2004 debut EP "This Is What The Edge of Your Seat Was Made For" was praised by critics and peaked at #41 on the UK Album charts. Their follow up album of "Count Your Blessings" received average reviews, claiming "lack of originality". This did not stop the band however from taking the award from Kerrang for "Best British Newcomer" in 2006. The band however polarised listeners of the hardcore genre, with half describing it as a band for a population of 15 year old scene girls, whilst others saw it as the next big thing.
Whichever way you look at the rise of Bring Me The Horizon, there is no doubt in saying that they were blowing up big, and crowds at their gigs were growing in size. Suicide Season, their follow up album in 2008 which took the mainstream metal's attention through songs such as "Diamonds Aren't Forever" and "Chelsea Smile". Through this album Bring Me The Horizon took their first headline tour of the US as well as featuring on the 2008 Warped Tour. The following year they toured alongside Thursday, Four Year Strong, Pierce The Veil and Cancer Bats. However the following two albums "There Is A Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret" and "Sempiternal" both saw a decline in the deathcore style that the band was most notable for up until now, however these two latest albums were albums that bridges gaps to mainstream music. Following both albums the band headlined Reading & Leeds festival in 2011 and 2013, also headlining the UK's Warped Tour on November 10th at Alexandra Palace (a performance I attended and was one to remember.).
Other hardcore bands were starting to pop up out of the UK as well, While She Sleeps, Asking Alexandria, Bullet for my Valentine, Funeral for a Friend to name a few. Asking Alexandria however were an anomaly in the way that they secured their position at the forefront of modern post-hardcore. Forming in York, the band pulled together a five piece metalcore band and decided to go big, flying out to America. It was here that they bluffed their way through to venues and tour promoters, claiming to have done many tours back home in the UK and were a success; the reality was quite the contrary. Despite this though, they managed to focus all of 2009 on recording their debut studio album "Stand Up And Scream" and touring the USA. Through this new-found fame they were able to tour with bands including Alesana and Enter Shikari.
Following their fame in 2009, the next year seemed to be an increased amount of touring. 2010 saw Asking Alexandria perform their first ever headlining tour on 2nd March 2010, scheduled to take place in North-America, with support from We Came As Romans, From First to Last, Our Last Night and A Bullet for Pretty Boy. Their second album "Reckless and Relentless" was released in 2011 and took a much darker overlook to the lifestyles that the band (most notably Danny Worsnop and Ben Bruce) had experienced through over-indulgence with sex, drugs and alcohol. Scoring 80/100 from Alternative Press, Revolver and Rocksound, Asking Alexandria were establishing themselves as a strong band, with UK tours featuring other metalcore stars Of Mice & Men and Chelsea Grin. Asking Alexandria seemed to explode in 2013 with their shows turning into that on a mammoth scale, they played a UK tour with support from French Deathcore stars Betraying the Martyrs, fellow British lads While She Sleeps and American Horror-metalcore band Motionless in White. Their largest venue, Brixton's very own O2 Academy sold out and the whole concert was filmed for a live DVD; no release date has been shown yet, and I wait in anticipation still as I was one of the many fans in the crowd moshing to the music. In June though Asking Alexandria performed at the Rock AM Festival in Germany to their biggest crowd to date, and people were flooding in their masses to see them live. Hardcore was back to stay.
Hardcore was not just developing in the UK and America, Europe was seeing a rise in the number of metal artists to become successful. One example of this can be seen in German Deathcore stars We Butter The Bread With Butter. Initially starting out as a joke between guitarist Marcell Neumann and ex vocalist and drummer Tobias Schultka. As a small deathcore group in Germany, gigs were hard to come by, however through larger bands' tours they gained popularity. WBTBWB have toured with the likes of A Day to Remember, Callejon and The Parachutes. The band were notable for a highly comical sound, sometimes their music can be hard to be taken seriously (just listen to "Extrem" from their album "Das Monster Aus Dem Schrank", it's hilarious). However they gained popularity through shows being played, and their gigs began to start filling out and selling out. In November 2012, they embarked to the UK to support Scottish post-hardcore rockers Yashin on their UK tour. These German rockers showed these Scots a thing or two about how to put on a gig, with strobe lighting on their jackets and inside the bass pedal, not to forget the huge exercise balls that they got kicking around the venue. Recently however they toured alongside Devil Sold His Soul in the UK which further increased the band's recognition after the release of their 2013 album "Goldkinder" .
It is when I look at all of this, and the short space of time that just the small selection of bands, I think it is apparent to see that the hardcore and metal scene will continue to thrive for a good period of time now, as it keeps getting refreshed in different ways.
Hardcore music was beginning to spread, Britain was soon catching onto this revived style. In Sheffield, local lads formed the group Bring Me The Horizon and showed the world all you needed was guts, some loud guitars and the power to growl. Their 2004 debut EP "This Is What The Edge of Your Seat Was Made For" was praised by critics and peaked at #41 on the UK Album charts. Their follow up album of "Count Your Blessings" received average reviews, claiming "lack of originality". This did not stop the band however from taking the award from Kerrang for "Best British Newcomer" in 2006. The band however polarised listeners of the hardcore genre, with half describing it as a band for a population of 15 year old scene girls, whilst others saw it as the next big thing.
Whichever way you look at the rise of Bring Me The Horizon, there is no doubt in saying that they were blowing up big, and crowds at their gigs were growing in size. Suicide Season, their follow up album in 2008 which took the mainstream metal's attention through songs such as "Diamonds Aren't Forever" and "Chelsea Smile". Through this album Bring Me The Horizon took their first headline tour of the US as well as featuring on the 2008 Warped Tour. The following year they toured alongside Thursday, Four Year Strong, Pierce The Veil and Cancer Bats. However the following two albums "There Is A Hell Believe Me I've Seen It. There Is A Heaven, Let's Keep It a Secret" and "Sempiternal" both saw a decline in the deathcore style that the band was most notable for up until now, however these two latest albums were albums that bridges gaps to mainstream music. Following both albums the band headlined Reading & Leeds festival in 2011 and 2013, also headlining the UK's Warped Tour on November 10th at Alexandra Palace (a performance I attended and was one to remember.).
Other hardcore bands were starting to pop up out of the UK as well, While She Sleeps, Asking Alexandria, Bullet for my Valentine, Funeral for a Friend to name a few. Asking Alexandria however were an anomaly in the way that they secured their position at the forefront of modern post-hardcore. Forming in York, the band pulled together a five piece metalcore band and decided to go big, flying out to America. It was here that they bluffed their way through to venues and tour promoters, claiming to have done many tours back home in the UK and were a success; the reality was quite the contrary. Despite this though, they managed to focus all of 2009 on recording their debut studio album "Stand Up And Scream" and touring the USA. Through this new-found fame they were able to tour with bands including Alesana and Enter Shikari.
Following their fame in 2009, the next year seemed to be an increased amount of touring. 2010 saw Asking Alexandria perform their first ever headlining tour on 2nd March 2010, scheduled to take place in North-America, with support from We Came As Romans, From First to Last, Our Last Night and A Bullet for Pretty Boy. Their second album "Reckless and Relentless" was released in 2011 and took a much darker overlook to the lifestyles that the band (most notably Danny Worsnop and Ben Bruce) had experienced through over-indulgence with sex, drugs and alcohol. Scoring 80/100 from Alternative Press, Revolver and Rocksound, Asking Alexandria were establishing themselves as a strong band, with UK tours featuring other metalcore stars Of Mice & Men and Chelsea Grin. Asking Alexandria seemed to explode in 2013 with their shows turning into that on a mammoth scale, they played a UK tour with support from French Deathcore stars Betraying the Martyrs, fellow British lads While She Sleeps and American Horror-metalcore band Motionless in White. Their largest venue, Brixton's very own O2 Academy sold out and the whole concert was filmed for a live DVD; no release date has been shown yet, and I wait in anticipation still as I was one of the many fans in the crowd moshing to the music. In June though Asking Alexandria performed at the Rock AM Festival in Germany to their biggest crowd to date, and people were flooding in their masses to see them live. Hardcore was back to stay.
Hardcore was not just developing in the UK and America, Europe was seeing a rise in the number of metal artists to become successful. One example of this can be seen in German Deathcore stars We Butter The Bread With Butter. Initially starting out as a joke between guitarist Marcell Neumann and ex vocalist and drummer Tobias Schultka. As a small deathcore group in Germany, gigs were hard to come by, however through larger bands' tours they gained popularity. WBTBWB have toured with the likes of A Day to Remember, Callejon and The Parachutes. The band were notable for a highly comical sound, sometimes their music can be hard to be taken seriously (just listen to "Extrem" from their album "Das Monster Aus Dem Schrank", it's hilarious). However they gained popularity through shows being played, and their gigs began to start filling out and selling out. In November 2012, they embarked to the UK to support Scottish post-hardcore rockers Yashin on their UK tour. These German rockers showed these Scots a thing or two about how to put on a gig, with strobe lighting on their jackets and inside the bass pedal, not to forget the huge exercise balls that they got kicking around the venue. Recently however they toured alongside Devil Sold His Soul in the UK which further increased the band's recognition after the release of their 2013 album "Goldkinder" .
It is when I look at all of this, and the short space of time that just the small selection of bands, I think it is apparent to see that the hardcore and metal scene will continue to thrive for a good period of time now, as it keeps getting refreshed in different ways.
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