Remember those days when guys and girls alike wore tight skinny jeans that cut off the circulation of your legs? When everyone had to have a pair of black Vans to match your aforementioned skinny jeans, hair and band T-shirt? For most college students, we tend to forget these fashion trends like they never existed. However, one of the elements that came with the "scene" look was metalcore or what we recognize as "screamo" music.
Bands that either screamed at the top of their lungs like someone was twisting their arm, or sang with such a high-pitched voice that the human ear could not comprehend. These vocals were accompanied by down-tuned guitars that seemed only to make the "chug-chug-chug-chug" sound, with the occasional techno interlude that today's EDM fanatics could jam to. In this article, I hope to take you back in time to the year 2008, where we can trace the origins of this "screamo" music and make our way back to the present day.
The year 2008 revolutionized the metalcore genre. With the emergence of bands such as Attack Attack! and The Devil Wears Prada, the screamo music took hold in teenagers across America. With the release of Attack Attack!'s highly scrutinized single "Stick Stickly," which combined auto-tuned clean vocals with death growls and techno breakdowns, fans quickly began to realize that this music wasn't just about your instruments or the catchiness of your chorus, but it was about how you presented yourself. As you will see in the music video, the band members crouch so low in their skinny jeans while performing, that their butt scrapes the ground (no wonder their jeans are so cut up).
Later in 2008, the British metalcore act Bring Me the Horizon released singles such as "Diamonds Aren't Forever" and "Chelsea Smile," which definitely incorporated chugging guitars and techno breakdowns. It is in this band that we begin to see the "rise" of the metalcore genre. However, like all great things, they must come to the end.
By the year 2011, the alternative and mainstream rock fields flooded with metalcore acts such as Asking Alexandria, A Day to Remember, Of Mice & Men and We Came as Romans. All of these incorporated similar chugging guitar rifts, whiny yet catchy choruses and screamed vocals. Despite the emergence of various acts, Bring Me the Horizon remained the king of metalcore. With the release of the hit single "It Never Ends," BMTH solidified themselves as the front-runners of the movement. While not as heavy as their previous works, the band began to appeal more to the mainstream rock community as time passed. This would begin their transformation.
By the year 2013, most screamo acts had either broken up, burnt out or a combination of both. Despite this, Bring Me the Horizon remained the cornerstone for metalcore music. However, this all changed with the release of their album "Sempiternal," which promoted their lead single "Sleepwalking." The song incorporated a soft electronic intro followed by a less aggressive guitar build-up. Die hard scene kids around the world felt betrayed by their band for turning "mainstream" or selling out. In the wake of this outrage, the band released what is known to be the last great metalcore ballad called "Shadow Moses." A departure from their softer song, "Shadow Moses," assured fans that they could still be heavy. The band's highest selling album of all time, "Sempiternal," appealed to both the die-hard metalcore fans as well as mainstream rock junkies.
The years 2014 and 2015 somehow and someway eradicated screamo music as a whole. With the release of Of Mice & Men's album, "Restoring Force," the band ceased to be a metalcore act and became more of a glorified Linkin Park. This proved to be the same with the recent release of Bring Me the Horizon's album, "That's the Spirit." Realizing the success of their influences such as Linkin Park and Muse as well as the success of their contemporaries, BMTH decided to abandon their roots and move toward a soft, alternative rock sound. The single "Throne" could be thrown into Linkin Park's groundbreaking album "Hybrid Theory," and it would be indistinguishable from the rest of the songs, signifying that they had sold out. While reviewers from Alternative Press and Kerrang! praised the band for their adoption of a mainstream sound, their fans were let down by their sell out. Much like Newton's Third Law, what goes up, must come down.
This run of music, lasting a little more than half a decade, produced an undeniable sound, along with a noticeable counterculture. While we look to forget about our wardrobe choices of that era, we will definitely not forget about the music that accompanied it.
