# Accidentally Joined a Deathcore band, help me with songwriting.



## jonajon91 (Feb 4, 2018)

I've been part of bands for all of my life, but I had a busy year or so and had to stop playing with people, I had the opportunity to play some metal (vague) with some people and to be honest I was just happy to be playing bass again. These guys are name dropping Carnifex every few minutes so Ill absolutely be starting there, but I need recommended listening material and songs to learn to get the style down.

Not to blow my own trumpet too much, but I am a pretty solid bassist with backgrounds in prog (metal) and big band jazz, the last band I was in was straight 2008 metalcore which did nothing for me at all, but I was good friends with the guys. I think the closest I listen to deathcore is 'Slice the cake' who absolutely kill it in my eyes, other than that, metal wise I listen to lots of Gojira, Ne Obliviscaris and Leprous. Whatever I'm writing always has huge gojira influence. I've bought a few songs to the table so far, the only one I've been happy with was pretty much just techy deathmetal so I've sworn to write some straight deathcore over the next few days.

Can you guys recommend me A) some middle of the road, straight Deathcore tracks and B) some Deathcore that I might enjoy as someone that likes slower, groovier (taking into account the bands I mentioned I liked before).

Cheers.


----------



## KnightBrolaire (Feb 4, 2018)

check out old job for a cowboy or all shall perish. JFAC switched to more straight death metal around sun eater iirc


----------



## Mathemagician (Feb 4, 2018)

Demonocracy is a great JFAC album. 

White Chapel, early Born of Osiris. 

Also, Bring me The Horizon’s first album. Everything from Sempiturnal onward is awesome but NOT deathcore. Their most recent album was a Linkin Park record.


----------



## that short guy (Feb 4, 2018)

Whitechapel, fit for an autopsy, and some make them suffer should get the I done


----------



## Metropolis (Feb 4, 2018)

Carnifex, Thy Art Is Murder and Shadow of Intent. Top 3 bands of the genre in my opinion. Or if you want to get really extreme, Rings of Saturn and Infant Annihilator are good choices.


----------



## YouAreAwesome (Feb 5, 2018)

May I recommend the instrumental version of I Declare War's Songs for the Sick? For me instrumental versions always allow me to focus more on the structure of the song, which you might find helpful in songwriting.


----------



## Strobe (Feb 5, 2018)

I am terrible with metal genres, but I rather enjoy Upon a Burning Body and I would classify them in that genre.

My other recommendation is to bring your thing to the music. You are not a cover band. You do not need to ape anyone's sound. Take what they are doing, and make it yours. No one does your style better than you!


----------



## jonajon91 (Feb 5, 2018)

^ Absolutely, but like I said, everything I write sounds like gojira.


----------



## KnightBrolaire (Feb 5, 2018)

jonajon91 said:


> ^ Absolutely, but like I said, everything I write sounds like gojira.


I mean that's not a bad thing. Early Gojira (like everything before From Mars to Sirius) is kind of deathcore esque.


----------



## Strobe (Feb 5, 2018)

jonajon91 said:


> ^ Absolutely, but like I said, everything I write sounds like gojira.



Yeah, I dig Gojira. That's not a bad thing! You're making music, not trying to copy a specific genre. If it's hard to classify, then maybe you have found your sound. I currently sing in a band that is maybe metal-core-ish, but with a lot of groovier riffs, and my harsh vocals are not really the metal-core type, more the death/black metal type, with the clean vocals being more Tool or System of a Down-ish. I never know how to classify what it is I am doing. I don't spend a lot of time trying, less worrying about it. I just take the various stuff I love, and try to package it together in something that people will want to listen to - but a lot of it is limited by my particular skill set. I cannot do what some of the bands I love do, so I do something a little different.

I did not mean to talk about me for it's own sake, I just was hoping it might make you feel more comfortable doing your own thing.


----------



## Brutal08 (Feb 17, 2018)

Despised Icon
Trough The Eyes Of The Dead
As Blood Runs Black


----------



## erdiablo666 (Feb 17, 2018)

Boom


----------



## Mathemagician (Feb 17, 2018)

FWIW, back in my day, deathcore meant “everywhere you’d put a solo in a song, put a breakdown there instead”. That was a big part of the sound that I consider deathcore.


----------



## prlgmnr (Feb 18, 2018)

Mathemagician said:


> FWIW, back in my day, deathcore meant “everywhere you’d put a solo in a song, put a breakdown there instead”. That was a big part of the sound that I consider deathcore.


I always thought of it more as "anywhere you would put anything in a song, put a breakdown"


----------



## jonajon91 (Feb 18, 2018)

That video actually taught me a lot about the scene and how people view the tag 'deathcore'. I'm going with more a death metal approach to this instead of a post/groove/minimal angle I had before. Breakdowns are fucking hard though because they all sound so booring, I think Ill stick to chorus' and verses and let the other people stick breakdowns in where they're needed.


----------



## Tech Wrath (Feb 22, 2018)

jonajon91 said:


> Breakdowns are fucking hard though because they all sound so booring, I think Ill stick to chorus' and verses and let the other people stick breakdowns in where they're needed.



Maybe try a 'breakdown' that is more slam-like? That has a groove and isn't AS boring. Sorta the same concept of a 'breaking-down-slow-heavy-part' but a tad bit different. It might still be boring and/or repetitive but can have the same effect and might be easier to write. (Examples are Bands like Abominable Putridity, guttural slug, etc. They are basically slow chromatic deep muted power chord chugs. If playing in a drop tuning just create a random sequence using frets 0, 1 ,2 ,3, 4, and 5 and make a groovy pattern, throwing in random eighth notes and triplets. Make sure to sloooowww the tempo. You can switch up by unpalm-muting some of the accented chords)

Buuuuuut, You could jut have the other people write the breakdowns like you suggested. They don't really take too much effort. However, I think slam-esque breakdowns are more bearable and sound a lot better than just a random gap in the music filled by a generic deathcore breakdown. It is all up to you however.


----------



## jonajon91 (Feb 23, 2018)

^ thanks for the actual tips and not just bands to listen too, Ill have a fiddle with that.


----------



## Vyn (May 7, 2018)

I'm necro-ing this because I've found myself in a similar situation xD

Currently trying to put together a small 4-5 song set to start with. We've got a couple of covers lined up including Reign of Darkness by Thy Art is Murder which I'm currently learning through a combo of tabs and slowing down for recording. I'm not sure if the recording quality on the original is shit or if the guitarists are fudging the fuck out of some of the runs because they sound messy as shit. Have been listening to some other deathcore bands as well just to get my head in the game for writting and I'm noticing a common trend - the 0-0-0 breakdown sections are on point but when it comes to technical fast riffing or soloing there seems to be a bit of slop going on.


----------



## groverj3 (Jun 1, 2018)

Edit: Posted a comment in jest. Thought better of it


----------

