However accurate, music genre names are sometimes plain funny. Adding “Brutal” to “Death Metal” is descriptive and logical, but what the hell is “Whalecore”?

When Sludge/Progressive Metal band Mastodon released its epic album “Leviathan” in 2004, they managed to turn “Moby Dick” into something really heavy – something which launched a subgenre called “Whalecore”, which meant Heavy Sludge music with themes about whales and the sea in general. Please note that there is no universal definition to “Whalecore”, so if this makes no sense at all, it’s because it doesn’t.

Some examples of Whalecore

Mastodon – Seabeast

The Ocean – “Bathyalpelagic II: The Wish in Dreams”

Giant Squid – Panthalassa (Lampetra tridentata)

Gojira – Flying Whales

Ahab – The Divinity of Oceans

So apparently this is Whalecore. As long as it’s good music, call it whatever you want.