The fact that metalcore received a lot of beatings over the years it led to a lot of people avoiding the genre as a whole, and it got to the point a common misconception surrounding the genre exists: a lot of people believe it’s filled with bands like Asking Alexandria, Bring Me the Horizon, Blessthefall, Killswitch Engage and Parkway Drive, even though this isn’t actually true. There are a ton of metalcore that aren’t scenecore or melodic metalcore. In fact, if know where to look, there a lot of bands under the genre that are as extreme and “trve” as the likes of Slayer, Sepultura, Kreator and Entombed, but unfortunately overshadowed and got branded as "hardcore" or "metallic hardcore" instead, which are shitty terms to say the least.

For those who have been here for quite some time should probably be aware that I’m one of the few people here that regularly blogs about “trve” metalcore, and I’m one of the fewer that constantly research on the genre trying to make sense of it. I’ve been researching for a long time now to the point I compiled more than a hundred interviews, making lists and blogs on the genre detailing its styles, subgenres and scenes that many people would’ve otherwise overlook on both Metal Amino and Rate Your Music as well as listening to hundreds of obscure records. Of course, this is not limited to metalcore as I try to naturally branch out to other genres like sludge, grindcore and crust punk, but the idea is that whenever I discuss genres I can ensure you I don’t pull stuff out of my ass.

One controversial statement I tend to brought up here is that early Mastodon is metalcore and not sludge or “progressive sludge." Not surprisingly many disagreed because, to put it bluntly, they lack proper understanding and experience on metalcore, for which I don’t blame them since metalcore is heavily misunderstood.

First things first, when I say that early Mastodon is metalcore, I’m referring to the “artier” side of the genre with bands like early Cave In, Keelhaul and even Botch to some extent, not their popular scenecore or melodic metalcore counterparts like I mentioned earlier.

To understand why I consider Mastodon metalcore and not sludge, it’s obvious one must have a good idea on these two genres.

Understanding metalcore

It’s commonly agreed that metalcore is a fusion of extreme metal and hardcore punk, but as you may have noticed its description is pretty vague. According to Rate Your Music, metalcore can be distinguished from other hardcore/metal fusions (like crossover thrash, sludge, crust punk, grindcore) by its “emphasis on breakdowns and greater use of dissonance”, which is true since those are the main characteristics of the genre that were more or less inherited and you can pretty much find them in every metalcore band. However, RYM’s definition on metalcore is pretty lacking because it didn’t touch on how it was actually established. This is where I come in.

Metalcore came around roughly in the late ‘80s to very early ‘90s and it’s originally rooted in heavy New York hardcore/crossover thrash as well as thrash, groove and death metal. Rorschach, Starkweather, Earth Crisis and Integrity initially led this fusion, and upon listening to them you’ll find that these bands utilized their extreme metal influences extensively.

Rorschach – In Ruins Remastered Version (Protestant; originally released in 1993)

Starkweather – Shroud (Into the Wire; 1995)

Heavy hardcore and crossover bands like Agnostic Front, Youth of Today, Cro-Mags, Leeway and Judge laid the prototypical sound of metalcore in the mid ‘80s. “Normal” thrash metal at the time were gaining a lot of traction with bands like Slayer, Metallica, Sepultura, Kreator and Exodus touring and releasing landmark records, while death metal came a bit later but nevertheless still influential with the likes of Entombed and Obituary. All of these bands and their respective styles and genres made a big impact on the development of metalcore.

Starkweather, Earth Crisis, Merauder, All Out War and other traditional-leaning metalcore bands would commonly name these thrash, crossover and death metal bands as influences for their sound, and really what some of them were doing are essentially playing a heavier and extreme version of crossover thrash. They became extreme metal and almost completely erased their hardcore punk roots (read: Bad Brains, Minor Threat, early Black Flag) hence why you won’t hear much actual hardcore punk in them.

In other words, the hardcore punk influences in metalcore mostly stems from heavy hardcore and crossover thrash, not traditional hardcore punk. I cannot stress this enough.

All Out War – Fall From Grace (Truth in the Age of Lies; 1997)

Anyway, by the time metalcore was established many bands took its formula, mold them differently and went straight towards different directions while maintaining the genre's identity.

For example, Integrity, Ringworm and All Out War took the genre’s thrash influences greatly to the point they became borderline crossover thrash, while Earth Crisis, Merauder and Stigmata were playing a groovier form of metalcore that’s comparable to Chaos A.D. era Sepultura and Exhorder. In Belgium, bands like Congress, Liar and Deformity strongly embraced death metal and invented a unique and aggressive style of metalcore – which laid the foundations for old school deathcore in the process – while in Germany, bands like Acme, Systral and Carol were playing a fragmented, emotive-style metalcore known for its ear-piecing dissonance. All of these bands paved the way for their respective styles of the genre that many continue to emulate to this day.

This proves that metalcore is quite flexible, so there shouldn’t be any problem calling Mastodon metalcore. The style of metalcore Mastodon were playing is rooted in mathcore, which is another piece of the puzzle to understand Mastodon’s early sound.

Understanding mathcore and its relationship with Mastodon

Keelhaul – Some Day Some Other Place (Keelhaul II; 2001)

Mathcore is essentially a progressive subgenre of metalcore that can be easily distinguished by its usage of erratic time signatures, complexity and more dissonance. Mathcore is the result of a loose and eclectic combination of elements from complex genres like tech death, jazz fusion, post-hardcore and to some extent progressive rock. Popular and highly influential mathcore band The Dillinger Escape Plan professed their love to Cynic, John McLaughlin and King Crimson, while Converge were influenced by stuff like Rorschach, Starkweather and Universal Order of Armageddon, but they are also into groups like Yes and again, King Crimson. Candiria is self-explanatory: their sound is a mishmash of jazz fusion, metalcore and tech death, and their guitarist John LaMacchia even stated they were influenced by these genres.

Mathcore first came around thanks to the efforts of Deadguy, Candiria and Lethargy. If you know Mastodon’s history, Lethargy is actually proto-Mastodon as Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor played in the group.

Not only Lethargy pioneered mathcore, but also deathcore before the genre got diverted by bands who worship the hell out of Suffocation and Dying Fetus. Their 1993 demo “Lost in This Existence” is mathcore that’s also heavily rooted in tech death, but they dropped their tech death influences with their next demo a year later and became a full-fledged mathcore band. They eventually released a full-length mathcore album in 1996.

Lethargy – Erased (It's Hard to Write With a Little Hand; 1996)

After Lethargy disbanded, Bill Kelliher and Brann Dailor had a spell with Today is the Day, and together they released an avant-garde mathcore album “In the Eyes of God” in 1999. Kelliher played bass on the project. Like Lethargy, their sound is somewhat comparable to Mastodon, albeit it’s more dissonant and weirder. This why I consider Mastodon metalcore rather than sludge because you pretty much can compare them to these bands, but not Melvins, Eyehategod or Buzzoven. It would be absurd to call them sludge since they have little to no doom metal in their sound, which is a defining element of the genre.

Today Is The Day – The Cold Harshness Of Being Wrong Thoughout Your Entire Life (In The Eyes Of God; 1999)

Understanding sludge

Sludge is rooted in doom metal and hardcore punk, and depending on the band some implemented noise rock and/or crossover thrash in their framework. Eyehategod and Buzzoven named Black Flag (My War-era most likely) and Black Sabbath as some of their main influences, and as such you can hear them. Mike Williams stated EHG “stole” from the Melvins, Black Flag, Trouble and Saint Vitus. Buzz Osborne of the Melvins named Flipper and Black Flag, but also stated they were into “lots of hardcore” when they first started. Buzzoven’s vocalist and guitarist Kirk Fisher on the other hand said his band was “derived from the early hardcore scene” as well as crossover.

Essentially these sludge bands are heavily into doom metal, hardcore punk, crossover thrash and some noise rock, hence why the genre is generally simple, slow and can be noisy à la Flipper, and sometimes fast or midtempo à la Poison Idea or Corrosion of Conformity. Sludge is essentially a fucked up, hardcore take on Black Sabbath, and you won’t obviously hear that in Mastodon.

Buzzoven – Hate Box (s/t; 1992)

Leechmilk – Dirt Clot (Starvation of Locusts; 2000)

Neurosis – Eye (Through Silver and Blood; 1996)

But somehow, sludge has become this term that covers from actual sludge, atmosludge, arty metalcore and poppy progressive metal (read: Baroness). The latter two obviously aren’t sludge because they lack the doom metal influences to be considered as such in the first place.

The comparison

Now for the best part. Assuming you have listened to the samples I’ve linked here, hopefully you may have noticed that some of these mathcore bands/albums (especially Lethargy and Today is the Day) sound somewhat similar to early Mastodon. The band doesn’t fit with the conventional sound of mathcore per se but there should not be any doubt they’re rooted in mathcore. The next step is to go listen to some more metalcore/mathcore bands so you can see more of the similarities.

Mastodon – We Built This Come Death (s/t; originally released in 2000)

Mastodon – Shadows That Move (s/t; originally released in 2000)

Mastodon – Crusher Destroyer (Remission; 2002)

Mastodon – Iron Tusk (Leviathan; 2004)

Mastodon – Island (Leviathan; 2004)

Mastodon – Capillarian Crest (Blood Mountain; 2006)

Cave In – Moral Eclipse (Until Your Heart Stops; 1999)

Cave In – Terminal Deity (Until Your Heart Stops; 1999)

Cave In – Controlled Mayhem then Erupts (Until Your Heart Stops; 1999)

American Heritage – Pole to Hole (Bipolar; 2004)

Keelhaul – Everything's A Napkin (Keelhaul's Triumphant Return to Obscurity; 2009)

Botch – Mondrian Was a Liar (We Are the Romans; 1999)

Mastodon’s sound was pretty unique and more accessible but nevertheless the similarities between them and these metalcore/mathcore songs are quite obvious, from the nuance use of dissonance, angular heavy riffs, rhythmic complexity, and harsh vocal delivery. Even in some Mastodon’s songs have noticeable metalcore chugs in them. Cave In was especially notable because they played those riffs before Mastodon even formed. Compare that to sludge and you’ll hear there isn’t much that you can draw similarities from.

However, it must be said that The Hunter, Once More 'Round the Sun and Emperor of Sand are the only non-metalcore albums from Mastodon. Remission and Leviathan are no doubt metalcore (they also have a compilation of their demo/EP material named Call of the Mastodon) but over the years since Leviathan the band was slowly dropping their arty metalcore sound. In Blood Mountain and Crack the Skye they kinda rode the line and some of their songs still have metalcore moments (“Capillarian Crest”, “Circle of Cysquatch” and “Oblivion” being some of the examples) but it's pretty clear they were heading towards a different sound. I cannot accurately say what style of prog they are right now since I have limited knowledge on the genre, but I can say that they weren't and still aren't sludge, and their early stuff (arguably pre-The Hunter) is metalcore.

Speculation

I have some speculation on why Mastodon was mistakenly considered as “sludge” or “progressive sludge.” Prior forming Mastodon, Brent Hinds and Troy Sanders briefly had a sludge metal project called Four Hour Fogger. They managed to release one album (or demo) in 1999. It had some noise rock, post-hardcore elements (Scratch Acid) and a slight metalcore influence, but for the most part the album is sludge. However, Mastodon’s connections with the genre didn’t stop there.

Four Hour Fogger – Dollars For Red Books (1999)

Mastodon is somewhat vocal with their Neurosis and Melvins influence in both interviews and their music, to some extent. They covered Melvins for a compilation, while Scott Kelly of Neurosis has a close relationship with Mastodon and performed vocal duties on their every album. (I suppose there's some Neurosis in some of their songs but either way that's where the sludge stops.)

It’s possible that Mastodon and/or their fans don’t want to be associated with metalcore as the genre at the time (early 2000s-2010s) was commonly associated with scene and melodic metalcore bands. (It doesn’t help the fact that Brent Hinds infamously stated his supposed hatred towards heavy metal and has “been trying to get Mastodon to not be such a heavy metal band” in a 2005 issue of Guitar Player – but afterwards he stated his comments was taken out of context in another interview.) Additionally, their sound was rather unique so a new tag was needed.

Basically, the combined factors of Mastodon's supposed relationship with sludge, their refreshing and progressive sound, and the insufficient knowledge of metalcore among its fans and music journalists led the band being constantly mislabeled. It's a speculation, but I believe it's not that far-fetched really.

I should mention that I’m not the first to call Mastodon metalcore. Just for fun, here’s a shot of Brutal Legend’s game menu for the soundtrack.

Of course, I’m not saying that we should take a video game seriously when it comes to a discussion like this (the genre labeling is sometimes inconsistent in the game even though Mastodon's tag is more or less correct) it’s just proof that I’m not the first one to call Mastodon for what they were.

However, in a much more credible terms, in an interview with Boston Phoenix (now gone, but excerpts can be found in Blabbermouth) Jesse Leach of Killswitch Engage considers Mastodon as metalcore as well. Before disregarding this fact just because I'm citing the vocalist of an influential melodic metalcore band, it should be known at this point that Leach actually knows his stuff and is consistent towards the characteristics and history of metalcore. He named Rorschach and Integrity as some of the earliest metalcore bands (as well being a huge fan of them, no less) numerous times and in the same interview, he indicated that early metalcore bands are definitely inspired by metal and especially Slayer. He also used to be a part of the hardcore scene, which adds more weight to his name.

(For the In Flames comment it's most likely he was referring to Come Clarity considering the album is essentially melodic metalcore.)

Edit (7 March 2020): Segment from Louder Than Hell: The Definitive Oral History of Metal

Brent Hinds: "Bill and Brann moved into town and were asking people, “Is there anyone around here who’s crazy and a really good guitar player?” Someone went, “Yeah, this guy Brent Hinds. But don’t mess with him because he’s crazy, for real. He’s on, like, every drug in the world and he’ll just take your life in a spiral down to hell.” They found me at a Four Hour Fogger show. I had an Iron Maiden shirt and jacket on and Brann loves Iron Maiden. We got along really good and I wasn’t drunk or fucked-up ’cause I had just played a show. They said, “Hey, man, meet us at Elmyr tomorrow at about six and we’ll have a drink and go down to the practice pad and jam. So I get to Elmyr the next day and lo and behold, the Patrón Silver girls are there and they’re handing out Patrón Silver for free, and I was like, “Yes, I think I will.” I had about seven shots and then I went, “Okay, let’s go jam.” I sparked up a big joint on the way down there. By the time I got to the practice pad I could hardly walk. I went, “Yeah, I’m into this kind of stuff.” I played this one droning chord over and over. I was way ahead of Sunn O))).

I was doing that kind of stuff ten years ago. I was using a didgeridoo with Tibetan monk singing and playing heavy chords over it. And I was sincere when I was telling Bill and Brann that’s the kind of music I wanted to do. It wasn’t ’cause I was drunk or fucked-up. But they just weren’t into that. So I said, “Okay, whatever. What do you guys have?” And they played me some stuff they did in Lethargy and I went, “I ain’t playing that shit. That’s just crazy.” So that was it. They went their way and I went mine. The next day Brann calls and goes, “Hey man, why don’t you come over to my house sober. Everyone I talked to says you’re a really good guitar player and I just want to see you play.” I said “Sure. Sorry about last night, man. I was totally wasted.” So, I played all this classical guitar for him and they decided to give it another shot. So Mastodon is kind of a toned down version of Lethargy with me as a heavy influence."

Conclusion

Metalcore is an incredibly wide genre with a lot varied styles and subgenres more than people may realize. Due to the rise of melodic metalcore and scenecore bands in 2000s, it led to a ton of misconceptions surrounding the genre as a whole. The lack of incentive among metal fans and hardcore kids alike to actually comprehend the genre led these misconceptions to flourish.

The idea of early Mastodon being metalcore isn't that far-fetched as the band is very much rooted in the genre, not to mention they sound quite identical to early Cave In, Keelhaul and Botch more so than the Melvins, Neurosis or Eyehategod. I would argue that if more people are knowledgeable in metalcore (as well as other genres like hardcore punk, sludge metal, grindcore, crust punk, etc.) then the band's mislabelling as sludge or "progressive sludge" by fans and music journalists wouldn't be so widespread in the first place.

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