NEW METAL
In November last year, Texas based band I Promised The World released a music video for their single “Bliss in 7 Languages”. With flip phones, extra small T-shirts, wristbands, sideburns and emo straightened fringes, all under a green tint that spells ‘memory’, this video could easily be mistaken for one made in 2003.
It’s not just the video, it’s the music as well. In January of this year, the band released the rest of their self-titled EP — 5 tracks of high quality metalcore which sounds both fresh and true to form. This EP has everything this subgenre is known for; dueling lead guitars with pinched harmonic squeals, double-kick bass drums, quiet spoken word bridges, huge chugging breakdowns and, central to the style, sung/scream dual vocals: harsh frying screams, typically obscuring lyrics completely with grit and power, partnered with and overlapped by melodic, resonant leads, soaring with emotion and passion.
The aesthetic on show here and the style of music, after 20 years, is being redefined… “emoviolence”, “crabcore” and “rizzcore” are some, but “MySpace core” stands out as a popular term, which identifies it clearly with the time period. Funnily, at the time, this style of music was sometimes called “Risecore” in reference to Rise Records, who signed metalcore originators like Attack Attack!, The Devil Wears Prada and From First To Last. I Promised The World has recently been joined Rise Records and released this new EP on the label.
When I was eight years old, my favourite music video of all time was ‘Waking the Demon’ by Bullet For My Valentine. My dad had discovered them after they grew to global recognition from Bridgend, Wales. He downloaded this YouTube video and their debut album “The Poison” onto my iPod Nano. Some fan favourites like “Tears Don’t Fall” and “All These Things I Hate (Revolve Around Me)” are great examples of the band’s perfect balance between the ‘heavy’ (riffs, breakdowns, screams) and the ‘beautiful’ (slower, sweeter sections with melody and space). They are also known for the sung/scream vocal dynamic, galloping double kicks, dueling guitars and actual guitar solos.
When they formed in 2003, Bullet For My Valentine were just four Welsh friends, all twenty-something years old, making incredible metalcore, while so far removed from its birthplace in the east and west coasts of the US. They now play arenas across the world, and here in Australia just last year.
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Around this same time, another metalcore band also formed in unlikely place. The place was sunny Byron Bay, known for its beautiful beaches and surf culture, and the band was Parkway Drive. Their album ‘Killing With A Smile’, released in 2005, remains a benchmark for metalcore and another personal favourite. I started kindergarten the same year. In 2026, they are Australia’s biggest name in metal and are known as true shapers of the metalcore genre.
McCall’s powerful “MOVE!” at around 2 minute mark of this song reminds me of the final breakdown in “Bliss in 7 Languages”
When interviewing Speed Drive Inc for our mini zine, co-founders Phoebe and Breda told us about their Parkway Drive memories, seeing them play in youth centres and pubs back in the 2000’s and 2010’s. Phoebe recounted that their latest concert at the Sydney Opera House saw lead singer Winston McCall either parachute or abseil (I can't remember) onto the Forecourt stage.
While elaborate stage stunts like this and even the music they produce now is far from where they started, it stands as a reminder to us that there is always a path for really quality music to find it’s audience and find success, regardless of how heavy or ‘alternative’ it is. The crowds at their shows today will mostly be the same ones that were there when they began, but I’m willing to guess that there are many younger fans and maybe some of kids of these OG’s there too.
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Nostalgia has a habit of influencing the kinds of music that listeners enjoy, and therefore affects what kinds of music gets made or gets popular. Music, like culture, evolves and flows in cycles of trends. Genres and tastes emerge and fade out of popularity but seem to inevitably be revived, referenced or reappropriated after a few years. 70’s, 80’s and 90’s revivals have all come and gone. We have even gotten so good at characterising and reappropriating old styles that we are ahead of the curve, the “2010’s indie sleaze”-core revival happening in the last few years. These trend cycles in music follows a model that connects it to culture: from underground success, to popularity, to mass consumption, to death, either by oversaturation or by losing its core audience or appeal by ‘selling out’ industry figures or becoming “too pop”. Cultural theorists, depending who you talk to, suggest these cycles turn full circle every 20 to 30 years or so… which is about one generation.
It’s worth noting that all of the members of I Promised The World are below the age of 21. None of them were even born when metalcore was first developing. In 2026, kids who grew up listening to heavy music are forming bands to make new, interesting metal music.
In November 2024, I played at a DIY show at a friends Jenna, Ashley and Eden’s in East Corrimal and was introduced to mycriesfallondeafears. During their set, I said to whoever was next to me “No one plays like them”. It was true then and now, even though it seems every band in Sydney is an emo band… they’re still the best.
Before their self-titled album was released last year, I obsessed over their music, listening to live sets on bskiproductions YouTube videos and two demos I had sourced from my friends, living in the Files app of my phone. Cult-like obsession with rare and unreleased music is common in genres like skramz and metalcore, but here I was enacting this ritual in my own scene. Noah’s drumming and Aidan’s riffs are truly on another level, as I said, no one I know plays like them — but the impressive range of scream/sung vocals is what makes the band and their album so impressive and so awesome. Thrashing fries and guttural growls are better here than most common attempts. Ashton’s whistle pitch screams on Feeling Strange and i ate a perc… are downright impressive. There are beautiful melodies on Kick His Teeth Thru and Mercy, heartbreaking overlapping lines at the end of Chemical Burn and moments of sincere, poetic, confessional spoken word on This River Will Flow Forever.
To me, mycries are producing some of the best new metalcore period and their album was my most listened of last year. From NSW’s Central Coast, they too are all around the age of 20.
To me, it makes sense that this sound is re emerging in smaller scenes and in more authentic ways across the world — it follows the cycle. In a similar way to those making it, there are young kids who love this music and are discovering it in the community around them. While playing another DIY show in Palmerston, Canberra last month, I saw this younger generation on display. An all-ages event, the crowd was mostly made up of kids still in their early adolescence. With straightened, spiked and teased hair, dyed bright pinks and greens, eyebrow and lip rings, eye liner and battle jackets with metal band patches, these kids looked just like those who were posting selfies on MySpace in 2004.
I have loved this kind of music since I was a kid, but that’s just me… Is there a chance heavy music like this could appeal to just anyone, could make its way to the tops of charts or back into the playlists of the masses? Well, it seems it has. With the rising popularity of international bands like Turnstile and Australian bands like Speed, Iron Mind, Feel The Pain and hometown heroes L.O.W., ‘trad’ hardcore seems to been having its moment currently. Speed has recently announced Dynasty of Style, their series of free, all ages, barrier free shows, bringing the music to young kids. Scenes in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra are exploding with heaps of heavier music… so it seems only to be a matter of time…
When it does emerge in our community, here is where I think it will come from. This is a list, not complete by any means, of bands from our area and beyond that are making and performing metalcore music (or something like it) that I think deserve attention ….
Central Coast / Maitland - mycriesfallondeafears, Fear of Horses, Middle Chapter, Casey Jones Village
North Coast- jan., Scram
Wollongong - freezer (RIP), youdideverythingyoucould, Major Arcana, Proxy Diver, Necrosis, Pipoltr, Liotta Rail, Exit: Seraphim
Canberra - Body Shirt, Spouse, At Last
Melbourne - ends in tragedy, could be stars, WeWillLookBackAtYouAndLoveYouForever!, The World At A Glance, A Movie Script Ending, Keratin, Chromatin, In Her Palms, allthatsleftofyou, Terminal Sleep
Inner / Western Sydney- goblinviolence, Spin, dance, Skidmark, juno eclipse, xtemporaryreliefoflocalpainandinflamationx, Pushkin, Goethe
Adelaide - Chigaki Death Metro
Gold Coast / Brisbane / Queensland - lace angel, Blind Girls, Gil Cerrone, Naaki Soul
You should also look at https://au.skramz.directory/ to discover new and old bands