MetalTalk.com

Metalcore, an originally American hybrid of thrash metal, melodic death metal, and hardcore punk, emerged as a commercial force in 2002–3. It is rooted in the crossover thrash style developed by bands such as Suicidal Tendencies, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles, and Stormtroopers of Death in the mid-1980s. Through the 1990s, metalcore was mostly an underground phenomenon, but by 2004 it had become popular enough that Killswitch Engage’s The End of Heartache and Shadows Fall’s The War Within debuted at numbers 21 and 20, respectively, on the Billboard album chart. Lamb of God broke into the top 10 with Sacrament (2006). In recent years, metalcore bands have received prominent slots at Ozzfest and Download Festival.

In Europe, especially Germany and Scandinavia, metal continues to be broadly popular. Acts such as the thrash shredding group The Haunted, melodic death metal band In Flames, and power metal group HammerFall have been very successful in recent years. In English-speaking countries, the term “retro-metal” was applied in the early and mid-2000s to such bands as England’s The Darkness and Australia’s Wolfmother. The Darkness’s Permission to Land (2003), described as an “eerily realistic simulation of ’80s metal and ’70s glam,” topped the UK charts, going quintuple platinum. Wolfmother’s self-titled 2005 debut album, with “Deep Purple-ish organs,” “Jimmy Page-worthy chordal riffing,” and lead singer Andrew Stockdale howling “notes that Robert Plant can’t reach anymore,” also sold well and was widely praised by critics.