The differences between metal subgenres are often subjective or imperceptible, but it’s nearly impossible to miss the distinctive hallmarks of deathcore. As befitting the genre’s name—it’s a portmanteau of death metal and metalcore—the style isn’t for the faint of heart: Enduring modern scene titans such as Chelsea Grin and Whitechapel favor splattering blast beats, down-tuned guitars that boil like lava, and vocals that veer between banshee screams and hellmouth howls. Incredibly enough, these contemporary deathcore bands don’t sound all that different from early-to-mid-2000s genre inspirations The Red Chord and Carnifex, who both favored brawny, breakneck metallic aggression. If anything, however, deathcore today is more open-minded—or at least willing to leave space for decidedly non-sepulchral flourishes, such as the melodic, clean vocal singing of Veil of Maya or the melodramatic synthesizer accents of Born of Osiris.