Mathcore Music: 14 Notable Mathcore Bands

Mathcore, sometimes known as noisecore, is a subgenre of metal and hardcore punk music that uses chaotic structures, including tempo changes, erratic time signatures, and polyrhythms, or layering multiple rhythms over each other. Mathcore originated in the 1990s under the influence of post-hardcore, math rock, and heavy metal.

The mathcore sound combines the intensity of hardcore punk and metal music with free-form jazz styles to create a chaotic and aggressive sound. The songwriting and lyrics are often poetic and ideological, offering a pragmatic perspective on society, life, and love.

Mathcore evolved from the post-hardcore movement in the 1980s. While many bands popularized the sound, a strong underground scene also helped shape mathcore into its current form.

• Origins: In the 1980s, a genre of music called post-hardcore rose in popularity, adding melodies and harmonies to the aggressive instrumentation of hardcore punk. Black Flag, an iconic American hardcore band, fronted by Henry Rollins, went on to serve as a major influence on the mathcore sound.
• The birth of the sound: In the ‘90s, hardcore punk adopted the vocal intensity of extreme metal—including death metal and progressive metal—and a new math metal sound was born, with bands like Converge, Botch, and Coalesce leading the way.
• Mathcore in the mainstream: Mathcore’s aggressive sound and odd time signatures became more widely known in the 2000s. Bands like The Dillinger Escape Plan, Norma Jean, and The Locust began to expand the mathcore genre and popularize it.
• Contemporary mathcore: New bands continue to embrace the experimental sound, such as The Armed and Frontierer. Some bands have even evolved the mathcore aesthetic, such as Rolo Tomassi, a British band that combines mathcore’s intensity with ambient music sounds.

Many mathcore bands have popularized the genre or experimented with the sound, and many blend mathcore with hardcore metal, black metal, and punk genres:

1. 1. Botch: This now-defunct mathcore band formed in Tacoma, Washington, and included Brian Cook, Tim Latona, Dave Knudson, and Dave Verellen. They released two albums, An Anthology of Dead Ends and We Are the Romans, before disbanding in 2002.
2. 2. Candiria: Formed in 1992, this hardcore band from Brooklyn, New York, explored jazz, hip-hop, and progressive rock fusions to create experimental math rock sounds, as heard in their albums What Doesn’t Kill You and 300 Percent Density.
3. 3. Car Bomb: Greg Kubacki, Michael Dafferner, Elliot Hoffman, and Jon Modell formed this mathcore band in 2000 in Long Island, New York. They were one of the early mathcore bands and helped shape the style with experimental tempos and aggressive sound, as heard in their early full-length albums Centralia and w^w^^w^w.
4. 4. Coalesce: This metalcore band from Kansas City, Missouri, was among the pioneers of the mathcore sound. Their early work, including their debut album, Give Them Rope, helped define mathcore’s sound by experimenting with new styles like grindcore and thrash metal that were blends of punk and hardcore metal.
5. 5. Converge: Converge was a hardcore punk band formed in Salem, Massachusetts, by Kurt Ballou and Jacob Bannon, known for pioneering metalcore and mathcore sounds. Their album Jane Doe was a major hit for its intensity and avant-garde production.
6. 6. Deadguy: Deadguy formed in 1994 in New Brunswick, New Jersey, serving as an early underground influence on the mathcore sound. They only played together for four years and released one full-length album, titled Fixation on a Co-worker.
7. 7. The Dillinger Escape Plan: This primarily metalcore band from Morris Plains, New Jersey, and includes guitarist Ben Weinman, vocalist Dimitri Minakakis, bassist Adam Doll, and drummer Chris Pennie. They pioneered aggressive mathcore sounds, including complex time signatures and avante-garde songwriting, as listeners can hear on One of Us Is the Killer and Calculating Infinity.
8. 8. Drive like Jehu: Rick Froberg and John Reis formed Drive like Jehu in San Diego, California. The band is best known for its passionate and intricate guitar riffs and vocals. Their final album, Yank Crime, became a huge hit for its technical complexity.
9. 9. Ion Dissonance: Ion Dissonance is a mathcore band from Canada founded by members Antoine Lussier and Sebastien Chaput. They’re known for their technical sound and deep deathcore guitar riffs, such as on their popular songs “The Surge” and “Kneel.”
10. 10. Meshuggah: This extreme metal band from Sweden was one of the earliest bands to explore complex song structures with off-beat rhythms, pioneering the high-gain and distortion sound of the djent subgenre of prog metal. Their Catch Thirtythree and obZen albums were award-winning international hits.
11. 11. Norma Jean: Previously called Luti-Kriss, Norma Jean began in Douglasville, Georgia, in 1997 and helped pioneer sounds across many metal genres, including mathcore. Their most notable songs include “Memphis Will Be Laid to Waste” and “Sword in Mouth, Fire Eyes.”
12. 12. The Number Twelve Looks Like You: The lineup of this mathcore band from Bergen County, New Jersey, includes Jesse Korman, Chree Conger, Justin Pedrick, Jamie McIlroy, and Alexis Pareja. Their music is a dark combination of mathcore and screamo, and lead guitarist Alexis Pareja considers it a kind of jazz fusion.
13. 13. Rolo Tomassi: This indie band from Sheffield, England, has explored a range of mathcore styles, especially in their early work on albums Hysterics and Cosmology. They have blended the metal band sound with ambient and atmospheric music.
14. 14. SeeYouSpaceCowboy: Led by vocalist Connie Sgarbossa, this hardcore punk band from San Diego, California, blends elements from mathcore, grindcore, and metalcore to create their signature sound. Some of their most popular songs include “Armed With Their Teeth” and “Late December.”

Become a better musician with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Timbaland, St. Vincent, deadmau5, Itzhak Perlman, Herbie Hancock, Tom Morello, and more.