Having a small metal community where I live in the first place, I rarely get to see very many worthwhile shows. As of late, even if a good band does come through, they are almost always accompanied by some form of bland, uninteresting, chugging breakdown loving deathcore garbage.

My question is this: inventive, outstanding, notable deathcore. Does such a thing exist? Are there ANY saving graces of this genre whatsoever?

I quite like Despised Icon. They're super thugging, have a very strong rhythm section (their drummer in particular is a beast) and just generally obliterate everything in their path while remaining absurdly catchy. Their hardcore shouts may bother you though. They started off as much more grind influenced with lots of pig squeals but gradually changed sounds. Another I enjoy is As Blood Runs Black's first album. It's very much melodic death metal + breakdowns.

Seconded, Bill is a cool guy too and knows his shit when it comes to Crust and "real" Grindcore.

They were awesome live, yeah. I was at their last show and they were really cool dudes.

I only saw them once like five years ago. I actually met Bill at a train station in Sacramento at like two in the morning haha.

When I think of good deathcore, I think Animosity. Pretty much technical death metal combined with pre-scene kid metalcore (think Botch or Converge).

All shall perish are great imo. There are a few other honestly good death core bands but by far most suck. The genre just got over saturated with garbage makin it hard to find the quality gems

first album from All Shall Perish is the greatest deathcore album everrrr ! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55UNcs-B2Y8

i also second Despised Icon and Animosity

Seconding(or 3rding) Despised Icon, at least The Healing Process.

I'll add:
The Red Chord
Ichor
The Red Shore
Biolich(they have some Deathcore elements)
Rise of Caligula

Yeah great description of them. One of my faves definitely.

Other than that there's All Shall Perish I guess, but I only like The Price of Existence.

Or The Red Chord, but I don't really consider them deathcore.

Another one for All Shall Perish. The Price of Existence is quite a good album despite being mainly deathcore. Not too many deathcore bands manage to do that; All Shall perish is the one that comes to mind when it comes to the genre.

Salt the wound and Trigger the Bloodshed are pretty accessible deathcore bands.
Trigger the bloodshed-the soulful dead http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLuZpuW9GfM

As stated previously, Despised Icon, without a doubt. Also check out Thy Art is Murder, notably "The Adversary". Crushing, blasty and brutal with lots of groovy, dare I say "djent" influenced breaks. I also dig Veil of Maya quite a bit, though they kinda do their own thing a lot of the time and break from the "deathcore" mold. Boris the Blade is a lesser known Australian act that is also pretty solid, though maybe a bit on the generic side... You could also try Carnifex.

Carnifex last album was definitely tolerable, going to have second them. They have upped the tremelo riffs, cut down the shouts, and have at least a couple of good songs. They are definitely getting closer to playing death metal.

Rings of Saturn - Embyronic Anomaly.

They're Technical Death Metal/ Deathcore.

The breakdowns are quite enjoyable.

Pretty much mix super quick runs and sweeps with breakdowns inbetween.

Not "deathcore" in the Suiside Silence sense, but Harms Way and Xibalba mix old school death metal with modern hardcore in awesome ways. Harms Way with a more Stockholm approach, and Xibalba take a more Morbid Angel/Obituary approach.

I never understood why folks categorize them as deathcore. They always struck me as a modern tech death/grindcore band. Hell, their first album has a few nods to old school Cephalic Carnage to me.

Also, OP you might want to check out the progressive deathcore stuff like Born of Osiris and Veil of Maya. Two of the few deathcore I listen to on a regular basis and it's very good.

Thy Art is Murder is pretty good. Only listen to the stuff on their full length though, as anything before that is as generic as deathcore can be.

Ah, forgot the contortionist. Throw spacey modern prog death metal with a splash of djent and a bunch of deathcore and you get the contortionist.

Moved to the correct subforum. It's also a pretty general request that doesn't warrant its own thread. Please use this thread. Thanks.