The music industry has recovered fully from the Covid crisis as 2022 came to a close. The renovation began in 2021, and it didn’t feel completely normal again until 2022. Since so much occurred in 2022, it felt like metalcore as a whole was once again in the spotlight and was beginning to infiltrate popular music for the very first time since Warped Tour (as far as rock and metal can be).
We hate it when magazines highlight bands who have been dominating the scene for a few years when we’re talking about new and emerging groups. Although they might not be headlining, they undoubtedly have their name known at the top echelons of the circuit. We put together a list of 10 up-and-coming metalcore groups who you might or may not heard of, but who have all made waves this year in different ways and deserve some recognition. Below are the Top 10 emerging metalcore artists for 2023.
Without further ado…
Grieve
The Florida sunshine state is home to the heavy metalcore band Grieve. If you’re familiar with Florida metalcore, you know how insane the downtempo/down-tuned scene is and how it produces some of the best bands, Grieve included.
The band’s initial releases came out in 2018, but we think the year 2022—the year their EP “Empty, Like Me” was released—is when they really upped their game. Songs like “Erase Me” and the album’s title tune “Empty, Like Me” show off the band’s inventive songwriting skills and how incredibly vicious they are. They are undoubtedly a favorite around here, so we chose to show them a little love.
Stain the Canvas
Stain the Canvas, which was founded in 2019, has been creating some fairly substantial impacts in the scene. The band, which hails from Italy, has a classic emo metalcore sound with a modern twist. Despite the fact that they started in 2019, last year was unquestionably their year.
The Word Alive, Outline In Color, and perhaps the most startling guest appearance by Nick from Get Scared were just a few of the amazing songs and special guests the band released with the support of the InVogue Records crew. The band recorded a ton of singles before releasing “All Fine / eniF IIA”, their sophomore album, which featured songs like “Stolen Youth” and “Condemned”. The band, which is quickly gaining recognition, will embark on its biggest EU/UK tour on February 24 with Atilla.
Late 9
Post-hardcore/metalcore band from New England is called Late 9, and this year they signed with our label since they really attracted our eye. The band received over five times as many streams in 2022 as they had the year before due to their increased popularity. 150k streams were earned through launching 3 singles for us this year, and the statistics are still rising.
They’ve been involved in the New England music scene, and 2023 looks to be even greater with more gigs and perhaps (just perhaps) a new EP. “Tidal Waves” and “Down Again” are two songs that have resonated with the audience and revived the 2010 post-hardcore vibe that few bands have really delved into. Among the groups with the greatest promise going into 2023 is Late 9.
Saving Vice
Staying in New England. Emo metalcore group Saving Vice hails from the northeast shore of the United States, namely the New England region. The band has been going strong since the beginning, but their big breakthrough single, a version of “Another Life” by Motionless in White, came out in 2020. Nonetheless, if you were involved in the metalcore scene in 2022, you’ll undoubtedly hear the term Saving Vice mentioned frequently when discussing the biggest bands of the year.
The band has been VERY active and just keeps getting bigger while touring nonstop. The Lil Xan tour fiasco comprising Saving Vice and Dropout Kings, who took things into their own hands and rescued a tour on their own, was a huge topic in 2022. The group has been very active in 2022, releasing a total of 7 songs, one of which was a joint effort with another group on this list! The song “White Rabbit“, which features one of our favorite choruses of 2022, is our particular favorite they released last year. Keep a look out since 2023 is rumored to be even larger for the band.
Patient Sixty-Seven
One of those amazing Internet bands, Patient Sixty-Seven, has just been churning out hits like Carlos Mortensen pulls out his bluffs in World Series of Poker, wagered on Brazilian casino sites. Don’t misunderstand this; the band isn’t at all a joke despite how far they have run with their online presence. This Australian band actually embarked on their first solo tour and NAILED IT.
With the premiere of their album “Wishful Thinking”, Patient Sixty-Seven, one of the top bands to accomplish this and produce some of the best music to break out, ranked #107 on Billboard’s Top New Artist Albums and #69 on the current hard music albums chart. The songs “Damage Plan” and “Dying to Watch”, which are both RIP, were written in conjunction with another band on this ranking, Saving Vice, by this band. They will be performing in the United States for the first time at the Blue Ridge Rock Festival in 2023 (September 7-10), which is a big deal. We believe this will be one of the scene’s powerhouses in the following year.
We Were Giants
This one has been around for a while and never ceases to amaze us. Notably, the band broke a breakthrough with their rock rendition of “Hot Girl Bummer” in 2020, and in 2021, they recorded the historic version of “Welcome to the Black Parade”.
The band released an acoustic rendition of The Kid Laroi’s “Stay” and a reimagined version of their own song “The Reaper” in 2022 while still feeling the high from these songs. We Were Giants is a band that you will appreciate if you like amazing vocals mixed with a massive cinematic sound and crazy breakdowns. Another band with a record release on January 20th is predicted to have an uncontrollable 2023. Keep an eye out!
Dreamwake
Our personal favorite band currently is Dreamwake, who has utterly blown us away and was our #1 band of 2022. Dreamwake is another New England-based band that blends progressive metalcore and synthwave. For those who are unfamiliar, synthwave is a musical genre that has a strong 80s neon look and is similar to 80s synthpop. When they played the breakdown from their song “Night Rider”, which features a saxophone, we first learned about Dreamwake on Tiktok and were instantly captivated like a fish.
We sincerely hoped they’d continue to make music in this genre as this was the first time they had used this blend in a song. The band’s EP “Virtual Reality”, which we rank as the best EP of the last year, was released in April 2022, as predicted. The album’s opening track, “Neon”, is arguably one of our favorites of all time, and their entire EP is oozing with Sax.
They headlined a gig at the Webster Theater in Connecticut in 2022 for the debut of this EP, which was a tremendous accomplishment for a band with no prior tour experience. The show sold out. They also shared a bill with ENOX, another band from this list who we’d heard did well with both fans and promoters. Dreamwake, in our opinion, is the upcoming big bang in the progressive metalcore scene and should be mentioned among acts like Invent Animate, Currents, and Erra.
Enox
Enox is THE band. They had long been the group with potential, but in 2021 they began to receive a little more attention. But, after releasing their debut album “Euphoria” and making use of social media sites like TikTok, the band took things into their very own hands and attracted a HUGE amount of attention. The group is currently the embodiment of the word “DIY”, hailing from Georgia. The band has performed as headliners on numerous tours across the nation in 2022, which has significantly increased both their fan base and industry interest.
The tremendous amount of momentum this heavy progressive metalcore ensemble has amassed will make them a powerhouse going into 2023. Fans love songs like “Radiance” and “Stacker”, but everyone who’s familiar with the band understands that “Blame Shift” is a smash. With 1.2 million streams, that song boasts one of the best breakdowns. We got to hear a few of the new songs they’ll be releasing in the coming year, and we can assure you that they are top-tier.
The Gloom in the Corner
With their contract to metalcore heavyweight label Sharptone Records and the publication of their album “Trinity”, The Gloom in the Corner, an established Australian band, upped their profile this year. We enjoy a good concept, and the band’s songs tell the tale of a fictional figure named “Sherlock Bones”, of which “Trinity” is the third episode.
The band has been making waves since its founding in 2017, as we mentioned, but given the recent power moves made in 2022, we think they’ll be making their global debut in the next year, rendering them one of the year’s most anticipated up-and-coming acts. Particularly at the gym, songs like “New Order” and “Pandora’s Box” have been played often. One of the most original and thrilling songs of 2022, “New Order”, which includes Taylor Barber of Left to Suffer, confirmed our faith in this band.
Dark Divine
Like Stain the Canvas, Dark Divine is a brand-new band on the InVogue labels roster. They stand out since they are essentially BRAND NEW. They only released one single in 2021, and all of their other songs, including their EP “Halloweentown”, were released in 2022. Their popularity is growing quickly among listeners and on the radio. With the Trinity of Terror tour being an enormous success, Dark Divine, which sounds like a cross between Ice Nine Kills and Motionless In White and adheres to a similar goth aesthetic, has been able to establish its own identity and wave in that genre of music.
With the publication of their EP, Octane on Sirius began playing their music on a daily basis. In 2022, the band also embarked on its first touring with the legendary band Famous Last Words. The band has a promising future in 2023 with the style that people are saying is what they expected MIW to sound like after “Creatures”, despite being relatively new to the scene and creating this much noise. They have a tour scheduled for the beginning of 2023 as direct support for the group Limbs. According to how things are developing, Dark Divine is on track to become the leading up-and-coming act in the darker subgenre of metalcore.
Conclusion
Metalcore as a genre seems fun and new again for the first time in a while. In a DIY way that is proving to be quite successful, new bands are bursting through the scene, and old bands emerging of “retirement”. Metalcore is expanding quickly once more, just like it did in 2010. This includes undiscovered artists from the very top to the very bottom.
The scene is still featuring some of the bands who made 2010 so unique, which is very wonderful, but new talent is also laying the foundation for the revival. Now that there are far more bands than just ten that are breaking ground in the scene, we suggest digging deep to find out who’s active and on the rise in your local scenes. You never know who or where the next big artist is about to emerge.