A modern genre of music invented to accommodate bands whose style cross-breeds a hard, heavy metal sound with hardcore-influenced vocals. What you end up with is a brand of music which sounds suspiciously close to death metal, but doesn't have quite the edge needed to make the cut. The vocal style can range anywhere from traditional hardcore yelps to piercing, raspy screams.
Bands characterized by the metalcore sound include Poison the Well, From Autumn to Ashes, As I Lay Dying, and Killswitch Engage. The Christian group Zao is popularly-believed to have moulded the genre into what it is today with their 1998 release Where Blood and Fire Bring Rest. It is thought they pioneered contemporary metalcore by adding extra ferocity to their previously-hardcore vocals with raspy, demon-like growls against a crunching metal melody.