The Six Merges — Post-Prog-Metal

Part 2 — The Six Merges

Each mechanism merged with each of the other two, as a directional pair: the lead supplies the structure, the guest supplies the disruption. Reversing the direction gives a genuinely different result, which is why there are six and not three.

1. A CHORUS ABOVE THE TRAPDOOR

Deathcore ▸ Metalcore — Deathcore that earns a chorus by taking the floor away first.

The variable that moves: The cue: metalcore's clean chorus, brought into a deathcore song as the one section with no floor under it.

Hinge (what already agrees): Both genres already build songs out of formal sections. Gamble treats the breakdown as a section on a par with verse and chorus, and MetalSucks describes the deathcore breakdown as a discrete part inside a verse-chorus song. Deathcore already has a chorus slot. It just rarely puts a sung melody in it.

Friction (what fights): A sung hook needs space, and the deathcore texture leaves none. “To the Hellfire” runs a 32nd-note blast under full chords, several lead guitars and sixteen tracks of strings and choir, with the bass at 24.5 Hz, so every register is taken. O'Connor says the orchestra already struggles to blend at speed, and a clean voice has even less chance. Drop a chorus into that texture and it either gets buried or turns the song into metalcore in costume.

Resolution: Make the chorus the only section with no floor. For those eight bars the chugs stop, the bass leaves the sub region, the blast relaxes into a square 4/4 backbeat and the guitars ring open chords, which leaves the midrange to the clean voice. Then drop straight out of the chorus into the trapdoor: stop, 808, half time. The chorus becomes the ceiling the song falls from, and each drop feels deeper because the listener was just lifted. Deathcore keeps its structure, and metalcore supplies one cue, placed where it makes the floor feel lower.

Recipe

• Chassis: deathcore, with seven-strings in drop G, blast-beat verses, an orchestral bed, gutturals and highs
• One clean chorus, eight bars long, on a square downbeat
• In the chorus, remove the floor: no chugs and no sub; the blast becomes a plain 4/4 backbeat and the guitars ring open chords
• The orchestra carries the chorus harmony, so the guitars don't have to fill it
• Out of the chorus, go straight down: full stop, tuned 808 drop, half-time breakdown
• The breakdown then drops again into quarter time, with faster kick subdivisions
• The order is the whole effect: blast verse, then clean chorus, then the drop
• Avoid: a pre-chorus build. The contrast works because the lift arrives without warning, and so does the fall.

Short form:

2. A FLOOR UNDER THE FLOOR

Metalcore ▸ Deathcore — Metalcore's breakdown, and then the one under it.

The variable that moves: Depth: deathcore's quarter-time trapdoor nested under metalcore's half-time breakdown.

Hinge (what already agrees): Both breakdowns descend from the same hardcore mosh part, and Garza describes them together: a low-register unison rhythm, crash or China cymbals and a half-time feel. Nothing has to be translated, because deathcore's version is metalcore's taken one level further down.

Friction (what fights): Metalcore's breakdown is a cue, and it has to be read instantly. The pit needs to find the pulse within a bar. Deathcore's quarter time is “half the perceived tempo of a regular half-time feel”, slow enough that the pulse stops being danceable in the usual way. Put the deep one first and the crowd never gets the cue. Use it alone and the song stops being metalcore.

Resolution: Nest them, with the cue first. Run the metalcore breakdown as written: half time, the China on every slow beat, and guitar, bass and kick on one syncopated rhythm for sixteen bars, long enough for the room to follow. Then a one-beat stop, a tuned 808, and the floor under the floor: quarter time, with the snare on alternate bars, while the kick speeds up into 32nd-note triplets so the section sounds “both extremely slow and fast.” The first breakdown tells the room to move, and the second pulls the floor out from under it. Coming back to the final chorus from there is the biggest lift the song can make.

Recipe

• Chassis: metalcore at 150 BPM, with screamed verses, a clean chorus and twin-guitar leads
• First breakdown: half time, sixteen bars, China on each slow beat, one unison syncopated chug
• A one-beat stop, then a tuned 808 drop into the second breakdown
• Second breakdown: quarter time, snare on alternate bars, kick in 32nd-note triplets
• In the second breakdown the guitars play fewer, longer chugs, with more silence between them
• Back to the chorus with no transition, straight from quarter time onto the downbeat
• The breakdown drops a second time, even slower — one level down is the default, and the second drop is what makes it land
• Avoid: a fill into either breakdown. Silence announces the drop.

Short form:

3. THE BREAKDOWN THE PIT CAN STILL FIND

Deathcore ▸ Djent — An odd-cycle breakdown with an even clock over it, and the leftover hit as the signal to fall.

The variable that moves: The breakdown riff: a djent odd-length cycle placed inside deathcore's trapdoor.

Hinge (what already agrees): Garza's breakdown definition already includes “uneven rhythms played in unison” in the low register, which is djent's texture exactly. Herbst and Mynett note that the kick “frequently plays the same subdivision as the guitar and bass to achieve maximum rhythmic and sonic impact.” The Sumerian-label bands of 2007–2010 lived on this border.

Friction (what fights): A breakdown has to be legible, and an odd cycle hides the downbeat. A 7-sixteenth chug cell against 4/4 doesn't come home for seven bars, so a pit waiting for the drop at bar 4 finds nothing to land on.

Resolution: Give the pit the cymbals and give the riff the cycle. The China plays every slow beat of the half-time pulse and the snare holds beat three, so the crowd always has an even clock to move to. Underneath, guitar, bass and kick run the 7-sixteenth cell. Cut it at bar 4: 64 sixteenths is nine full cycles with one sixteenth left over, so the section ends on a single orphaned hit. That hit is the cue for the trapdoor, so the remainder becomes the signal to fall.

Recipe

• Chassis: deathcore, with drop-G seven-strings, blast verses and gutturals
• Breakdown cell: seven sixteenths of palm-muted chugs, in unison with bass and kick
• Clock: the China on every half-time beat and the snare on beat three, never varying
• Four bars, then the cut: nine full cycles and one extra hit
• Follow the orphan hit with silence, then the 808 and quarter time
• Sixteenth-note chugs are safe at breakdown tempo. At 105 BPM each lasts 143 ms, long enough for G1 to read as a pitch
• Keep everything dry and gated, because the gaps are part of the cell
• Avoid: letting the cymbals follow the riff. The moment they do, the pit loses the floor.

Short form:

4. THE CYCLE SURVIVES THE BLAST

Djent ▸ Deathcore — Swap the cymbal clock for a blast, and move the cycle into the harmony.

The variable that moves: The clock: deathcore's blast beat replacing djent's quarter-note cymbals.

Hinge (what already agrees): Both genres run a rigid grid that something else moves against. In djent it is the cymbals' quarter notes; in a blast it is a carpet of eighth- or sixteenth-note strokes. Either one can serve as the clock.

Friction (what fights): A blast takes the kick away from the guitar. In a bomb blast the kick runs a continuous sixteenth-note carpet, so it can't also double a 7-sixteenth riff, and djent's unison block loses its anchor. Chugs at blast tempo also lose their pitch: above about 184 BPM, a sixteenth on G1 is too short to contain four cycles of the note. Keep chugging over a blast and you get fast low mush with no clear note. Herbst and Mynett reach a related conclusion from the mix side: faster subdivisions “require more radical taming of the lower frequency content.”

Resolution: While the blast lasts, move the cycle from the rhythm into the harmony. Herbst and Mynett's “wall of sound approach” is the model: the blast's speed “produces a sonic density that complements the otherwise relatively thin guitar playing.” So during the blast the guitars stop chugging and ring chords that change every seven sixteenths, while a crash marks every quarter note. The riff's internal rhythm is gone for the length of the blast, but its length survives as a 7-against-4 cross-rhythm between the chord changes and the crashes. When the blast stops, the kick returns to the guitar, the chugs come back, and the same cycle is rhythm again. The cycle never ends; it only changes medium.

Recipe

• Chassis: djent, with an eight-string in F♯ and an odd-cycle unison riff against steady 4/4 cymbals
• Blast sections at around 220 BPM: bomb blast, with the blast itself as the clock
• Over the blast: ringing chords that change every seven sixteenths, a crash on every quarter note, and high tremolo above
• No chugs during the blast, so the low end gets out of the way
• When the blast stops, the same seven-sixteenth cycle returns as unison chugs with the kick
• Name both textures and say they carry the same pattern
• Bass during the blast: sustained roots rather than chugs, with a clean fundamental under the grind
• Avoid: “chugging blast beats.” It sounds heavy on paper and comes out as mush.

Short form:

5. THE REMAINDER IS THE PICKUP

Metalcore ▸ Djent — Let the odd verse run out exactly where the chorus needs a pickup.

The variable that moves: The verse riff: a djent odd cycle under metalcore's verse, cut so that its leftover lands as the pickup into the chorus.

Hinge (what already agrees): Both genres think in eight-bar phrases. Metalcore's discipline is holding a riff long enough, and djent's phrase frame is what trims or stretches its cycles: “Stengah” and “Rational Gaze” both come out at exactly eight bars. Northlane's Singularity sits on this border, and Revolver files it as djent.

Friction (what fights): The chorus needs a square downbeat to be sung, but an odd cycle ends wherever its arithmetic puts it. That is usually mid-cell, which makes the move into the chorus sound like an accident rather than a cue.

Resolution: Choose the cycle so the remainder is a pickup. Eight bars hold 128 sixteenths. A 7-sixteenth cell fills eighteen cycles and leaves two sixteenths; a 5-sixteenth cell fills twenty-five and leaves three. Play those leftover notes as a two- or three-note run straight into the chorus downbeat, and the djent hiccup becomes metalcore's cue. The verse disagrees with the bar the whole way through, and then its leftover is exactly what launches the chorus.

Recipe

• Chassis: metalcore at 140 BPM, with a screamed verse, a clean chorus and a square 4/4 backbeat in the chorus
• Verse riff: seven sixteenths, palm-muted, in unison with the kick, against steady quarter-note cymbals
• Play it for eight bars: eighteen full cycles
• The two leftover sixteenths become a pickup into the chorus downbeat
• Chorus: open chords, clean vocal, a plain backbeat and no odd cycle anywhere
• After the second chorus, the same cell returns at half time as the breakdown
• The verse riff resolves into the chorus with a short pickup. Nobody counts the cells on a first listen, but the intent is audible
• Avoid: odd meters in the chorus. The whole trick is that only the verse disagrees.

Short form:

6. TWO VOICES ON TWO CLOCKS

Djent ▸ Metalcore — The screams follow the riff; the chorus follows the cymbals.

The variable that moves: Which clock the voice follows: metalcore's clean hook attached to the cymbals while the riff cycle runs uncut.

Hinge (what already agrees): Djent already has two clocks, the odd unison block below and the cymbals' quarter notes above, which is Pieslak's metric superimposition. A voice can attach to either one. In Capuzzo's example from a live “Perpetual Black Second”, the vocalist headbangs with the riff cycle while the guitarists and bassist headbang on beats 1 and 3.

Friction (what fights): A hook has to come back at regular intervals before anyone can sing it back. If the voice follows a 7-sixteenth riff, the hook can only recur on that seven-sixteenth grid, which never lines up with a four- or eight-bar phrase, so nobody can sing along. And if the riff stops disagreeing to make room for the hook, it stops being djent.

Resolution: Split the vocal by clock. The harsh vocals follow the riff cycle, as Meshuggah's do. The clean hook follows the cymbals: eight bars, square and singable. The riff runs uncut underneath and takes seven bars to realign, so the hook's downbeat and the riff's restart only coincide now and then, and each coincidence lands as an event. The song gets a chorus without the riff giving up its argument.

Recipe

• Chassis: djent, with an eight-string in F♯, a 7-sixteenth unison cell and steady quarter-note cymbals
• Verses: the harsh vocal locks to the riff's rhythm
• Chorus: a clean melodic hook in square eight-bar phrases that follows the cymbals, not the riff
• The riff keeps its cycle under the chorus, with no switch to 4/4 guitars
• Reverb goes on the clean voice only; the chugs stay dry
• Split the bass: a clean fundamental under distorted grind
• Write “the chorus melody follows the steady cymbal pulse while the riff underneath keeps its own cycle”
• Avoid: asking for an “odd time signature”. The meter is 4/4; only the riff is odd.

Short form: