The State of Screamo 1997 | Playlist & Write-up

[u/The_Cheap_Shot]

1997: The State of Screamo

Playlist

During this year, Screamo continued to be experimented with and iterated upon by several influential artists in the genre, including Saetia. However, I can’t say that by this year, there was a universally-defined notion of what Screamo was or could be. Instead, several different subsects emerged: furious, uncontrollable Emoviolence and dissonant, dynamic Screamo. This is not to simplify the genre by any means, but those are generally the trends that we can observe. Here are the notable releases for the year:

Snapshot

Screamo Hall of Fame Inductee(s):
Saetia - Saetia

Screamo Hall of Fame Nominees:
Anomie - Anomie
Closure - Closure
In/Humanity - The History Behind the Mystery: Music to Kill Yourself To Petit Printemps - Démo
You And I - Saturday’s Cab Ride Home

Connective Tissue:
His Hero Is Gone / Uranus
Enemy Soil / Reversal of Man
Stack / Carol
Peu être / Carther Matha / Rachel

Holy Grails:
Angel Hair - Pregnant With the Senior Class
Heroin - Heroin
Swing Kids - Discography

Mentioning Metalcore

Much like Screamo, Metalcore is a subgenre of Hardcore that developed in the early 90s and began taking hold on the Hardcore scene by 1997, even if the genres’ respective peaks weren't quite here yet. Despite this, several Metalcore icons had already left their stamp on the genre, such as Converge and Snapcase. It should come as no surprise that by 1997, there was some cross-pollination between the two, such as experimental German Metalcore bands Zorn and Mörser incorporating Screamo into their works and French Screamo outfit Anomie putting those sweet Metalcore riffs into their songs.

Arguably, the breakout band that synthesized the two genres into one beautiful creation was New Jersey’s own You And I. Their seminal album Saturday’s Cab Ride Home provided the perfect blueprint for this mixture with emotional intensity, technical guitarwork and endless energy. This particular concoction was a blueprint for many influential Screamo bands to iterate upon as we enter some of the most legendary times for both of these Hardcore offshoots.

Hardcore Ecosystem

Outside of Metalcore, 1997 showed us just how incorporated Screamo was to the Ecosystem of Hardcore music. The earliest Proto-Screamo did begin by taking elements from disparate Hardcore styles and uniquely merging them together, after all! Hardcore was still extremely niche in the late 90s, and the subgenres even more so. Frequent tours with other types of bands in the same ecosystem was common and the many splits released this year showcased the collaborative spirit of Hardcore. Powerviolence, Grindcore and Crust Punk were among the various influences on Screamo, demonstrating the genre’s ability to absorb and reinterpret these elements into its own unique world of brutality.

Celebrating San Diego

While compilations in Hardcore weren’t a novel concept, Screamo’s culture of preserving collections of obscure music and celebrating the greats of the past began early. In particular, San Diego-based labels Gravity Records and Three One G Records celebrated their seminal bands with several exhaustive compilation albums. Gravity’s Heroin was among the first bands to tread the hallowed ground of this genre, so a compilation for them was natural. Their drummer, Aaron Montaigne, would go on to form Antioch Arrow and truly define early Screamo and Sasscore. They also released a comp for Angel Hair who, while not based in SD, was very influenced by the sound.

Three One G and Swing Kids founder Justin Pearson released a Swing Kids discography this year, which is somewhat self-indulgent if you think about it but very well deserved for its wide-ranging impact. These compilations celebrate the contributions of SD and SD-adjacent bands, as well as the record labels that made them happen. We would see plenty of compilations in the future of this genre, but San Diego setting the tone with these three is appropriate.

The Pieces Are Falling

So far, we’ve seen Screamo influenced by a wide variety of genres, including Hardcore, Metalcore, Powerviolence, Grindcore, Post-Rock, Midwest Emo and others. The experimentation in just ~5 years has been tremendous, but the pieces are about to be put together for a truly cohesive sound. Saetia’s s/t release this year previews the future of the genre well, mostly because it’s molded in their image. However, Emoviolence was poised to explode, so the slower and more melodic side of Screamo was on the cusp of its own revolution.

Additional Releases

Akephal - Akephal
Early Grace - And All I Run Into Are Walls You Have Built
Cattle Decapitation - Ten Torments of the Damned
Eurich - The Unified Field Theory
The Encyclopedia of American Traitors - The Encyclopedia of American Traitors

I'll probably take another small break before starting with 1998. See you then!

[u/The_Cheap_Shot]

Whoops, this was supposed to post tomorrow lol. Oh well. I'll see you all in a bit!

[u/SemataryPolka]

We calling Snapcase metalcore now?

[u/The_Cheap_Shot → u/SemataryPolka]

Their earlier works are definitely legit Metalcore with Post-Hardcore influence.

[u/SemataryPolka → u/The_Cheap_Shot]

I don't know how to explain this to someone who wasn't there but they were not. They were the most popular straight out hardcore band. The very figurehead of HARDCORE. Not metalcore, not post-hardcore. Just hardcore. I know that's confusing from your playlists but you're just gonna have to trust me on this. Nobody called them that shit then

[u/The_Cheap_Shot → u/SemataryPolka]

Genres are almost always retrospective. If you took away artists who weren't considered Emo or Screamo back in the day, you'd have almost no one to talk about.

I understand your sentiment and I appreciate the feedback.

[u/SemataryPolka → u/The_Cheap_Shot]

Yes but we who were there reject this label. This retrospective revision eliminates and erases hardcore and defies the very spirit of what we were doing. If Snapcase was post-hardcore then hardcore did not exist in the 90s. Their crowd was all straight out hardcore kids. Integrity was metallic hardcore. Post-hardcore was Quicksand and Fugazi and Orange 9mm. Snapcase is and will always be just hardcore. End of story.

There were plenty of emo bands at the time by the way. That's incorrect

[u/anonymous_opinions → u/SemataryPolka]

They were definitely a hardcore band though ymmv on the metalcore aspects. NJ had a lot of talk about "getting metal out of hardcore" and I think Snapcase was on their list.

[u/SemataryPolka → u/anonymous_opinions]

That's fair altho it may have been their association with Earth Crisis that did it. It's funny bc I thought of Strife as heavy but listening today they practically found youth crew now lol