Beatdown

United States · 1990s

Intense Dark Epic Dancing

Your digging level for this genre

0/8

🏆

Description

Beatdown is a heavy, breakdown-centric strain of hardcore characterized by mid‑tempo to slow, groove-led rhythms, palm‑muted guitar chugs, and mosh‑friendly arrangements. It strips hardcore to its most physical elements, prioritizing massive riffs, halftime drum patterns, and call‑and‑response gang vocals.

Lyrics often center on street realities, loyalty, perseverance, and confrontation, delivered with shouted or growled vocals. The production aesthetic favors weight and impact over polish, with dropped tunings and percussive accents (e.g., china cymbal stabs) emphasizing every hit. The result is music designed for the pit: tense, blunt, and aggressively cathartic.

History

How to make a track in this genre

Main artists

Related labels

No Problema Tapes

Top tracks

Locked

Share your favorite track to unlock other users’ top tracks

Influenced by

Hardcore

Hardcore (often called hardcore techno in its early form) is a fast, aggressive branch of electronic dance music characterized by heavily distorted, punchy 4/4 kick drums, tempos ranging from roughly 160 to well over 200 BPM, and a dark, high‑energy aesthetic. It emphasizes percussive drive over complex harmony, using clipped and saturated kick-bass sound design, sharp hi-hats, claps on the backbeat, and harsh synth stabs or screeches. Vocals, when present, are typically shouted hooks, sampled movie lines, or crowd chants processed with distortion and effects. Originating in the Netherlands in the early 1990s, the style quickly splintered into related scenes and subgenres such as gabber, happy hardcore, Frenchcore, terrorcore, speedcore, and later hardstyle. Its culture is closely associated with large-scale raves, specialized labels, and distinctive visual branding.

Hardcore Punk

Hardcore punk is a faster, louder, and more abrasive offshoot of late-1970s punk rock. Songs are typically short (often under two minutes), propelled by rapid tempos, aggressive down‑stroked guitar riffs, and shouted or barked vocals. The style prioritizes raw energy over technical ornamentation: power‑chord harmony, minimal guitar solos, and tightly locked rhythm sections dominate. Lyrically, hardcore punk is intensely direct—often political, anti‑authoritarian, and socially critical—reflecting a DIY ethic that values independent labels, self‑organized shows, and community‑run spaces. The genre coalesced in U.S. scenes such as Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., New York, and Boston, and soon spread internationally. Its velocity, attitude, and grassroots infrastructure profoundly shaped underground music and paved the way for numerous metal, punk, and alternative subgenres.

Crossover Thrash

Crossover thrash is a high-speed fusion of hardcore punk’s brevity, aggression, and shouted vocals with thrash metal’s palm-muted riffing, galloping rhythms, and precision. Songs are typically short and explosive, built on frantic tempos, chunky power-chord riffs, skank and thrash beats, and gang-shout choruses. The style emphasizes mosh-worthy breakdowns, razor-edged guitar tones, and a raw, street-level attitude that keeps the music direct and confrontational. While lyrically rooted in hardcore’s anti-authoritarian and everyday-life themes, crossover thrash often adds a sarcastic or tongue-in-cheek edge, pairing social commentary with skate culture and party energy.

Groove Metal

Groove metal is a heavy metal subgenre defined by mid‑tempo, syncopated, and riff‑centric songwriting that prioritizes head‑nodding "groove" over sheer speed. Guitars are typically down‑tuned and palm‑muted, locking tightly to a punchy, backbeat‑driven drum feel and muscular bass lines. Vocals are usually aggressive shouts or barks with occasional melodic or anthemic passages, while lead guitars favor pinched harmonics, blues‑tinged bends, and compact, percussive phrases rather than long neo‑classical runs. Production tends to be tight and weighty, emphasizing a thick, modern rhythm‑guitar tone and precise drum transients. Stylistically, groove metal grew out of late‑’80s thrash and hardcore but slowed and widened the rhythms, borrowing the feel of funk metal’s syncopation and, in some cases, southern rock’s swagger.

Hip Hop

Hip hop is a cultural and musical movement that emerged from Black, Latino, and Caribbean communities, centering around rapping (MCing), DJing/turntablism, sampling-based production, and rhythmic speech over beats. It prioritizes groove, wordplay, and storytelling, often reflecting the social realities of urban life. Musically, hip hop is built on drum-centric rhythms (from breakbeats to 808 patterns), looped samples, and bass-forward mixes. Lyrically, it ranges from party anthems and braggadocio to political commentary and intricate poetic forms, with flow, cadence, and rhyme density as core expressive tools. Beyond music, hip hop encompasses a broader culture, historically intertwined with graffiti, b-boying/b-girling (breakdance), fashion, and street entrepreneurship, making it both an art form and a global social language.

Rap Metal

Rap metal fuses the rhythmic vocal delivery and sampling culture of hip hop with the high-gain guitars, driving bass, and aggressive drums of metal. Typical tracks feature rapped verses, shouted or sung hooks, syncopated, groove-heavy riffs, and punchy backbeats that prioritize head-nodding momentum as much as mosh-friendly impact. Down-tuned guitars, palm-muted chugs, and start–stop rhythms are common, often paired with DJ cuts, samples, or electronics. Lyrically, the style ranges from social and political commentary to braggadocio and cathartic personal themes. The genre overlaps with rap rock and nu metal, but it leans more toward metal riffing and heaviness than rap rock, and centers rap as a primary vocal approach rather than a secondary color.

Metalcore

Metalcore is a fusion of hardcore punk’s urgency and ethos with heavy metal’s riff language and technicality. It is defined by tightly palm‑muted riffs, rapid double‑kick drumming, and frequent breakdowns—rhythmic, syncopated passages written to accentuate impact and crowd movement. Vocals typically alternate between harsh screams or growls and, in many bands, soaring clean choruses—a contrast that emphasizes both aggression and catharsis. Harmony and melody often borrow from melodic death metal, yielding minor‑key leads, harmonized guitars, and hook‑driven refrains. Modern production favors precise editing, dense guitar layering, and punchy drum sounds that keep complex rhythms clear at high intensity.

Has influenced

Metallic Hardcore

Metallic hardcore is a fusion of hardcore punk’s speed, directness, and mosh-centric songcraft with the weight, riff vocabulary, and guitar tones of metal. It emphasizes chugging, palm‑muted riffs, halftime breakdowns, two‑step drum feels, and shouted, gang‑vocal choruses. Compared to metalcore, metallic hardcore tends to remain closer to hardcore’s terse structures and ethos, generally avoiding overt melody in favor of darker, more austere chromatic and modal riffing. Lyrically it often tackles personal struggle, straight‑edge ethics, social and political critique, and scenes of urban grit. Production typically favors raw, mid‑pushed guitars, audible bass grind, and tight, punchy drums that foreground rhythm and impact over gloss.

Deathcore

Deathcore is an extreme metal fusion that combines the low-tuned riffing, blast beats, and guttural vocals of death metal with the breakdown-centric groove, rhythmic syncopation, and mosh-oriented structures of metalcore. Expect relentless intensity: deep growls, pig-squeals, dissonant tremolo lines, chromatic runs, gravity blasts, and sudden tempo drops into crushing breakdowns. Modern deathcore often layers atmospherics (pads, choirs, or orchestral elements) over hyper-tight, down-tuned guitar work for a cinematic, apocalyptic feel. The style is performance-driven and physical—written as much for the pit as for headphones—yet many bands fold in technical riffing, odd meters, and ambitious song forms.

Downtempo Deathcore

Downtempo deathcore is an ultra-slow, hyper-heavy offshoot of deathcore that emphasizes crushing, half-time breakdowns, extreme low tunings, and bleak atmosphere. Instead of constant blast beats or fast tremolo, the style prioritizes spacious, syncopated chugs, sub‑drops, and long rests that make each hit feel catastrophic. Vocals typically lean on deep false‑cord gutturals, tunnel growls, and occasional pig squeals, with lyrical themes centered on nihilism, violence, despair, and street‑level realism. Production often layers 808 subs with kick drums, brickwall‑limited guitars, and sharp china/splash accents to maximize impact. Sparse dissonant leads, samples, and cinematic swells are used to deepen the ominous mood, while the groove remains slow, simple, and tactically punishing.

Blackened Deathcore

Blackened deathcore is a hybrid of deathcore’s breakdown-centric heaviness and black metal’s frostbitten atmosphere, melodies, and blasting speed. It blends tremolo‑picked minor and diminished riffs, relentless blast beats, and shrieked vocals from black metal with deathcore’s low‑tuned chugs, slam grooves, and colossal, syncopated breakdowns. Many bands expand the sound with symphonic or choral layers, pipe‑organ or string pads, and cinematic sound design to project an apocalyptic, occult, or eschatological mood. Vocals typically alternate between cavernous gutturals and razor‑edged high shrieks, while guitars use extended ranges and extreme downtuning. The result is a sound that is simultaneously epic and oppressive: theatrical yet ferocious, atmospheric yet crushing.

Brutal Deathcore

Brutal deathcore is an extreme offshoot of deathcore that fuses the low‑tuned, breakdown‑driven weight of metalcore with the relentless brutality of brutal death metal and slam death metal. Hallmarks include ultra‑guttural vocals (growls, tunnel throats, pig squeals), palm‑muted chromatic riffs, slamming “gravity” breakdowns, and a rhythm section that alternates between whirlwind blast beats and lurching half‑time grooves. Production tends to be modern and punishing: sub‑drops, sample‑reinforced drums, and very low guitar tunings on 7–8 (or more) strings. Lyrically, it often leans into gore, nihilism, social decay, or apocalyptic imagery, delivered with an uncompromising, confrontational edge.

Slam Death Metal

Slam death metal is a hyper-groove-focused branch of brutal death metal characterized by extremely downtuned guitars, guttural vocals, and an emphasis on mid‑tempo, syncopated "slam" riffs that drop into crushing, half‑time breakdowns. Rather than the constant speed of many death metal styles, slam alternates bursts of blasts with deliberate, head‑nodding chug patterns. The vocal delivery tends toward ultra‑low growls and gurgles, sometimes employing "pig squeal" techniques. Drums move between gravity blasts, traditional blasts, and stomping half‑time sections that accent the riff’s hook. Lyrics typically dwell on gore, horror, and extremity, with graphic imagery presented in a deliberately over-the-top, tongue‑in‑cheek or splatter‑cinema spirit. Production often prioritizes a dense, percussive guitar tone, scooped or mid‑heavy rhythm definition, and cavernous vocals, keeping the slam riff as the song’s primary hook. The overall effect is simultaneously oppressive, rhythmic, and mosh‑oriented, designed to make the breakdown hit as hard as possible.

Challenges

Digger Battle

Let's see who can find the best track in this genre