Downtempo Deathcore
Located in 1 route
A crushingly slow, minimalist offshoot — sometimes tagged 'sludgewave' — that strips deathcore down to monolithic, doom-paced breakdowns. Guitars sit in extreme low tunings (drop-G/F and below) with sparse, dissonant single-note chugs and feedback drones rather than riffs; tempos crawl, often half-time around 60-90 BPM with cavernous, almost trip-hop-influenced groove. Production is thick, sub-heavy and atmospheric, drenched in reverb and ambient samples. Vocals are agonized lows and despairing highs; the overriding mood is bleak, hopeless and oppressive rather than fast or technical.
History
Downtempo deathcore emerged in the mid-2010s when UK band Black Tongue (Hull, members tied to Infant Annihilator) slowed deathcore to a doom-laden crawl on releases like 'The Unconquerable Dark' (2015), codifying the template. Florida's Bodysnatcher and Traitors stripped songs to near-riffless, breakdown-only structures, while Denmark's CABAL and the UK's Bound in Fear added industrial dread and atmosphere. The Unique Leader and Stay Sick / SharpTone circuits helped spread it. Often nicknamed 'sludgewave' for its sludge/doom tempos, the style drew a sharp line from fast deathcore and metalcore beatdown, prizing crushing slowness, ambience and despair above all.
Defining artists
Essential listening
Sources
- Rate Your Music — Downtempo Deathcore genre page
- Wikipedia — Bodysnatcher (band)
- Discogs — Black Tongue 'The Unconquerable Dark', Bodysnatcher 'This Heavy Void'
- TV Tropes / Metal Injection — downtempo deathcore scene coverage