.Nelson.

You sir are correct... Pete Cortese (guitar) is one of the earlier members of KSE. Mike D (bass) is as well.... Overcast never ceases to rock my socks. Easily one of the founding bands of the 'metal-core' genre. "Slaughter of the Soul" gets wanked so much, because that's the metal-heads "Frampton Comes Alive!" haha... I've been puttin' on the pit cap and listening to a lot of Bane, and Shai Hulud lately. Have you heard the new Shai Hulud?

Depending on how you lean in this genre, I could probably talk about this stuff all day, particularly the late 90s stuff that lead to the current crop of bands. My initial recomendations are: Defunct Bands: Prayer for Cleansing: http://www.myspace.com/prayerforcleansing Moshy metal/hardcore from North Carolina. Two guys from this band (paul and tommy) went on to be in BTBaM. Wings of Scarlet http://www.myspace.com/wingsofscarlet Sick/Brutal/Heavy metalcore from Wisconsin, that has some awesome soaring guitar parts. I assume they didn't get more popular because they were from the middle of nowhere. Creation is Crucifixion: http://www.myspace.com/creationiscrucifixionfans Tech metal/hc from pgh that's similiar to the first DEP record. The drummer is in the somewhat popular (in some circles) grindcore band Cattle Decapitation. Overcast: http://www.myspace.com/overcastrocks Boston metal/hc that's pretty brutal. The singer is the current singer for Shadows Fall, and two other guys (maybe guitarists? I don't know) started Kill Switch Engage. This is way more crushing than those bands, and has way less wanky guitar parts. All of these bands are broken up, and aren't seeing any sort of royalties from cd sales, and never had any ideas of making money. I can "get" you the albums through internet magic if you'd like. Current Bands: Cursed: http://www.myspace.com/cursedhardcore My favorite band right now (they just broke up, but whatever). Fast and dirty hardcore/punk/metal with brilliant bitter lyrics. Heaven Shall Burn: http://www.myspace.com/officialheavenshallburn Metal from Germany. I think their older albums are better, and may be more in line with what you want. The older stuff has less solos and more mosh parts than the stuff on the myspace page. You guys who were talking about Unearth would definately dig this. Trap Them: http://www.myspace.com/trapthem This might be more hardcore/punk influenced than what you're looking for, but it's definately fast/loud. Hero Destroyed: http://www.myspace.com/herodestroyed Heavy hardcore/metal with technical guitar parts. Just releaed a cd on Relapse Records. Conelrad: http://www.myspace.com/conelrad Weirdo metal from Pittsburgh. Techy guitars, crazy druming that's like 90% fills. At the Gates: http://www.myspace.com/atthegatesband I think a lot of the up and coming metal bands that are on the radio bite off of their "slaughter of the soul" album really bad. This band more or less set the standard for metal bands in Sweden. I tried to pick out bands that fit in with the ones that you listed. I can give other recomendations that are more metal, less metal, more punk, more noisey, etc. Or maybe this all blows and sounds like music made by idiots who can't keep time. You likely wont' be able to find most of this stuff at best buy, but should be able to order in on the interweb with a little searching. I can direct you to proper places if need be. I don't read this thread that much, so if you have any questions or want to hear more from these bands or similiar bands, PM me and I can help out. Cursed and Trap Them are so good and recommend them. Also you guys should check out Tragedy, His Hero is Gone, and From Ashes Rise.