The WORST & BEST BAND in Every Subgenre! 

Come hang out in my Discord! discord.gg/9GbTq4d8Pe

You call yourself the punk rock MBA? Well you're right, because you're certainly not the brutal technical death metal MBA

The eternal conflict between Technical Brutal Death Metal and Brutal Technical Death Metal (which are nothing alike of course) need to be resolved once and for all by trail by combat

You should’ve said Deafheaven is the best black metal band ever just to make the black metal stans cry.

Nicleback is the glue that binds all genres together … seven degrees of separation Chad Kroeger

Wait, when exactly were the worst bands mentioned?

Those Promise Ring girls definitely got an A at their evening community college video editing class.

Shoegaze sounds like a David Lynch movie soundtrack with heavy guitars

Dude, first of all, awesome video. Secondly if you made a part two of this, I’ll definitely share it with my friends. Third, I would totally buy a book about Metalcore from you.

I always thought the Used were the poster child of mall emo, they never got as big as FOB or mcr but I felt they had that veneer of classic emo while still being pretty mainstream

Can't wait to see whether Finn picks Keeper of the Seven Keys Part I or Part II for the Power Metal segment.

They’re only chasing safety is amazing full stop. So catchy and fun with just right right amount of aggression. Underoath just blows everyone else away.

3:03 Finn has been looking at that post every day for the last 7 years

Not only do I listen to Shoegaze just for the song, but I make multiple playlists of Shoegaze music just for the songs. Eventually it becomes overwhelming, because I have a hard time deciding if it belongs in the heavy gaze playlists, or the doom gaze playlists, or maybe it needs to go into the black gaze playlists. Boy Shoegaze is just SOO complex! 😉

Metalcore = Converge. Post-hardcore = At The Drive-In. Doom metal = Thou

Mayhem's Dead is one of the zombie backup dancers in the Candlemass video. The director went on to make videos for Madonna

You should do a Vol 2, then, for stuff like butt rock, grunge, nu metal, pop-punk, skate punk, hardcore, goth rock, power metal, and Christian rock.

As an old doom metal fan, I think Candlemass definitely always belongs at the top of that list (even if they aren't someone's favorite Doom band, it is impossible to deny their dominance of the genre). I will say I also somewhat agree with your assessment of Doom. I am not as critical of it as you (there are definitely a lot of Doom bands I like), but I find I usually gravitate primarily to those earlier Doom metal bands like Candlemass, Solitude Aeturnus and Cathedral (as well as some of the proto doom bands). But after that, the genre crystalizes into something that captures much of the mood these bands were shooting for, while also losing any of my the attention these earlier bands were able to command. Also the subgenres of Doom got quite silly in my opinion. Not saying there aren't later bands I like, I do. But there is a lot that I can only listen to about a minute of before needing more variation. For me, the three I mentioned are all noteworthy for a variety of reasons. Candlemass you have covered, but they just had a real ear for songwriting, brought these operatic vocals that didn't veer into power metal territory (at least not in my opinion) and they had a sense of humor too. Plus they actually covered a lot of topics. Graves and gloom was part of that, but there was more (and they honestly tackled graves and gloom way better than later bands IMO, as you can see in a song like Epistle No. 81. Solitude Aeturnus is my favorite Doom metal band and a lot of it is the powerful and clean vocals of Robert Lowe, as well as the overall aesthetic of their melodies and chord progressions. Plus they got more into Christian themes, without being like Petra or Stryper. And they knew how to throw in very interesting harmonies on power chords that gave the songs a nice color. Cathedral I like because of Forest Equilibrium. I had many of their later albums and EPs (I particularly liked the Soul Sacrifice EP), but it is their debut that won me over. It is so slow, but within that they are able to find enormous variation and sound. I remember learning one of their songs very early on guitar and while it doesn't sound complex, it is surprisingly so. This was maybe the slowest album I had heard. But they had the good sense to not commit to that and to change up their sound after (I think they understood it would start to sound the same if they did it across all their albums). And I think that is sometimes the problem with doom that comes after this classic period: it very much has a tendency to sound the same. It often has a lot of high level technical skill and sound engineering skill, but it can be hard for me to really pick out individual songs as the genre advanced.

I like Death, and Obituary more than Morbid Angel .. Morbid Angel was iconic death metal though. Surprised Death wasn't at least mentioned. weird

I'm gonna start a ska tribute to Alice in chains called SKAlice in Chains!

Dude you never heard of mosscore? Its been around for years, it started as an underground scene in Springfield and dover in the mid 10s mixing element of crunkwave, space-yacht, yacht-goth, post-seapunk, mellowgrind, gothadelic dark-psy, and dankstep with such great artists as the chimichangas, the purple vapours, gyroscopic tea mangers, the chinchillas, the cosmic splazzoids, unmarked engines, and the deaf taxi drivers

I love that Finn’s picks for emo and post-hardcore sound like pop punk.

What was that website at the beginning of the video? I need it for my musical education.

Prime era FOB cranked out no-skip albums like Finn makes tier lists 🫡

Great video. I hope there will be a second one. I agree with you on Metalcore. Killswitch has the highest batting average in the genre. I'm not into Death Metal. There are only two albums that I like: Mercenary by Bolt Thrower and Human by Death. The whole Emo thing passed me by somehow. Probably because my oldest son was born in 2005 and so I had other priorities. Is it possible that Doom Metal is the only subgenre of Metal which hasn't evolved since its invention?

There is something about Finn complaining about his mom then playing Underoath that hits in the Nostalgia 😆😭

There are so many different eras now of Post-Hardcore. They're Only Chasing Safety by Underoath is definitely up there as the best album, but I'd also throw Let It Enfold You by Senses Fail, Full Collapse by Thursday, Tell All Your Friends and Where You Want to Be by Taking Back Sunday, Discovering the Waterfront by Silverstein, Saosin by Saosin, Dear Diary, My Teen Angst Has a Body Count by From First to Last, The Used by The Used, and Go West Young Man, Let the Evil Go East by Greeley Estates. I'd probably go with Senses Fail as the best Post-Hardcore band. I know some people would throw some of these bands into Real Emo or Mall Emo or some other genre, but all of them have roots from hardcore or early post-hardcore.

It's crazy that the most popular comment under Reinventing Your Exit video is related to FlatOut 2, this game had so great soundtrack

Nothing wrong with Emperor Debut to be the best Black Metal release. If you think about the fact that these guys were only 18 at the time, it's actually pretty impressive.

Clearly doesn’t listen to shoegaze 😂😂

Loved the video Finn, but I think it needs a companion video where you describe the finer points of what each genre “are”, cause some of these I had no clue what they were😅

"Fugazi is not good" **Picks Underoath**

My man really said Fugazi isn't good. Jesus Christ.

Say's Sublime is the best ska punk band, but plays a song from them that's neither ska or punk.

Where i can get those list?

In high-school someone carved Morbid Angle into a desk. It wasn’t a math class…

Love you Finn! Your brilliant, hilarious, sharp, witty. Keep it goin!

Goth rock and darkwave has more punk rock, post punk. new wave roots, sound and influences. Gothic metal is moreso on the metal end.

I love Shoegaze, but I definitely agree, it's more about hitting a vibe, rather than good song writing

They’re Only Chasing Safety is one of my favorite albums to this day. Glad to hear the shout out 🙏

In Finn’s recent car video I had to google what giga Chad and beta cuck mean. That’s what being old is all about. I wanna see a deep dive on the band nerf herder. I bet Perry would come on for an interview

Dopethrone by Electric Wizard is doom’s ONE uberly fantastic album (I never heard Candlemass’s second album, but Dopethrone is my favorite album amd every other doom metal album isn’t even in the top 500).

Deicide Once Upon The Cross was my intro to extreme music in middle school and it still goes hard

okay, the Jimmy Eat World shout-out made my day. Their 1999 album Clarity is banger after banger from start to finish.

That “Doom” metal band should’ve been called Judas Monk with the outfits they were wearing

I was truly lucky enough to see Sublime at the Hardback in Gainesville Florida. A very small, close, intimate environment club that should have been a landmark in Gainesville but was torn down. Gainesville Florida is just not the same.

Are Kilswitch even Metalcore? I thought they were more like the sort of Melodic Metalcore that came later? When I think of Metalcore I think of Hatebreed, Earth Crisis, Biohazard, early Machine Head, Madball, Bloodlet and Vision of Disorder.

Great video

Ska-Punk, what about Less Than Jake?

"This is Fugazi, it's the guys from Minor Threat and Rites of Spring!" "Uggh, who would listen to this?" I would, Finn, gaw... I actually would love to watch you do a video shitting on Fugazi even though I like them

Surprisingly my gate way to heavy music was back in 2007 hearing Taking Back Sunday at American Eagle, and then seeing the guys from August Burns Red wearing Abercrombie and Finch

As a Swede. Real emo is Fireside and Shield. And yes that is hardcore scene mid and late 90ies..

About the Shoegaze pick I think Finn has never listened to Slowdive

To be fair, Pete Wentz was up on Mikey Way of MCR as well… 🤣

I've been seeing a lot of this "metal tier list" videos last week. RU-vid thinks I am reely into in, apparently. But most times i was disagreeng with them i didn't understand wtf with dudes's taste. But i've wathed few or yours, and its really clicked. Like you know some ancient stuff, and don't despise new music. When you had choosen "They’re Only Chasing Safety" as yor post-hardcore pick - i wascompletely sold. Like + sub. Good shit

IMO the best post-hardcore band was poison the well. Interestingly Thursday seemed to develop at the exact same time, both formed in 97, PtW in Fl & Thursday in NJ. To clarify I don't *like* Thursday but I find it incredibly interesting that both bands came out at the same time with VERY similar vibes only one went the heavy route (screamo even?) while the other leaned more into the direct emo route. As those two bands seems to be the pioneers of popularizing if not inventing the genre, it REALLY makes me wonder who their influences were, as it clearly had to be something similar. When you consider when those bands dropped, they were very ahead of the curve & changed rock music forever. I'd go as far as saying it was the beginning of the end for Nu-Metal, while we were still getting great newer Nu-Metal bands like Linkin Park or Disturbed, System of a Down, Slipknot, Chimera etc, only a few years later would the gate keepers push the heaviness out of the mainstream radio in favor of what I call "post nu-metal" bands like Breaking Benjamin & all that (watered down, safe-generic bands imo) which in turn violently shoved all of us into bands like Poison the Well & the likes. That was the moment people were forced to venture into underground music, thus starting the beginning of the end of mainstream rock. While we can also mention the hipster crab mentality, I believe it was THIS moment that actually popularized/normalized it. People were jaded & began to vehemently loathe anything remotely commercial. The mainstream machine absolutely created that monster. Wow that turned into a lot more than I expected tbh lol I guess I wanted to write it out as I don't really see people talking about it & I think it's a significant oversight in terms of rock music history...

Sigur Ros and Thomas Newman are some of my favorites writers because they write in a way that doesn't really worry too much about genre. There's something creatively freeing about making music just for the sake of doing it 🙌

The best ever death metal band were "Satan's Fingers," and "The Killers," and "The Hospital Bombers"

The best mall emo albums are by far: Taking Back Sunday- Tell All Your Friends Fall Out Boy - Take This To Your Grave Their subsequent commercial success after those albums definitely tainted my lenses as a fan, but I also think I’m correct that those later albums just weren’t as good. For the less well known bands, I’m still flabbergasted that Diffuser’s 2000 album injurylovesmelody isn’t more widely known.

8:10 we definitely need a new name for that genre that then means 90s American ska punk, because ska punk is really The Specials, The Beat, even The Clash at times

Alice in Chains is the Sublime of Grunge.. Jerry Cantrell is such an incredible song writer much like Bradley Nowell minus the OD'ing on junk.

Operation ivy and mighty mighty bosstones > sublime

"what would you pay to live just a single day as 2006 pete wentz's fingers?" Is such a fall out boy song title

I do like Killswitch, but there are definitely a handful of bands I would take over them. Trivium, converge, the dillinger escape plan, early avenged, and even some modern stuff like Spiritbox.

You asked what we would pay to be Pete Wentz’s fingers in 2006. Well, jokes on you because Pete is still paying for medications due to where his fingers were in 2006 😂

I loved hearing your thoughts on music genres. Hopefully in the next installment, we'll get to hear who you think is the best Soundcloud/EmoRap artist. My pick will always be Lil Lotus, mostly because he's the one who made me enjoy, discover, and appreciate the genre as a whole, and I have you to thank for that. The only reason I discovered Lil Lotus and If I Die First was because of your videos, so thank you.

I'm so glad you mentioned Morbid Angel. I swear I'm like the only person who knows them in my personal circle, haha. And I hear absolutely no one talk about them or mention them in metal genre vids. Morbid Angel is absolutely amazing 👏

I was really hoping to hear a ranking for La Dispute

They’re Only Chasing Safety is top tier. Definitive best post hardcore album. After UO made the album they were actually pissed that it didn’t come out as heavy as they’d like. Which is why they went very heavy and leaned into less pop influence on Define the Great Line.

At The Drive In is the best Post-Hardcore band....

How do you feel about Title Fight?

How long did it take you to put all these lists together?? Wow.

Always good to see Underoath get some love. Seems like they're always overlooked. And considering the huge impact they had on the scene in the mid 2000's and their solid catalogue, and not to mention how fucking good they are live, it seems a little strange.

Millenial men are lost and aimless. We NEED structure. And thats why these 'wikipedia entry' style videos do so good. It's tapping into our subconcious need for structure. Its the same reason people (millenial men) want fantano to do. 'Classic reviews DUDE REVIEW SOME CLASSICS REVIEW KING CRIMSON OOOOO' Also this kind of content is very easy to comsume its not like trying to listen to 'challenging music' ala swans throbbing Gristle etc you can just sit back and watch without thinking too much I'm no better YOU NEED STRUCTURE BOY

I can definitely say that we disagree on some of our music taste Finn but honestly say when it comes to music overall, you are one of the most knowledgable people I know.

What genre is Toad The Wer Sprocket????

Finn I agree with your take on Sublime. The fact yoh dislike doom/sludge snd like emo/pop punk rattles my cage though. Solid list all in all though. My picks Emo-Mallcore: NOFX...sry Fatmike kek. Deathmetal: Bolt Thrower Ska: Can we do Proto? If we can I am going with The English Beat otherwise Id back you on Sublime. Doom: Electric Wizard hands down. Black Metal: Emperor...with you there. They slay. Trv Kvlt Shoegaze: Duster...BUT hear me out. Title Fights last album was basically a post punk shoegaze album and it was good. Just sayin' Metalcore: Unearth...but yeah Killswitch...Kind of hard to argue Killswitch.

Most of the planet doesn't live in Seattle and Portland, so we're still aloud to say that Underoath is gay AF.

Reinventing your exit is such a banger i first heard it and them on a dvd compilation of video clips

Still wild how Underoath openly say they borrowed tons of stuff from jimmy eat world for TOCS. Chris has made several IG posts on his stories going through bits and pieces they got from them

Sublime is a terrible choice for ska-punk. My dad would probably say Sublime. The correct answer is: LTJ, RBF, Fishbone or MMB. Finn should really not comment on ska-punk, he obviously doesn't know or like that genre of music. I love Finn's channel, I've just always found his take on ska-punk kind of dismissive and frustrating.

I think Sublime is great, but I just dont consider them Ska Punk. The Police were more ska-punk than Sublime. IMO Sublime was just one of those oddball 90's bands that didnt fit anywhere, so they got stuck with the Ska label. I would call them the Nirvana of reggae, and if you listen to any modern reggae its got more Sublime DNA than Bob Marley.

As a guitar gear nerd I love shoegaze, and your comments about pedalboards is dead on.

There is also the argument for August Burns Red as best Metalcore band being as they did win a Grammy, and have gone platinum

Saints Row 2 fans need to make peace with Saints Row 3 fans so we can all unite against Saints Row 4

I'm sorry (not sorry) but both Mike and Mckenty are wrong. The best ska punk band ever was Choking Victim and in turn, Leftover Crack

Write the book!! I’ll buy it🤙🏼

I like Sublime because they kinda like a soft Rage with alternate and hip hop cred. Its like if your mom was a hippie and your dad was a gangsta.

Goatswitch engage are the best band in the history of music. Nevermind the best in metalcore

I'm here for my drug dealer best friend.

This reminded me of seeing The Promise Ring, Jimmy Eat World and Grade at club shanghai in Toronto.

Agreed on FOB, Love Promise ring and they had they re shot (so happy) but J.E.W. Wins. I still have all My 7 Inches, and it’s so amazing how far they have come. (Met three times) and got to play along them on the Kevin Says stage right when Bleed American Came out. ( have that first press too lol). I thought You would say Cap n Jazz, or Rites of Spring, maybe even My second pick Jawbreaker. They were so gateway and got lost in the grunge era. Green Day made it though! lol. I was just a guitarist in South Florida playing with Shai Hulud, Nonpoint, Hot water Music, Bouncing Souls, Dashboard Confessional and all his previous bands I.e Vacant Andy’s, New found Glory, poison the well, Destro, piebald,and the list goes on. Craziest show I’ve played was in West Palm Beach with this band on island records called Sum 41. They Destroyed us and made Us get entertainment Lawyers and so Much advise! out of all of us the only Guy that “made it” was our bass player Michael Orlando who is the singer of Vampires Everywhere. I’m running away from this video after You trashed Fugazi! What happened to You!?

Nickleback is my favorite death metal band

Sublime is a terrible example of ska punk. They are more reggae alt rock. SImilar to 311. Relaxing slower rock music. No Doubt. Choking Victims, Reel Big Fish, Mighty Mighty Bosstones, No Doubt, etc would be better examples. Horns, upbeat , ska with punk rock mix.

I tuned out of this video for a minute or so to send an email and all I hear as it comes back into focus is " But nobody ever asks about the black wizards"

ok, i'm catching a trend for the closing stinger...I'll be back for volume 2 for a solid prediction...

bro you’re such a cop

Sublime best of ska punk?? I dont hear any punk and also dont hear amy horns so maybe hornless guitar ska but ska punk, hell no. Op ivy has ska and punk sounds so id say Mike is more correct

WE'RE OUT OF UNCRUSTABLES While i enjoyed your commentary on distinguishing true emo from false emo, your emo (not scene..) kid RP confirmed my respect for you. I'm a new fan!!

I was literally just hoping there'd be a new video