Mathcore is a rhythmically-complex subgenre of Metalcore that originated in the mid to late 1990s. Metalcore artists such as Deadguy, Candiria and Coalesce were incorporating unconventional time signatures, erratic metric shifts and syncopated and dissonant riffs to the original Metalcore sound. The Mathcore movement gained underground popularity in the late 1990s to early 2000s with acclaimed and influential releases from The Dillinger Escape Plan, Botch and Converge that became staples of the technical yet aggressive sound.

Although early Mathcore groups did contain elements of Hardcore Punk and Noisecore, later Mathcore groups began to experiment and further combine their sound with different genres including Grindcore, Post-Hardcore and Electronic music.

The name originated from combining the name of the also rhythmically-complex Math Rock with Metalcore, but Mathcore has much more in common with Metalcore than Math Rock; although they share the trait of rhythmic complexity, Mathcore is much more aggressive and heavy in sound, more often than not with shouted vocals.