During the 2010s, British and Australian melodic hardcore bands including Casey and Holding Absence pushed the genre closer to post-rock.

[1] According to Brooklyn Vegan writer Andrew Sacher, "melodic hardcore is not an easy thing to define", due to it encompassing a variety of disparate sounds including the early pop-punk of Descendents, emo of Dag Nasty, skate punk of NOFX, and heavy, nihilistic but tuneful hardcore punk bands like Modern Life Is War and the Hope Conspiracy.

[17] From within this movement, melodic hardcore bands including Bane, In My Eyes and Reach the Sky built upon the foundation that Turning Point and Inside Out has laid out.

In the San Francisco Bay Area hardcore scene, bands including AFI, Pitch Black, the Nerve Agents and Scissorhands created a separate, melodic outgrowth of youth crew, which merged with horror punk and gothic rock.

This was prominent with Chicago band Rise Against, who formed in 1999, and achieved significant mainstream radio play and MTV coverage, with the release of their major label debut Siren Song of the Counter Culture (2004).

[2] American Nightmare's influence was apparent promptly leading to a wave bands including Ceremony, Ruiner, Modern Life Is War, the Hope Conspiracy and Killing the Dream.

[21][22] Other prominent groups playing these styles included the Carrier, Ruiner, This Is Hell and Comeback Kid, many of which are housed by key hardcore labels Bridge 9 Records and Deathwish Inc.[7] In western Australia, this sound become one of its most commercially successful exports, with Break Even and Mile Away.

Typified by emotional lyrics, concept albums and the revival of elements of 1990s emo, screamo and post-hardcore, the movement was originally fronted by Touché Amoré, Defeater, La Dispute, Pianos Become the Teeth and Make Do and Mend.

As the movement continued into the 2010s, it also came to be embraced by an even more-diverse groups of acts including Tigers Jaw, Title Fight, Balance And Composure and State Faults.

However, melodic hardcore continued to gain traction in the United Kingdom, where Dead Swans, While She Sleeps and More Than Life were forefront acts, as well as in the American metalcore scene.

[1] At this time, a wave of groups cross-pollinating the influence of melodic hardcore, like Killing the Dream, and metalcore bands like Shai Hulud and Misery Signals began to gain traction.

The most prominent act in dreamcore melodic hardcore was Casey from South Wales,[1] with Australian bands Vacant Home and Ambleside too gaining international success.

[30][31] In the later years of this scene, bands began decreasing the influence they took from hardcore, when Crooks UK, Holding Absence and Endless Height were instead leaning further into post-rock and shoegaze.

[1] By the time of Casey's 2023 reunion shows, they had entered a level of cult status which Noizze writer Ethan Young stated made them "one of the most notable melodic hardcore groups of the decade".

Within this movement, was a wave of bands inspired by the Bridge 9 melodic hardcore sound, including True Love, Time and Pressure, If It Rains, Fading Signal, Chemical Fix and Fixation.

[2] Notably, One Step Closer emerged from this wave, originally playing standard youth crew before transitioning into melodic hardcore on their 2017 Promo release.