This is a collection of my instagram writeups regarding Grindcore albums I find essential. It is my goal to work against the common stereotypes related to Grindcore and hopefully help metalheads get into it more. The project is paused for now, but will continue later this year. Some of these albums I consider worthwhile for their historical value, others just because of how much I personally enjoy them. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Luxusvernichtung
Genre: Grindcore / Grindpunk
Label: Unundeux
Year: 2009
One of my neverending quests with this review page is to bring Grindcore to the hesitant Metalhead masses. Grindcore can be utter crap, as there is a lack of the usual guard rails of what constitutes good taste. Luckily, Grind can also be brilliant and unique as there is a lack of the usual guard rails of what constitutes good taste. Japanische Kampfhörspiele are such an act who decided to do what most bands would just consider meaningless excess: 'Luxusvernichtung' is over 50 tracks in not even twenty minutes. Sure, other bands have done it (go on bandcamp and search for an artist named Pantsu Scum, who seemingly does it daily), but none have done it in such a cohesive and disciplined way. JaKa´s songwriting style has always been one of collage, as the songs are written around the drum parts.
The different parts are written seperately and then added to each other to form a cohesive whole. This also extends to the lyrics, who are based on poetry written by the drummer, Christof Kather. This will be lost on people who don´t speak german, obviously, but the lyrics are quite tongue in cheek and satirical in ways that most grind bands can´t reach. In the end, what makes 'Luxusvernichtung' a cohesive work in the end? It shows that the band knows how to make a musical collage and that grindcore is short and to the point to begin with. This album can be viewed as one cohesive work that posesses a great rhythm of start/stop, accelerating and slowing down. The rhythmic variety makes it possible to actually understand what the band is playing and differentiate songs between each other. Some songs posesses more of a rhythmic element, some more of a punk drive and arranging so many short songs can´t have been easy. 'Luxusvernichtung' could have been just a musical shitpost but it turned out to be a great album.
Rating: 8/10.
Terrorizer - World Downfall
Genre: Grindcore / Deathgrind
Label: Earache
Year: 1989
Last week, I chose a rather obscure (but fantastic) local band for this series - mainly because the mighty JaKa have been my personal introduction to grind. I wasn´t really aware of what Grind was at the time and didn´t realise that the Ruhr Area Grind was quite different from what grind originally was. And depending on where that was, it could have meant different things. Generally, the american and the british scenes are often viewed as the two originators and would define the narrative around the two axis of the style: the more punk and hxc oriented british style vs the more thrash and death metal oriented american style. Terrorizer are probably the band from the latter scene with a clearly defined style that many bands would try to ape: Slower, chuggier riffs mutate into tremolo variations of itself and fast sequences of power chords dominate the sound. Material is almost interchangeable in the way it is arranged, as each riff on 'World Downfall' could probably follow each other riff on it, but the frantic nature of it makes it fly by.
While a lot of the material is rather meat and potatoes and - by modern standards - rather predictable, it is the straightforward nature of the album that makes it work so well. A lot of the sections on 'World Downfall' are the quintessential version of how these sections could and should be done and in imitating them, one could only end up with lesser or at least watered down versions of these riffs. The influence of 'World Downfall' reaches further than that, of course. The visual design of the album cover is both iconic and ends up being a template for how a stereotypical grind album cover would look - the desaturated collage of vaguely politically charged imagery. Not to mention the production of the album being iconic, thanks to producer Scott Burns recognizable production style.
Rating: 8/10.
Repulsion - Horrified
Genre: Grindcore / Deathgrind
Label: Necrosis Records
Year: 1989
Repulsion are one of the two american Grindcore bands that always get mentioned as the fore-bearers of the genre, the other one being Terrorizer. But while I am rather willing to defend 'World Downfall', 'Horrified' is a bitmore of an acquired taste. Horrified has unfortunate production, with guitars that at some points clip rather harshly and generally just aren´t as tight as Terrorizer. Repulsion has since been replaced by bands who have a similar interpretation of Grindcore that just do it better. Repulsion is a little bit of an artefact, in the sense that a historical lense is somewhat required to get a lot of enjoyment out of it.
Then again, the historical context is what it is and Repulsion do deserve their spot in the Pantheon. After all, these guys decided that Death just wasn´t aggressive enough and they´d rather do something like this. Death might have been a different band had Carlson et. al. not decided to form Repulsion instead. And even removed from the historical context of it, some songs, as simplistic and punk-oriented they might be at times, are a good times. Particularly the almost D-beat infused 'Slaughter of the Innocent' - a riff that likely has been stolen time and time again, but that never gets old. When the band decides not to mindlessly trem the whole time and the guitars don´t clip too much, its good. And, I will say this, this is another one of these iconic album covers.
Rating: 6/10.
Painkiller - Guts of a Virgin Genre: Avantgarde Jazz / Grindcore Label: Earache Year: 1991
While many of the albums I did for this series so far should be an 'Easy Sell' to metalheads, Painkiller is a different story. Painkiller are a unique group that operated on the intersection between harsh avantgarde jazz and Grindcore. John Zorn, who really makes it hard to find a lot of his music by now, contacted Mick Harris, the then drummer of Napalm Death and, together with Bill Laswell, supply 24 minutes of extreme Free Jazz outbursts with extreme metal drumming, phonetically harsh but verbally nonsensical vocals and, in general, audible chaos. How much I personally enjoy 'Guts of a Virgin' at any given point seems to be heavily mood dependant and how sharp I am mentally at any given point. I don´t think the material is utterly random and it seems very calculated when and how what Noise happens. The listener is deliberately kept on his toes, expectations undercut. Texture and tempo changes happen both abrupt and in an unpredictable fashion. What makes Painkiller so important is how early it realised that even the most abject of genres, even anti-music as Grindcore is sometimes called, deserve a canon among the art music greats. The gutter-auteur works were art and trash converge, and John Zorn is certainly one of them. Rating: 7/10.
Asterisk* - Dogma I: Death of A Dromologist
Genre: Grindcore / False Grind
Label: Three one G (31G)
Year: 2000
As most Grindcore acts (certainly a lot of the legendary ones), Asterisk* were short-lived. And also as a lot of especially the cult acts, Asterisk* was founded out of boredom. It is not easy to work in a genre which could hardly be more removed from mainstream appeal and profitability, with the latter often coming much later than the actual period of activity from the band. Asterisk* were such a group; possibly the only grindcore band to come out Umeå in Sweden and intent to bring some speed and also the desire to bring something new to the table. Something was in the air for grind in the early 2000´s and Asterisk* seem to be one of the earliest purveyors of what we sometimes call "False Grind" - and with a sense of humor, too.
Asterisk* are fast and they´re aggressive and there is very little to be found in pretty harmonies or melodies in their sound. Their material is rather raw, as well - the buzz of the amp can be heard whenever the guitars are playing. The unpolished nature of the recording is a plus here, though, as the music sounds like you´re in the rehearsal space with the band or in some shitty punk venue in a basement. Asterisk* aren´t meatheaded though, and they´re again one of the earlier examples of the start-stop attitude even within songs. Going for a more trebly guitar tone and mostly ommitting death metal influences enables them to have an almost funky approach to rhythm, where chord stabs and a lot of rhythmic call and response between the instruments are overemphasized to heavily distorted trem picked power chords.
Rating: 7/10
Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless
Genre: Grindcore
Label: Hydra Head Records
Year: 2000
As with a lot of acts, it takes a while to all click into place. 'The Inalienable Dreamless' is that moment for Discordance Axis. The dissonant riffs, while admittedly interesting on 'Ulterior' and 'Jouhou', now serve fantastic songs and for the first time, I can actually tell them apart. The frantic nature of the music is supported by a band which is very much in the pocket and plays tightly as a unit. Because it is all so tight and especially because of Dave Witte´s incredible drumming, the lack of a bass player doesn´t even really effect the album as much as one would think.
There´s a great flow to the album and the fact that the album was packaged in a DVD case hints at the fact that this is, in a way, as cinematic as grindcore can get. While the first few songs all seem similar, they become more discernable as time goes on. When 'A Leaden Strife to Nowhere', the penultimate track comes in, it feels distant to the voivodian grind assault of the first few tracks with its sludgy, continuous slow down a worthy climax to the album. 'Drowned' appears like the credits of the movie, so to speak. For an album that is so consistently dissonant and fast, there is a lot of variety on here. 'The Inalienable Dreamless' is a deserved classic.
Rating: 8/10.
Gridlink - Longhena
Year: 2014
Label: Selfmadegod / handmaderecords
Genre: Grindcore
Jon Chang doesn´t like Powerviolence. Something about speed, being too groovy and being different from what he does. Yeah, Chang is a very opinionated man. Nonetheless, he has made some great music. Obviously he´s been involved in Discordance Axis and this band. Chang is a japanophile and a lot of his ouvre has a tacky, anime inspired visual aesthetic. This also seeps into his music, as Gridlink is unusually melodic for a grindcore band. I have seen it called "Emoviolence", a term I am sure Chang would hate. Yet, Gridlink is highly emotional. Gridlink play dissonant chord stabs at high speed, some interludes will often be subtle, and quiet and overall, Gridlink´s music seems to have a purpose.
Grindcore can often be draining and work only in short bursts. Some albums don´t even entertain throughout their puny runtimes. Chang seems to know that a record can not only be nonstop blasting and that engaging material needs to be written. While 'Longhena' never comes to a groovy crawl of a band like Weekend Nachos, Chang differentiates his different sections and one way he does this is definetely speed. Most of the record has blastbeats, but select moments will accentuate chords. Chang has a notable harmonic concept often absent from grind. Again, purpose can be found - Gridlinks music communicates more emotion than just anger. As such, it might not be the masterpiece it is often called (I personally feel Wormrots 'Voices' does a similar thing better, although they are certainly somewhat inspired by Gridlink), yet it is highly influential and a record that I can recommend to every metalhead that can withstand blastbeats and high speed aggression for longer amounts of time.
Final Score: 8/10.
Atka - Untitled Album 1
Genre: Grindcore / Mathcore
Label: Ecocentric Records
Year: 2018
With genres, the definitions can be fluid. Atka, and many similar bands, are often grouped together under the moniker 'False Grind'. Maybe this is because the genre influence from others is too big to be considered purely grindcore, and thats a fair assessment. In Atka´s case, this is certainly true. The sass-y vocal delivery, constant time signature shifts and partially ironic delivery could probably more easily be grouped into the Mathcore category and only the perceived heavyness of the sound would make this album grindcore at all - at least to my ears. At the end of the day, if an album is a genre or not is rather irrelevant compared to the question if the album is good. And 'Untitled Album 1' most certainly is.
With albums that involve a lot of time signature fuckery, the success often depends on the awareness of conventions and listener expectation. Atka write with purpose and will make the listener run into walls for comedic effect and for physical impact. No matter how complex Atka get, you can somehow feel a groove to it - or be surpised, atn the same time. Similar approaches can be found in the vocal delivery or the harmonic selection: Often going into metalcore territory vocally, there is an ironic sense of defiantly abusing genre tropes in relation to vocals. After all, there really aren´t many low growls on the album, if at all. And how Atka can hit you with jarring tonal shifts so often without losing their sense of flow is impressive. Is this even grindcore? At the end of the day, I don´t really care.
Rating: 8/10.
Wormrot - Voices
Genre: Grindcore
Label: Earache Records
Year: 2016
Earache Records, the label that originally spearheaded grindcore and extreme music, had kind of lost its identity in the 2000s, signing a cavalcade of rock bands to the degree that Wormrot, when they were siging to Earache, had been the first new Grind band to be signed to Earache for at least a decade. Wormrot, obviously, were an underground sensation and a smart band to sign: The inherent Novelty factor of them being from a country not usually known for extreme music (although, if you dive into bandcamp as I do, you know that the scene is actually quite vivid) combined with the pure Grind assault that Wormrot were delivering was a combination for a surefire hit. But more importantly: Wormrot absolutely slapped and were the best Grind band to have formed in a very long time. Who would believe that a countries biggest cultural import could be a Grindcore band? 'Voices', the second album Wormrot did for Earache, ended up being so much more than just a Grindcore album.
The album incorporated and synthesized elements of Post hardcore, Screamo, Black Metal and a willingness to go for Breakdowns in just the right moments. Sure, these are all ideas that other bands had toyed with before - Mörser or Discordance Axis - but none had them all in such a tight package with such a coherent vision that seemed to encompass most of what Grindcore could be. Not only doesm 'Voices' absolutely kick ass from front to back, not only does it feel like getting your face sanded off at hyperspeed, there is even an emotional connection in songs like 'God´s in his Heaven'. 'Voices' always seemed honest in everything it did - curious, raging and aggressive, both sad and destructive and all in a tight package. 'Voices' at the time was a thesis statement of what grind could be, and I am only giving it not a 9/10 in the hopes that the new album can outdo it.
Rating: (high) 8/10.
Comments