There’s no reason to be sorry for creating grindcore in any of its forms. Unless you’re a far-right grind trio recording EP’s between meth runs/gammon steaming/

6 years ago

There’s no reason to be sorry for creating grindcore in any of its forms. Unless you’re a far-right grind trio recording EP’s between meth runs/gammon steaming/boot polish conventions, then you can shut that shit down and start apologising right away. I digress, already. The introduction unravelled pretty much from the off there so let’s just rip the plaster right off that seepy gash on your arm – the one you got when you fell in the smoking area of the local discotheque, wine drunk with the Britain’s Got Talent Brigade from your work –  and hop to it. Unapologetic, unrelenting, unequivocally better than anything by that one right-leaner on your friend list who keeps saying all grind is false, for some bizarre fucking reason – it’s the Great Grindy Grind Off.

Human Cull

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Bristol, your Human Cull grindchildren are growing into terrifying, talented mosh inciters. I featured the first few tracks that were streaming from new release Revenant last time out, but the sheer power and poke-your-kid-in-the-eyes-so-it-listens-harder nature of this UK deathgrinding devastator awards

 

them the headline today. Their Northern countrymen Corrupt Moral Altar slid a stealth favourite into my top ten last year and going by the Bandcamp burns in my ears since its release, Revenant will be doing the same.

This is punchdrunk punk sped up and crusted with death metal, via Entombed, Wormrot and Carcass. “Baleful Foundation” dances through an insane punk progression and threatens to turn sickly sweet for the briefest of moments, ditching the cotton candy in favour of steel wooled grinding death. Human Cull use the scratchy, shredding stuff throughout Revenant, “Flesh” and “The Hecatomb Enterprise” stuffing so much of the scraping candy down your hole that it’ll pop out of your ass like the tail of a demonic, desecrated Playboy Bunny.

The record is crushing with truly hefty bass and kick drums ready to make an actual impact, giving the whole production layers of impact and innocence crushing fervour. I’m super excited about the bass noodling, old school death moments that pepper the record like dandruff meteors on a Tory shoulder – unlike the white specked prick/prickette, these interludes actually have something to say. So listen up. Get onboard with Human Cull, start the process but don’t hurt anyone’s feelings along the way.

Laughing and Lying

I’m loving Laughing and Lying. I’m laying here loving Laughing and Lying. I’m not lying about loving Laughing and Lying. I’m over this setup.

A blissful Bandcamp find, Laughing and Lying are even more fun than the word-play potential in their name. In stark contrasts to Human Cull, the grind product sounds and hits like a falling wall, instead of the textured destruction offered up by the Brits. In true contrasting comparison, the US grind hits more brazenly with even shorter tracks and exceedingly good sludgy riffs. It would be a slur to say that Laughing and Lying play meat’n’potatoes grind as, even though they may be obvious, the black and death metal heroes of the band shine through the obsidian fuzz on record. Blackened hardgrind? Never heard of it, mate.

A longtime fan of bitter, narcissistic literature, I’m also a huge fan of the storytelling nature of the lyrics. They are wild stories. I’ll leave it up to you to check them if you care. Not everyone needs narration under the shrieking wails of grind frontmen, but it’s worth a look in this instance. Slam poetry without the slam, thankfully. I did, however, consider the song “No Bagels” to be potentially anti-Semitic in nature before realising that I might be more anti-Semitic in my presumption. Then I got confused. There’s no religion in a foxhole, or something, I dunno. It’s a song about there being no bagels and that’s as much as anyone should take from it.

Artorias

I don’t know how anyone could construe “caveman” as a negative descriptor when referring to ‘core genres – cavemen got shit done. The grinding hardcore laid out by Iowa’s Artorias gets shit done too. “Knuckle-dragging” is another good’un, typically reserved for jabs at someone’s mental dexterity but evocative of the primal, feral synapses that fire when crushing music really takes hold. Recently released, Rout gets low, dirty and despicable without ever resorting to name-calling or bullying; outside of the poor, roughly treated ride cymbal.

Fits and starts of harsh blasts and icy beatdowns make mincemeat of structure in lieu of disc snapping chops and changes. Beatdown as a genre doesn’t offer too much as an entity of its own. I feel like Artorias get that too, even though they’re probably still fans in some manner. The aforementioned caveman chugging is tactical without being detrimental to the momentum and movement the grindcore creates. All of the energy erupts in bursts, stuttered shellshock even. Plus it’s got buckets of feedback and you know I love that. You fucking do.

These young guns are heading to you on tour, you lucky United States grinders you. Do me a favour and check them out. Find them somewhere on social media, pay something for the music, mind your knuckles on the way out. The floor’s a bit broken glassy. Wouldn’t want you to get a scratch after already underestimating the destructive force of four bars of beatdown.

Oh, and these.

Bled To Submission – New track. New EP soon. Mixed by Lewis Glass (Dark Habits RIG)

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Stimulant/Water Torture – Honestly this split probably deserved a whole feature unto itself.

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Slund – If Ministry were a grind band. And not totally shit. More nuts, sludgy grind from the Slovenians.

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Minaret – Literally just found this while formatting the article and it’s sick so yeah.

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Matt MacLennan

Published 6 years ago