Grindcore is probably the one metal subgenre that I’ve never gotten fully “into.” It isn’t that I don’t like it—I think Pig Destroyer’s Phantom Limb is pretty rad, and I’ve enjoyed bands that use elements of grindcore in their music (e.g. Trap Them, Cattle Decapitation, The Red Chord, etc.), but I’ve never found “that” band that turns on the floodgates enjoyment of the genre.
Until now, that is, with the introduction of Blurricane to the scene.
Well, to be honest, Blurricane is a lot more than genre. Essentially the two people making up the band have combined the most extreme elements from the most extreme subgenres of metal and hardcore—math core’s use of odd time signatures, grindcore’s ludicrous speed, noise music’s, well, noisiness—into a melange of insane beauty that you won’t soon forget. Basically, picture Guts of a Virgin-era Painkiller or maybe even the rougher moments of Naked City’s Torture Garden on an unlimited prescription of PCP with a flair for Psyopus-level chaos and you’ve got Blurricane.
No song the band has written to the date of this writing has been over a minute long. Combing the Blurricane’s discography so far amounts to maybe ten minutes of material. But packed into those seconds are tracks so densely composed that they almost sound random in their execution.
The duo seems to be aware of how strange their music can sound to the unfamiliar ear, and subsequently describe themselves as “jarring, unpredictable noisegrind.”
Blurricane really makes for some good listening, as their music isn’t very lengthy (obviously), but its catchy and always seems to prompt a second listen. I’ve listened to the entire band’s discography while writing this post, and have probably had their latest release Math Noise Is Dead repeating at least three times, if not more, and still I feel that there’s more to pry apart.
So, in finality: if you like mathcore or are interested in grindcore but want something with a little more variance to it, check out Blurricane.