Short bursts of off-kilter aggression have yet to go out of style for me. As much as I’ve gravitated toward longer and more complex music, I still periodically revisit my high school affinity for the ’00s mathgrind and noisecore scene. I was addicted to bands like An Albatross, iwrestledabearonce, and…
Coming in scorching hot from sun-drenched, leather-skinned Pheonix today is Woundvac and their brand new EP, The Road Ahead. The grinding hardcore outfit have been mighty busy in the last few years, dropping demos, splits, EPs, and last year’s criminally overlooked LP Terrorizing The Swarm, and today we’ve got the…
There have been a few surprise releases over the last fortnight, including a few featured below. I’m not entitled enough to complain about them throwing off my playlist or writing schedule, but their appearance from out of nowhere has shuffled the Grind My Gears pack a little bit; fewer words…
This one’s a little bit rushed, as I forgot I had a Grind My Gears to write today, so bear with me while I rush through three new releases for you. All humanely sourced through Bandcamp’s grindcore tag, the three acts blasting, beating, and bullying their way from my fingertips…
2017’s Hatred came and went with little to no fanfare, and that itself is a crime against music. We didn’t cover it here, so more fool us. Not this time though. Undercurrent, the new record from Japanese hardcore miscreants Friendship, demands the attention that Hatred might have gathered, were it…
As a music critic, I’ve always strived to go beyond curation by attempting to contextualize the artists and albums I review. Of course, finding and recommending noteworthy new music is still an important part of the job, especially in today’s saturated music market. But the opportunity for deeper analysis has…
This post has been a long time coming. We’ve been dropping hints here and there for years now about the growing underground scene in Israel, a scene which I, as a native of Tel Aviv, am well poised to explore. Interestingly enough, this has become less and less obvious as…
January didn’t have an edition of Grind My Gears because yours truly was up to his nuts in boring, boring life bullshit. There’s little point in fixating on it – that wouldn’t be very grindcore, after all – so we’re slamming back into reality with a journey through the halls…
A Million Dead Birds Laughing are back[!], although not as you knew them. The Melbourne oddballs’ long-awaited fourth record, To the Ether, marks their first full-length release since original vocalist Adam Stewart returned to their line-up in 2016. Yet, those seeking a fix of the band’s usual quirky grindcore may…
Not everyone wants blast beats, sludgy guitars and completely detuned bass strings that vibrate more intensely than their nan’s underwear drawer. Mastiff, however, definitely want blasts, sludge, and slack, ragged bass strings; they also want to pound your face into the dirt with unfiltered malice. Mighty kind of them. The…
