Grindcore

Grindcore exists to both set and surpass boundaries for musical extremity. Extreme metal has existed prior to grindcore's grand appearance, sure. Death metal, black metal, and forms of thrash metal and doom metal have all firmly cemented themselves as extreme forms of music. What grindcore brought to the table to set itself apart from its genre contemporaries was a sheer sense of self-destruction; the idea that songs should collapse inward on themselves in short, violent bursts. But what exactly is grindcore? Where did it come from? And, perhaps most importantly, where is it going? Let's discuss.

Grindcore was born in the mid-1980s from the British crust punk scene, which already was bridging the gap between more extreme forms of punk and metal. Due to its origins as a hardcore punk offshoot, grindcore found itself centering around what has now been dubbed the "microsong." On most classic grindcore records, you'd be hard-pressed to find a track that surpasses the two-minute mark in length. Some, if not most, tracks don't even make it to a full minute. The ethos of grindcore revolves around powerful bursts of fiery misanthropist rage, rather than sprawling epics. Early grindcore bands like Carcass, Genocide, Napalm Death, Sore Throat, and Repulsion made very good use of this style of song. Slapping together the brevity and ferocity of hardcore with the raw, metallic edge of thrash metal and thrashcore, grindcore slammed into the underground metal and punk scenes with vigor.

Recommended '80s grindcore listening:
1. Napalm Death - Scum (1987)
2. Unseen Terror - Human Error (1987)
3. Sore Throat - Unhindered by Talent (1988)
4. Repulsion - Horrified (1989)
5. Macabre - Gloom (1989)

One of the most influential bands in the first wave grindcore scene was undeniably Carcass. So massive was their influence, that they inadvertently started a subgenre wave called goregrind as soon as they hit the ground. Goregrind is a very particular style of grindcore that makes extensive usage of medical terminologies and themes. Obviously, being an offshoot of grindcore, goregrind isn't exactly a musical rendition of a medical textbook... on the contrary. Themes of being torn apart by zombies, surgeons gone mad, or disease-ridden vermin are much more prevalent than any sort of lecture material, though the vernacular of the field is very much present. Carcass is the obvious trailblazer (and highlight) of the subgenre, but other bands of note such as Impetigo, General Surgery, and Exhumed have popped up along the way. It also spawned a sub-subgenre known as gorenoise or vomitnoise, which may tell you just by its name how insanely niche it is. It simply combines goregrind with noise music, as exemplified by bands such as Last Days of Humanity and Phyllomedusa. Some will claim that a lyrical focus on sexual content has stemmed into a subgenre known lovingly as pornogrind, though I consider most of that to just already fall under goregrind or grindcore enough. Plus bolding that word and acknowledging it as a genre just feels kinda wrong.

WARNING: When I say "recommended," I only mean for those who are legitimately interested in this music. Some of these albums and/or album artworks showcase things that may be unsettling to some. Listen/view at your own risk.

Recommended goregrind listening:
1. Carcass - Reek of Putrefaction (1988)
2. Impetigo - Horror of the Zombies (1992)
3. Dead Infection - A Chapter of Accidents (1995)
4. Exhumed - Gore Metal (1998)
5. General Surgery - Left Hand Pathology (2006)

Another stylistic change made to grindcore in the late '80s/early '90s was the implementation of death metal influence. This hybrid genre came to be affectionately known as deathgrind. I wrote a bit about this fusion in my death metal entry a while back, but it's equally (if not more) important in the context of a history of grindcore. Pioneered by the ever-amazing Terrorizer and their 1989 record World Downfall, deathgrind combines the intensity of grindcore with the technicality of death metal, resulting in songs with more lyrical and musical dynamics, longer runtimes, and more twists in style. As the 1990s and 2000s pressed on, more bands would join the genre's fold such as Brutal Truth, Dying Fetus, and Misery Index, as well as general grindcore bands like Napalm Death in their mid- to later-career. The style prevails today, with fantastic new bands and releases coming from modern artists like Cattle Decapitation and Full of Hell.

Recommended deathgrind listening:
1. Terrorizer - World Downfall (1989)
2. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses (1992)
3. Napalm Death - Enemy of the Music Business (2000)
4. Misery Index - Heirs to Theivery (2010)
5. Cattle Decapitation - Monolith of Inhumanity (2012)

In the 1990s, grindcore was focusing on its subgenres. A handful of bands from the initial wave had either dissipated or moved onto different styles of music, such as Carcass leading the charge on the then-new melodic death metal scene. Some deathgrind bands like Brutal Truth and Assück maintained a solid backing in pure grindcore though, releasing sort of half-hybrid grind/deathgrind albums. Some bands like Naked City and PainKiller added an avant-garde, jazz-influenced sound into the grindcore fray. Other bands like Nasum, Discordance Axis, Unruh, and Excruciating Terror kept the pure grindcore flame lit. Unruh in particular began to fuse grindcore with the first wave of metalcore, another fusion genre between metal and hardcore punk.

Recommended '90s grindcore listening:
1. Naked City - Grand Guignol (1992)
2. Assück - Misery Index (1997)
3. Discordance Axis - Jouhou (1997)
4. Nasum - Inhale/Exhale (1998)
5. Unruh - Setting Fire to Sinking Ships (1999)

The 1990s brought yet another subgenre of grindcore onto the scene as well, though it didn't really take off beyond splits and demo tapes until the 2000s. Cybergrind is defined by its tendencies to include the dimensions electronic music into the grindcore sound. Computer-generated noises, drum machines, post-industrial music elements, and MIDI-based songs all contributed to this mass of oppressive sound. Grindcore was already a music for a certain type of person, but adding digitized elements to the genre only isolated it more, creating a near-impenetrable wall of underground experimentation. Agoraphobic Nosebleed is one of the most famous pioneers, but bands like Genghis Tron, Libido Airbag, and O.L.D. were significant contributors.

Recommended cybergrind listening:
1. Phantomsmasher - Phantomsmasher (2002)
2. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Altered States of America (2003)
3. Curse of the Golden Vampire - Mass Destruction (2003)
4. Genghis Tron - Dead Mountain Mouth (2006)
5. Whourkr - Concrete (2008)

The 2000s saw a massive influx of interesting and new grindcore bands, the most prevalent of which was Pig Destroyer, but also including Insect Warfare, Rotten Sound, Magrudergrind (who paired the grindcore sound with powerviolence), Wormrot, Anaal Nathrakh (adding industrial metal elements to the mix), Gridlink, and the mathcore-tinged Antigama. Existing bands flourished as well, with Discordance Axis, Nasum, Napalm Death, and many others hitting new peaks. As demonstrated by the slew of new genres included in that bands list, grindcore thrives off of experimentation. Being such a freeform and carefree genre requires that it's ever-shifting, and the 2000s revived the style by doing just that.

Recommended '00s grindcore listening:
1. Discordance Axis - The Inalienable Dreamless (2000)
2. Pig Destroyer - Prowler in the Yard (2001)
3. Nasum - Helvete (2003)
4. Rotten Sound - Exit (2005)
5. Insect Warfare - World Extermination (2007)

With the 2010s came a sort of return to form for pure grindcore. Existing bands like Wormrot and Gridlink were precursors to this pure grindcore revival, with new bands popping up like Death Toll 80k, Cloud Rat, Internal Rot, Atka, No One Knows What the Dead Think, P.L.F., Beaten to Death, Bandit, and Flouride all gushing grindy goodness. Also taking flight was the grindcore/powerviolence crossover style, with the decade's biggest band Nails sporting the crossover, as well as Dead in the Dirt, the HIRS Collective, and Full of Hell.

Recommended '10s grindcore listening:
1. Nails - Unsilent Death (2010)
2. Death Toll 80k - Harsh Realities (2011)
3. Gridlink - Longhena (2014)
4. Wormrot - Voices (2016)
5. Cloud Rat - Pollinator (2019)

As a genre sporting more fire than most others I can name, grindcore is an exhaustive force. Violent spurts of anarchistic, misanthropic, politically- and/or medically-fueled rage is not for everybody. The artists know this, and as a result have even more fun with the concept. Grindcore exists to establish itself as beyond heavy music, and to continually push itself past its own barriers; always evolving and always intensifying. That's what keeps grindcore around for so long. That's what fuels its constant experimentation. And that's what keeps the listeners listening.