Journey through grindcore - Part 1

Due to mediafire massacre all the link in part 1 and 2 are dead but all the links in the conclusion post (right after these two posts) are alive and well (reuploaded: April 20th 2012).

I've been planning to do this for a while now. Basically it's an attempt to avoid 20 or so grindcore posts in a row. I decided to just make a two part post where I talk shit and post some of my favorite grindcore releases along with its similar counterparts (murder me for saying this if you wish) like powerviolence and hardcore punk.

For those of you who might not know about what I'm talking about here's a quick course: grindcore is something like (death) metal but a lot faster with more screaming as opposed to growling (but not excluding it) and often followed by blast beats (jackhammer time!) and rather simpler guitar riffs more leaning towards punk. I can't explain any simpler than that.

Please take note that this is only my personal opinion and I don't really bother to distance hardcore, powerviolence and grindcore from one another. I consider them all equal (okay, maybe less intense hardcore a bit less from others) so don't get pissed off because I mistagged your favorite band.

I personally was avoiding this ~core genre (as I called it) because I was a metalhead purist and thought there's not much talent or point in genres such as grindcore. This is obviously wrong and childish to say but then again I was a child back then so fuck you. :D As I grew older (but not that much older hah) I kept looking for bands that went faster and faster. Black metal quickly became something that I considered to be the fastest and the extremest type of metal that I could find (all those tremolo riffs) so after that I kinda went into a complete opposite which I later on learned that it's called drone. At that point I felt that I discovered all the levels of possible speed and ferocity in music so I decided that it would be somewhat a good time to explore something out of the realm of metal and find something in between those two extremities. Lucky for me I had a (very good) friend (hi Zmaj!) who was far more fascinated with grindcore and hardcore than I was at the time. So I started attending gigs with him. At first I wasn't very impressed and didn't think much of it. On one particular gig I decided to buy something from some random band to have some kind of a starting point.

This release was Wolfbrigade In Darkness You Feel No Regrets on cassette tape from 2003.

Download it!

It's more of a crust punk thing but I consider it as a starting point for my journey of ~core things. Actually I bought it because I thought it will be something Endstille judging it by its covers. Nevertheless it did pique my interest to dig deeper so my initial plan worked. I still had no idea where to look and what to look for so I turned on the internet and decided to check stuff out. This was in a time when I had limited bandwidth so I didn't have much room to maneuver with downloads (perhaps 5 or 6 downloads a month or movie a month). I (sadly) stumbled upon goregrind/porngrind bastard children of grindcore.

Back then I enjoyed it quite a lot but this didn't really stick for me after a while. Everywhere I looked I found really awful bands that didn't appeal to me at all. From that period only two bands went along with me. One was Ballgag which I posted a long time ago and the other one was Splatter Whore with their album Kaviar Die-Hards. Cock And Ball Torture was here as well but all their songs just blend in with one another and it's the same deal all the time.

Splatter yourself with downloading.

This was the pinnacle of my adventure in goregrind. I practically listened to this album every day and it was so good at the time that the only reason I searched for more bands is to find bands that sounded like this album. I still find the album largely enjoyable. It has everything I need from goregrind. Gurgling vocals, awesome catchy riffs and totally idiotic track names and lyrics (if there are any). The title track is very cute. :3

But my hunger for speed and ferocity was not satisfied!

Lucky for me (again) my friend told me: "This goregrind crap you are listening is shit, don't listen to that, it's not real grindcore. Start listening to some real grind." Or something like that, I only partially remember that sentence. So I did; I was blown away. I can't remember exactly which band was my first but I think it was 62 trax of thrash by Magrudergrind.

YES! FINALLY SOMETHING FAST ENOUGH! WHOOOOSH

That's pretty much how I reacted. This album does something to me like nothing else. It makes me go jump around the room like an idiot and hitting my head into shelves and pictures (happened a few times). It's fast, it's noisy and it has one of the best vocalists around. Perfection which lasts through 62 tracks!

I can safely say that this album and band cemented my interest in the ~core scene. From there on it was pure pleasure and a pleasure that I could actually experience very near to my place of living. I found out that there are many bands in my beloved (actually not that beloved, but still) Balkans. I shared few releases like that AK47 split with Senata Fox which is really something but Panaceja is probably my most loved band from the entire scene. I don't know why but I just love it so much and I have no idea why I didn't post their releases sooner. They didn't last very long but I appreciate everything they did for me and for the scene. There's nothing but love that I can give to this band. I'll share you one out of two albums from them. The other one is similar to this one so there's not much of duality in choice.

Panaceja - Kad aveti proslosti razaraju mozak,strah i bijes postaju opsesija


I really don't want to translate the title but lets just say it's not the happiest title around. It's not that fast like, say, magrudergrind but it still has its own unique ferocity and intense riffs. Sadly since you don't understand my gibberish language you can't enjoy this album to the fullest but you can try hah.

Later on I was filled in with new bands and discoveries of old bands by my friend Zmaj on a regular basis.

I remember Swarrrm making a huge impression on us. Swarrrm is a Japanese grindcore that had, for a while, a complete nutjob of a vocalist. I don't refer to his behavior (although he was supposedly in a mental institution) but to his style of singing. It's, just, something, that, must, be, heard. It's total chaos. I don't think anyone can top his style. The album Thee Imitation Messiahs is where he shines the most. I strongly advise you check this out, because you won't be disappointed!

Go apeshit!

Musically as well this albums rips to shreds. Songs are fairly long for grindcore which surprisingly isn't much of a bother. Well at least not for me. It can get too much if you aren't in the mood for loving love thrash.

Another band that blew me and many others away was Insect Warfare. Pretty much everyone now knows about them and they should because they shook up the scene quite a bit. You can get their World Extermination anywhere so I won't bother uploading it my self.


I will share though their a bit less known release called Endless Execution Thru Violent Restitution. It's still the same Insect Warfare but with less production value so it sounds much more raw and fierce which is always good! And they cover Razor on this album and also Celtic Frost which is fucking awesome haha.

Smash ears from here!

Something similar that came along the way with Insect Warfare was Mumakil (which I mentioned a long time ago) and Pretty Little Flower.

Pretty Little Flower is something along the lines of Insect Warfare but far more raw in my opinion and more br00tal.

I have their some kind of compilation/discography of their early works which rips shit up. They later on turned to a more melodic sort of sound on Pulverizing Lethal Force which is also great but not that awesome as their early sound (kinda like Magrudergrinds self title story, OH SNAP). They slowed down after but on this record it's just hellish anger and fury. Like they said on the first sone, pose in hell!

Smash capitalism!

That's all for part one. As you probably noticed I covered bands that made some kind of bigger impact on me during my life but I missed out some bands like Phobia, Assuck and Discordance Axis because I can't really make this post 10 meters long. You can read all you want about them on Cephalochromoscope though along with shitload of other great grind bands.

Stay tuned for part two where I'll be naming some great recent discoveries and some underrated bands. Popular bands will be included as well (|IRON LUNG| |IRON LUNG| |IRON LUNG| |IRON LUNG|).

That will happen next week when I get back from Pag.

Funny how I did a grindcore post and didn't mention Napalm Death or Horrorfied. That's because they never made much of an impact on me. Sure Scum is great, I even have it legally but they never sparked my interest to look further into the genre.