“The band’s grindy, slammy death metal draws many parallels to Cattle Decaptitation, whether it’s their everything-but-the-kitchen sink approach to riffing, their sudden outbursts of groove, or their vicious takes on social injustice. Samsara has no dull edges, no safe entrances, and a complete lack of regard for your safety.” Limited safe spaces.
“I’ve come around to better goregrind since, first by early Carcass and then Haemorrhage and General Surgery. Novelty grind, such as the shockingly good Trappist, has also wormed its way into my rotation. I haven’t listened enough to form an opinion, but Bitchfork and their “farm grind” is making a splash too. Defecal of Gerbe is novelty goregrind, except instead of gore the focus is on the scatological. Mothershit is also sung in French, meaning I miss about ninety percent of the jokes outside of some titles. C’est la vie.” POO-urns.
“Nasum’s influence on modern grindcore and the entire history of the genre can not be overstated. Across a relatively short recording career, featuring four full length albums, the Swedish legends created an intimidating, high quality body of work that helped propel grindcore into the modern era. Along with other modern innovators like Pig Destroyer, Nasum played a crucial role in raising the genre’s underground profile, without losing an ounce of the white knuckle intensity and raw aggression typical of grind.” It’s all in the grind.
Doctors in Da House! Next Dr. A.N. Grier presents his Top Ten of 2018. It’s been meticulously researched, so now it needs peer review. Give it!
“Few bands can pull off having “fucking” in their name. Total Fucking Destruction is definitely fucking one of them. This Philadelphia trio were formed in 1999 by Brutal Truth drummer Richard Hoak following Truth’s breakup the previous year. True to grindcore’s punk origins, the band have released a bevy of splits over the years but been pretty sporadic about putting out full-lengths, with only three released in their near-twenty-year history. Nevertheless titles like Zen and the Art of Total Fucking Destruction and Our Love Is a Rainbow show TFD harbor a cheeky sense of humor alongside their frantic and eclectic riffing. Apparently they’re now also running for public office, as fourth full-length #USA4TFD possesses both a Twitter-ready title and an album cover I’ll definitely be sharing with my friends, if only to see if they can make any fucking sense of it.” Vote TFD.
“I know what you’re thinking, Grier reviewing a grindcore band? Bullshit, right?! It’s a little-known fact that I actually enjoy the genre. I rarely review it—or should I say, never review it. I may not be Kronos, our tech and grind enthusiast, but there’s something about the shove-it-down-your-throat chaos of the style that gets me. So, here I stand, having emerged from the grindcore woodwork, to review the newest outing from everyone’s favorite grindcore giant, Pig Destroyer.” Pork is brutal.
“Anyone who’s seen The Wire knows Baltimore can be a rough place, but on Memorial Day weekend every year, things get especially brutal. Hundreds of rabid metal fans from all over the world descend on ‘Charm City’ to participate in Maryland Deathfest, and the result is four days of moshing, headbanging, and partying like it’s 1989.” Death to all.
“Formed in 1990 by prolific bass-slinging band whore Dan Lilker (Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, Blurring, Venomous Concept, S.O.D. & many others), New York’s Brutal Truth threw their hats into the grind ring and captured lightning in a bottle with their phenomenal 1992 debut, Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses; a dead-set grind classic, now certified as an olde motherfucker. There’s something special about Brutal Truth’s underappreciated debut that sets it apart from pretty much any other grind album I’ve experienced.” The ugly truth.
“From the beginning, metal was the place for wayward souls to find refuge from society’s scornful gaze. Be you a high school drop-out, a Dungeons & Dragons bespectacled nerd, or just someone who didn’t click with the cliques, metal provided a soapbox to the disenfranchised yearning to give voice to their frustrations. Born from the rejection of consumerism and music’s increasing pomposity, punk too acted as a bulwark against the hegemony, drawing a rebellious fringe to its anarchistic bosom. As metal and punk grew in popularity, a disillusioned minority rebelled against their respective subculture’s dalliance with mainstream acceptance and fused elements of the two genres to create something truly repugnant: grindcore.” Hitting the Stonewall of grind.
King Parrot make grindcore great again. At least that’s what I thought after first hearing the Australian quintet’s 2012 debut Bite Your Head Off, which bucked genre norms by fusing groovy aggression with honest-to-God vocal hooks and a “hip slumdog” attitude. In my review of 2015 follow-up Dead Set I referred to the band as the “Die Antwoord of grindcore,” and that remains one of my favorite analogies I’ve made at AMG to this day.” King for a day, grind for 12 minutes.
