| Coordinates | 40°37′29″N73°57′8″N |
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| Name | Grindcore |
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| Bgcolor | #BB0022 |
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| Color | white |
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| Stylistic origins | Death metal, hardcore punk, noise music, industrial, fastcore |
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| Cultural origins | Mid 1980s, England |
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| Instruments | Electric guitar, bass guitar, drums, vocals |
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| Popularity | Underground; minor commercial success in the 1990s |
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| Derivatives | Mathcore |
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| Subgenres | Goregrind, noisegrind, electrogrind/cybergrind, crustgrind, pornogrind |
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| Fusiongenres | Deathgrind |
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| Other topics | Powerviolence |
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Grindcore is an extreme genre of music that started in the early- to mid-1980s. It draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive music genres – including
death metal,
industrial music,
noise and the more extreme varieties of
hardcore punk.
Grindcore is characterized by heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, high speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of incomprehensible growls, or high-pitched shrieks. Early groups like Napalm Death are credited with laying the groundwork for the style. It is most prevalent today in North America and Europe, with popular contributors such as Brutal Truth and Nasum. Lyrical themes range from a primary focus on social and political concerns, to gory subject matter and black humor.
An infamous trait of grindcore is the "microsong". Several bands have produced songs that are only seconds in length. British band Napalm Death holds the Guinness World Record for shortest song ever recorded with the one-second "You Suffer" (1987). Many bands record simple phrases that may be rhythmically sprawled out across an instrumental lasting only a couple of bars in length.
A variety of "microgenres" have subsequently emerged, often labeling bands according to traits that deviate from regular grindcore, including goregrind, focused on themes of gore, and pornogrind, fixated on pornographic lyrical themes. Other offshoots include noisegrind (especially raw and chaotic) and electrogrind (incorporating electronic elements such as programmed drums). Although an influential phenomenon on hardcore punk and other popular genres, grindcore itself remains an underground form of music.
Characteristics
Grindcore relies on standard
hardcore punk and
heavy metal instrumentation:
electric guitar,
bass and
drums. Beyond the microsong, it is characteristic of grindcore to have short songs in general; for example,
Carcass' debut album
Reek of Putrefaction (1988) consists of 22 tracks with an average length of 1 minute and 48 seconds.
Many grindcore groups experiment with down-tuned guitars. While the vinyl A-side of Napalm Death's debut, 1987's Scum, is set to standard tuning, on side B, the guitars are tuned down 2½ steps. Their second album and 1989's EP were tuned to C♯. Harmony Corruption, their third full-length album, was tuned up to a D. Bolt Thrower went further, dropping 3½ steps down (A).
Blast beat
The blast beat is a drum beat characteristic of grindcore in all its forms, although its usage predates the genre itself. In Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the kick drum, snare and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal." Napalm Death coined the term,
D.R.I. ("No Sense"),
Sarcófago ("Satanas"), and
Repulsion For example, Napalm Death's songs address a variety of
anarchist concerns, in the tradition of
anarcho-punk. These themes include
anti-racism,
feminism,
anti-militarism, and
anti-capitalism. Other grindcore groups, such as Cattle Decapitation and
Carcass, have expressed disgust with human behavior, animal abuse, and are, in some cases,
vegetarians. Carcass' work in particular is often identified as the origin of the
goregrind style, which is devoted to "bodily" themes. Groups that shift their bodily focus to sexual matters, such as
Gut and the Meat Shits, are sometimes referred to as
pornogrind.
Seth Putnam's lyrics are notorious for their
black comedy, while
The Locust tend toward
satirical collage, indebted to
William S. Burroughs'
cut-up method.
==History==
Precursors
The early grindcore scene relied on an international network of
tape trading and
DIY production. The most widely acknowledged precursors of the grindcore sound are
Siege, a
hardcore punk group, and
Repulsion, an early
death metal outfit.
Siege, from
Weymouth, Massachusetts, were influenced by classic
American hardcore (
Minor Threat,
Black Flag,
Void) and by
British groups like
Discharge,
Venom, and
Motörhead. Siege's goal was maximum velocity: "We would listen to the fastest punk and hardcore bands we could find and say, ‘Okay, we’re gonna deliberately write something that is faster than them'", drummer Robert Williams recalled.
Other groups in the British grindcore scene, such as Heresy and Unseen Terror, have emphasized the influence of American hardcore punk, including Septic Death, as well as Swedish D-beat. Sore Throat cites Discharge, Disorder, and a variety of European D-beat and thrash metal groups, including Hellhammer, and American hardcore groups, such as Poison Idea and DRI. Other key groups cited by current and former members of Napalm Death as formative influences include Discharge, Amebix, Throbbing Gristle, and the aforementioned Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. was also cited as an influence on early Napalm Death.
British grindcore
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Napalm Death live in Germany, 1987, from
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Grindcore, as such, was developed during the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom by
Napalm Death, a group who emerged from the
anarcho-punk scene in Birmingham, England. While their first recordings were in the vein of
Crass, The group began to take on increasing elements of
thrashcore,
post-punk, and
power electronics. The group also went through many changes in personnel. A major shift in style took place after
Mick Harris became the group's drummer. Pearson, however, said that grindcore "wasn't just about the speed of [the] drums, blast beats, etc." He claimed that "it actually was coined to describe the guitars - heavy, downtuned, bleak, harsh riffing guitars [that] 'grind', so that's what the genre was described as, by the musicians who were its innovators [and] proponents."
While abrasive, grindcore achieved a measure of mainstream visibility. New Musical Express featured Napalm Death on their cover in 1988, declaring them "the fastest band in the world." As James Hoare, deputy editor of Terrorizer, writes:
Napalm Death's seismic impact inspired other British grindcore groups in the 1980s, among them Extreme Noise Terror, Extreme Noise Terror, from Ipswitch, formed in 1984. With the goal of becoming "the most extreme hardcore punk band of all time," the group took Mick Harris from Napalm Death in 1987. Ian Glasper describes the group as "pissed-off hateful noise with its roots somewhere between early Discharge and Disorder, with [vocalists] Dean [Jones] and Phil [Vane] pushing their trademark vocal extremity to its absolute limit." Carcass released Reek of Putrefaction in 1988, which John Peel declared his favorite album of the year despite its very poor production. The band's focus on gore and anatomical decay, lyrically and in sleeve artwork, inspired the goregrind subgenre. were inspired by crust punk as well as industrial music. Some listeners, such as Digby Pearson, considered them to be simply an in-joke or parody of grindcore.
In the subsequent decade, two pioneers of the style became increasingly commercially viable. According to Nielsen Soundscan, Napalm Death sold 367,654 units between May 1991 and November 2003, while Carcass sold 220,374 units in the same period. The inclusion of Napalm Death's "Twist the Knife (Slowly)" on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack brought the band much greater visibility, as the compilation scored a Top 10 position in the Billboard 200 chart and went platinum in less than a year. The originators of the style have expressed some ambivalence regarding the subsequent popularity of grindcore. Pete Hurley, the guitarist of Extreme Noise Terror, declared that he had no interest in being remembered as a pioneer of this style: "'grindcore' was a legendarily stupid term coined by a hyperactive kid from the West Midlands, and it had nothing to do with us whatsoever. ENT were, are, and - I suspect - always will be a hardcore punk band... not a grindcore band, a stenchcore band, a trampcore band, or any other sub-sub-sub-core genre-defining term you can come up with." Lee Dorian of Napalm Death indicated that "Unfortunately, I think the same thing happened to grindcore, if you want to call it that, as happened to punk rock - all the great original bands were just plagiarised by a billion other bands who just copied their style identically, making it no longer original and no longer extreme."
North American grindcore
of Anal Cunt at Relapse Festival, 1993]]
Journalist Kevin Stewart-Panko argues that the American grindcore of the 1990s borrowed from three sources: British grindcore, the American precursors, and
death metal. As early Napalm Death albums were not widely distributed in the United States, American groups tended to take inspiration from later works, such as
Harmony Corruption. Pig Destroyer is inspired by
thrash metal, such as Dark Angel and
Slayer, the
sludge metal of
The Melvins, and grindcore practiced by Brutal Truth, while Agoraphobic Nosebleed takes cues from
thrashcore and
powerviolence, like D.R.I. and
Crossed Out. because of the prevalence of death metal influences, as are
Cattle Decapitation.
{{ external media
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Pig Destroyer's "Gravedancer", from
YouTube, authorized by
Relapse Records.
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The Locust, from San Diego, also take inspiration from powerviolence (Crossed Out,
Dropdead), first-wave
screamo (Angel Hair), obscure
experimental rock (
Art Bears,
Renaldo and the Loaf), and
death metal. The Locust were sometimes described as "
hipster grind" because of their fan base and fashion choices.
Soilent Green,
Cephalic Carnage,
Impetigo, and
Circle of Dead Children.
Fuck the Facts, a Canadian group, practiced classic grindcore, characterized by the "metronome-precision drumming and riffing [that] abound, as well as vocal screams and growls" by
Allmusic reviewer Greg Prato.
Continental European grindcore
European groups, such as
Agathocles, from Belgium, Filthy Christians, who signed to Earache Records in 1989, introduced the style in Sweden, while
Cripple Bastards established Italian grindcore. became a popular group, addressing political topics from a personal perspective. Anders Jakobson, their drummer, reported that "It was all these different types of people who enjoyed what we we were doing. [...] We made grindcore a bit easier to listen to at the expense of the diehard grindcore fans who thought that we were, well, not
sellouts, but not really true to the original essence of grindcore."
Inhume, from the Netherlands, and
Rotten Sound, from Finland, and
Leng Tch'e, from Belgium, were subsequent European groups who practiced grindcore with death metal inflections. In 2000s, the Belgium-based
Aborted "had grown into the role of key contributors to the death-grind genres".
Legacy: Influence on other genres
Grindcore's impact spread quickly through the world of extreme music. For example, Napalm Death's strong inspiration from Swans links grindcore to noise rock. Since then, Japanese noise rock group
Boredoms have borrowed elements of grind, and toured with Brutal Truth in 1993.
Naked City, led by avant-garde jazz
saxophonist John Zorn, performed an avant-garde form of
polystylistic, grindcore-influenced
punk jazz. Zorn later formed the
Painkiller project with
ambient dub producer
Bill Laswell on bass guitar and Mick Harris on drums, which also collaborated with Justin Broadrick on some work. In addition, grindcore was one influence on the powerviolence movement within American hardcore punk, and has affected some strains of metalcore. Some musicians have also produced hybrids between grind and electronic music.
Powerviolence
Powerviolence is a raw and dissonant subgenre of
hardcore punk. The style is closely related to
thrashcore Its nascent form was pioneered in the late 1980s in the music of hardcore punk band
Infest, who mixed
youth crew hardcore elements with noisier, sludgier qualities of
Lärm and
Siege. and
Agoraphobic Nosebleed later reincorporated elements of powerviolence into grindcore. Scorn also worked in the
industrial hip hop and
isolationist styles.
Fear Factory have also cited debts to the genre.
Digital hardcore is an initially German hybrid of hardcore punk and
hardcore techno. Agoraphobic Nosebleed and the Locust have solicited remixes from digital hardcore producers and
noise musicians.
James Plotkin,
Dave Witte, and
Speedranch participated in the
Phantomsmasher project, which melds grindcore and digital hardcore.
Alec Empire collaborated with Justin Broadrick, on the first
Curse of the Golden Vampire album, and with
Gabe Serbian, of the Locust, live in Japan.
Japanoise icon
Merzbow also participated in the Empire/Serbian show. practiced by
The Berzerker,
Body Hammer,
Gigantic Brain and
Genghis Tron which borrows from
electronic music. These groups built on the work of Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Enemy Soil and The Locust, as well as
industrial metal. Many later electrogrind groups were caricatured for their hipster connections. Like grindcore, metalcore can feature
breakdowns as well as intense passages conducive to
moshing. In the mid-1990s, some metalcore groups began to take inspiration from developments in grindcore. For example,
mathcore groups such as
Dillinger Escape Plan,
Some Girls, and
Daughters. These groups also include elements of
post-hardcore. In addition to metalcore some early
screamo groups, like
Circle Takes the Square and
Orchid, have been associated with grindcore by some commentators.
See also
List of grindcore bands
(BBC documentary)
Notes
References
Carcass (1988). Reek of Putrefaction. [CD]. Nottingham, UK: Earache Compact Discs, Cassettes & Records. (1994).
Ekeroth, Daniel (2008). Swedish Death Metal. Bazillion Points Books. ISBN 978-0-9796163-1-0
Glasper, Ian (2009). Trapped in a Scene: UK Hardcore 1985-1989. Cherry Red Books. ISBN 9781901447613
Grindcore Special (2009), Terrorizer, 180, 41-56, and 181, 41-56.
Lilker, Danny (2007). "A User's Guide to Grindcore." Grind Your Mind: A History of Grindcore [CD]. Liner notes. Mayan Records, MYNDD056.
Mudrian, Albert (2004). Choosing Death: The Improbable History of Death Metal and Grindcore. Los Angeles, CA: Feral House.
Sarcófago. (1986). Satanas. On Warfare noise [CD]. Belo Horizonte, MG: Cogumelo Records. (2007).
Sepultura (1986). Antichrist. On Morbid visions [CD]. New York: Roadrunner Records. (1997).
Category:Hardcore punk genres
Category:Heavy metal subgenres
