Escuela Grind are a grindcore band from the US and this is their second album.
I love me some grindcore, but what Escuela Grind give us is actually more interesting than just that. This is grindcore by way of huge metallic hardcore groove. Memory Theater takes the strengths of both worlds to produce a monstrous collection of tracks that cut a swathe through the opposition.
Escuela Grind deliver a violent and aggressive sound that combines powerviolence, punk, grindcore, deathgrind, and hardcore into a ferocious brand of contemporary heaviness. Memory Theater offers 23 minutes of harsh nastiness, and you’d better believe it’s gooooooood.
Memory Theatre provides more than one version of brutality, although there’s plenty of pure grinding savagery here. Escuela Grind take the fast and sharp heart of grind and powerviolence, and beef it up with metallic hardcore heaviness and punk energy. This makes for songs that have a bit more to them than some of the more one-dimensional expressions of rage that pepper these genres, instead allowing the band to rage across a range of different explorations of heaviness and outright hostility. Make no mistake, Memory Theatre is punishing and harsh, but the band’s compelling take on extremity will scar and maim you in about nine different ways.
The songs are precise and devastating. There is no filler, just pure aggression distilled into surprisingly catchy and memorable music. The hardcore influences allow the band to flesh out their violent sound and provide mosh pit-friendly heaviness before the grind goes in for the kill once more.
If you’re a fan of bands like Napalm Death, Pig Destroyer, Insect Warfare, Fuck the Facts, Discordance Axis, Misery Index, and Maruta, then Escuela Grind is definitely one for you.
Don’t let this meaty slice of extremity pass you by. Very highly recommended.
Wonderbox Metal 