Grind – Page 21 – Wonderbox Metal

Nervous Impulse – Time to Panic (Review)

Nervous Impulse are from Canada and this is their second album. They play Deathgrind.

This is a band who worship extremity and brutality above all else. Surely their motto must be “everything sicker than everything else”?

Their take on Grindcore is an interesting one because of this, as they don’t limit themselves just to their parent genre. Instead, they branch out into related areas and claim the most brutal elements as their own; Death Metal and Deathcore, being the main ones.

The songs are frequently complicated affairs that marry the short, chaotic brutality of Grind with the still-brutal, more song-structured nature of Death Metal. The end result is somewhat of a cross between Cryptopsy, Brutal Truth, Cattle Decapitation and Circle of Dead Children.

Speaking of Cryptopsy, the production on Time to Panic is not a million miles away from that of my favourite Cryptopsy album None So Vile, so you know that the sound is tight and precise.

Oh, and there’s an Agoraphobic Nosebleed cover. How ace is that?

Nervous Impulse write their songs to be heavy and extreme but still make sure they are written well rather than just a selection of strung-together riffs. It’s really quite tasty.

Vocally, we get pignoise, deathgrunts, screams; anything and everything to make the harshest noises imaginable.

If you like Extreme Metal with enough chaos and brutality to stun and enough songwriting skill to hold interest then check this out. I just can’t stop listening to the fucking thing.

Mindflair – Scourge of Mankind (Review)

Mindflair are from Germany and this is their second album. They play Grindcore.

Furious blasting Grindcore with heavy, tar-like slower bits interspersed; Mindflair make this extremely easy to like.

It’s a well recorded 25 minutes with everything sounding clear and heavy.

The riffs are infectious and actually quite catchy for a Grind band. The songs themselves may be short but they’re long enough and contain enough content to make a good impression.

This album is extremely listenable. Their assault has a Punk-aesthetic mixed with a southern Sludge-tang that gives them an easily digested flavour.

The tracks are memorable and have a good mix of blast beats and groove. The playing is tight and Scourge of Mankind ticks all of the boxes for a superlative Grindcore release.

The vocals alternate between static-like screams and blunt shouting. Harsh and unforgiving, just like we like.

Somewhat of a cross between old Napalm Death, FromTheAshes and Soilent Green’s acidic Sludge/Grind, this is quite the treat and I really can’t say enough good things about it.

Oh but this is a good one. Fans of extremity everywhere – you need this.

Multinational Corporations – Jamat-al-Maut (Review)

Multinational Corporations are a Grindcore band from Pakistan. This is their first EP.

Here we have 15 minutes of intense, violent Grindcore, with passion and feeling that’s evident throughout.

This is ugly, underground music that has an Old-School style and offers a completely authentic immersion in the style

The riffs are as taut as rope and as tough as battered, leathery skin. The band are equally at home playing fast as they are slowing it down to a heavier groove.

Elements of Crust and Old-School Hardcore can be felt alongside the brutal Grinding core, and the band manage to make the most of short songs to sound relatively diverse for a band that is essentially going straight for the jugular all of the time.

Somewhat of a cross between old Napalm Death and Groinchurn, to my ears; Multinational Corporations sound rabid and ready to attack.

It doesn’t last long, but what there is of it is a great little listen. Be careful though, there’s a real bite here.

Smothered Bowels – Thorax Driller (Review)

This is the début album from Russian Grindcore band Smothered Bowels.

9 tracks in 21 minutes; Smothered Bowels waste no time with bringing the brutality and the blasting heaviness.

Featuring extreme pignoise vocals in addition to the odd incoherent scream, this is Grind that combines Goregrind and Deathgrind into one heaving mass of bloody chunks.

The Death Metal influence is apparent from some of the riffs and the occasional guitar solo. This is combined with the brutal extremity of Goregrind to create an album that teeters on the Death Metal brink but never quite fully converts.

There’s enough blurring between the similar genres to provide Smothered Bowels with an interesting foundation on which to lay their house of carnage.

The songs make use of Death Metal’s dynamics and Grind’s blasting insanity to create tracks that recall the top quality work of bands like Circle of Dead Children and Plague Widow. Both are firm favourites of mine so that’s a high compliment.

Smothered Bowels have put together a really enjoyable release that avoids the trap of one dimensionality by employing good songwriting and an impassioned bludgeoning.

An impressive first foray into the Grindcore underworld. Hopefully this will not be overlooked, and doubly-hopefully the band’s next release will be even better, as this is pretty damn good already.

False Pregnancy – Dance Your Meat Off!!! (Review)

False Pregnancy are from Estonia and this is their début album. They play Grindcore.

Take a look at the album cover. What’s going on there then?

This is Goregrind. Sorry, I didn’t quite say that loud enough. This is GOREGRIND!!!

There. Now you know.

The band themselves are even less subtle than that.

Heavy, malignant guitars stab out whilst sickening pignoise vocals vomit disgust over everything. You already know what you’re getting into when you listen to a band like this, but each brand of disease is individual and False Pregnancy certainly warrant their own strain.

Here we have 14 songs in 18 minutes, so you know that the tracks are short, violent and crushingly brutal. The band are actually heavier than a lot of Grind bands due to the thick presence of the guitars. It works well with the style and Dance Your Meat Off!!! has plenty of substance.

I like that the band inject a bit of variety into their assault. Sure, it’s all Goregrind, so there’s only so much variety you can have, but within the genre parameters they play the field widely with different tempos and riff choices.

The vocals are a highlight. It may be dirty pignoise but it sounds great and the vocal patterns used are satisfying and nicely paced.

This is definitely above average Grind and False Pregnancy should be on every Grinder’s wishlist.

Get ready to dance.

Vile Disgust – Love all the Pigs (Review)

Vile Disgust are from Hungary and play Deathgrind. This is their début album.

With song titles guaranteed to impress the immature, this is over-the-top disgust-o Grind.

The band have a good sound and immediately go for the jugular with their own take on grotesque Deathgrind.

The vocalist belches out obscenities with utter relish and in a deep pignoise style. There’s a surprising amount of variety in the noises that he makes though from track to track, as if different songs had the vocals recorded in different toilets, in some form of filthy urinal tour.

Death Metal riffs and chugging brutality meet with the aggression and rampant disregard for life that Grindcore has. It’s mainly a-bit-faster-than-mid-paced affair, although the band do dabble in different tempos, speeds and methods of execution. The end result is songs that are about under 2 minutes long on average and do the best they can to flatten and disturb the listener.

This is primitive, groovy Grindcore that reeks of the sewer and has no more lofty ambitions than to see what floats to the surface after each flush.

Have a listen and see what you think.

Unrest – Grindcore (Review)

Unrest are from the US and play Grindcore, as you can probably tell. In fact, what do you do with an album titled Grindcore? Well, I’ll tell you what you do; you play it really damn loud.

Unrest appear to exist purely to play tribute to Nasum. In theory, this could end very badly indeed as Nasum are just sooooo good. However, in an unexpected twist of fate, Unrest manage to pull off quite the paradox by faithfully reproducing Nasum’s sound without sounding like a cheap knock off. Colour me impressed!

So, if you know what Nasum sounds like you know what Grindcore sounds like, and you can take that sentence in multiple ways really. Unrest’s Grindcore is tight, focused and furiously aggressive modern Grind that chokes the listener with almost 27 minutes of sharp, tasty Grindcore treats.

Like their heroes, Unrest know that Grind isn’t just about the blasting; dynamics, groove, feeling…these things are all important ingredients in the perfect Grind cake. Of course, this album isn’t perfect, but it is better than most.

Featuring some actual songs amidst the carnage and enough cutting riffs to maim the unwary, Grindcore delivers the goods time and time again.

Quality Grindage.

Gristnam – Even Less (Review)

Gristnam are from the US and play Grindcore/Sludge.

This is underground, aggressive Grind that takes elements of extreme Hardcore’s hateful violence and Sludge’s nasty groove to produce eleven tracks of Grind’n’Roll that is good for what ails ya.

Deep vocals populate the songs with a throaty aggression that fits the music well. The singer has a charismatic bark that has an appropriately Southern twinge to it, adding personality to the bile.

The production is fuzzy and heavy, allowing the band to be their filthy, nasty selves without detracting from the intensity of the music.

The songs have the Southern groove of Eyehategod, the confident swagger of Brutal Truth and the pure-blooded confidence of the Southern Metal scene. Indeed anyone familiar with the hotbed of earthy Metal talent that is Louisiana will recognise the tell-tale signs of this scene in Gristnam’s sound. Yet remarkably, like all of the output from this area, Gristnam have their own personality stamped into these tracks and Even Less is definitely its own beast.

These songs will leave you breathless and I imagine would transform a live show into a heaving mass of sweaty bodies and bloody carnage. The aggressive groove and dangerous assault of Gristnam is positively designed for the live environment.

Even Less has won me over effortlessly. What’s not to like here? Fans of underground, heavy, nasty music will no doubt lap this up, as they well should.

Check them out.

Putrid Offal – Mature Necropsy (Review)

Putrid Offal are from France and this is their début album. They play Deathgrind.

A mere couple of decades or so since they first formed, this début album is long overdue.

The band have a strong modern and professional production that makes their short bursts of carnage sound immense.

I do enjoy a good bit of Deathgrind; I like the winning combination of short, violent music with the added brutal riffing of Death Metal that allows for a bit more depth and variety than some purely Grindcore bands offer. This describes Putrid Offal well as they strike a good balance between the two styles throughout the 29 minutes playing time.

The band play rhythmic Deathgrind with enough blast to keep anyone happy. A good selection of riffs are deployed mercilessly and the fun never ends. It’s not all blood and gore though as they insert a few interesting ideas here and there to keep things fresh, such as the background choral chants on Garroting Way or the atmospheric melodics on Repulsive Corpse.

The deep growls are surgical in their assault; they’re focused, tight and sound supremely confident. Higher, wet screams join the party on occasion as well because who doesn’t enjoy some quality throat-shredding?

Sounding absurdly relevant and energised, this is Goregrind for the 21st century; assured, devastating and murderously capable.

Best get out of their way, as Putrid Offal have come to carve up the opposition.

Evisorax – Goodbye to the Feast..Welcome to the Famine (Review)

Evisorax are from the UK and play Grindcore. This is their latest EP.

Violent, intense and uncompromising; Evisorax have entered the building.

What can you say about Grind as demented as this apart from advising people to run as far away as possible? This is only advice to the normal people of course, for if you’re a fan of Grind then you should be hurrying to embrace the carnage that Evisorax deal as quickly as you can.

Evisorax are a whirlwind of destruction. It’s an apt image as their music twists, turns and convulses in ways that defy the listener to keep up.

I’d say if you combine the intensity of Discordance Axis, the unhinged brutality of Brutal Truth and the Sludgy extremity of Labrat then you’ll have a starting point for Evisorax.

Hidden behind the pure maelstrom of visceral lunacy that they play the band have a strong sound and actually have compositional skills. To the uninitiated it may seem that a band like this simply turn up, turn on and play whatever they like, but to the Grindcore connoisseur it’s clear that thought and refinement has gone into these tracks.

They may know how to unleash chaos but it has it’s own warped version of dynamics and pacing, which only increase the power of the impressive noise that they create. This is especially apparent on the penultimate track So Many Fat People, During the Famine, which sees the band expand their sound into wider Extreme Metal territories.

I was already a fan of Evsiorax’s 2011 release Isle of Dogs, but this new one has taken the extremity to a whole new level, and I love it.

Get this.