Cosmo Lee over at Invisible Oranges asked me to make him a grind mix tape recently. The mission, he told me, was to put together a list of bands that anyone interested in recent grind should at least be conversant with, barring the kind of huge names that normally get bandied about in your glossier dead tree publications. While I fudged quite a bit (there's about five or six on this list I consider huge names -- at least in humble grind circles), that's the reason people like Pig Destroyer and GridLink are conspicuously absent. You download my compilation over there or here. Yes, I've finally given in to Mediafire, and yes, I'll probably make more use of it in the future.
Below you'll find my selections, which I tried to make as international as possible despite my own Eurocentric tastes. But I'm curious what you would add/delete/argue the relevance of. Give me your list of five recent grind songs you'd pick to woo someone over to the dark side.
1. Mumakil
“I”
Customized Warfare
Caustic Rhythms
2007
Switzerland
2. ASRA
“Payload”
The Way of All Flesh
Blackbox
2008
United States
3. 324
“Kage Wo Samayou”
Across the Black Wings
HG: Fact
2003
Japan
4. Hope Collapse
“Cold Steel Penetrates Your Flesh”
Year of the Leper
Inkblot
2005
United States
5. Rehumanize
“Unitarian Universalist Ungodly”
Resident Apostasy
Open Grave
2009
United States
6. Kill the Client
“Bullet Proof Vultures”
Cleptocracy
Willowtip
2008
United States
7. The Arson Project
“Forsaken”
Blood and Locusts
Power It Up
2008
Sweden
8. Blood I Bleed
“Insensible We Are”
Gods Out of Monsters
Selfmadegod
2009
Holland
9. Keitzer
“Kharkhadan of Nuclear Winter”
As the World Burns
Yellow Dog
2008
Germany
10. Drugs of Faith
“The Age of Reason”
2008 Demo
Self Released
2008
United States
11. Wormrot
“Born Stupid”
Abuse
Scrotum Jus
2009
Singapore
12. Torture Incident
“Full of Political Bullshit”
The Deadly Efficiency of Napalm
Dark Colliseum
2001
Malaysia
13. Triac
“I Wish the Worst for You”
Blue Room
Reptilian
2008
United States
14. Insect Warfare
“Manipulator”
World Extermination
625 Thrash
2007
United States
15. Rotten Sound
“Units”
Cycles
Spinefarm
2008
Finland
16. Attack of the Mad Axeman
“Nazi Worms Fuck Off”
Scumdogs of the Forest
Scrotum Jus
2009
Germany
17. Noisear
“The Chains That Grind Us”
Pyroclastic Annhiallation
RSR
2008
United States
18. Exit Wounds
“Fire at Will”
Exit Wounds
No Escape
2008
Poland
19. Expose Your Hate
“Lies”
Hatecult
Black Hole Productions
2005
Brazil
20. Parlamentarisk Sodomi
“Parlamentarisk Sodomi”
Har Du Sagt "A" Får Du Si "Nal"
No Escape
2009
Norway
21. Inertia Kills
“Toy of Leisure”
Tous Des Aveugles
Choking Hazard
2008 (reissued, originally 1995)
Canada
22. Graf Orlock
“Captives of the Thuggee”
Destination Time Yesterday
Level Plane
2006
United States
23. Afgrund
“Terrorbalansen”
Svarta Dagar
Emetic
2007
Sweden
24. Blockheads
“Social Fracture”
Shapes of Misery
Overcome
2006
France
25. Who’s My Saviour?
“When Magic Turns into Black Plague”
Glasgow Smile
Power It Up
2007
Germany
26. Looking for an Answer
“Ruptura”
Extincion
Living Dead Society
2008
Spain
27. Cyness
“2 Wochen”
Loony Planet/Industreality
Sound Pollution
2003
Germany
28. Magrudergrind
“Martyrs of the Shoah”
Magrudergrind
Willowtip
2009
United States
29. Nashgul
“El Vengador Toxico”
Humanicidio
Crimes Against Humanity
2006
Spain
30. Asterisk*
“Green Eyed Angel in My Dream”
Dogma
Three One G
2003
Sweden
13 comments:
I'm really glad that you made this one 'cause I've not heard quite a few of those Euro bands like Blood I Bleed, Keitzer, and Blockheads. Excellent, although west-centric compilation.
As for me, I'd throw out Mumakil (although, admittedly, it is a great opener) & Magrudergrind ('cause they're irrelevant next to Kill The Client). Other than that, I'd just add a load of bands.
I need to complain about GridLink. As I see it, they're absolutely essential, yet still a pretty small name compared to bands like Insect Warfare, and even Magrudergrind. I mean, Pig Destroyer - what, the biggest grind band in the US? But GridLink? I don't know man, check out the number of their listeners on last.fm, for example: Pig Destroyer (71,424), Magrudergrind (18,728), Insect Warfare (14,314), Afgrund (4,129), and GridLink (2,140).
Off the top of my head, I'd add: Mortalized, Agents of Abhorrence, Damage Digital, Gate, Rise Above, and, well, Swarrrm.
Err... Also, an Australian band that has been recommended to me recently - The Kill. And Maruta, maybe.
P.S. Irrelevantly, watch out for White Eyes, man.
maruta was right on the cusp for me but i thought i had too many european/american bands on there and wanted to squeeze in torture incident.
like i said, i consider gridlink huge. but i also consider discordance axis to be the greatest grind that ever ground.
i've been talking to wet nightmare about the australian stuff. that's a country i really need to spend some serious time with. maybe for my next regional round up.
Must agree with Zmaj that even though GridLink might be best active grindcore band, they are far from being the most popular. Anyways, great comp :)
ps. did mortalized release anything recently?
Pretty sure the split with Swarrrm is their last (2007).
I have always seen grind as being about a slab of music, not individual songs. Why else do most albums have the tunes mixed together in a continuous playback?
As for recommendations, I like to tailor mine to the prospective fan's current interests. You cannot recommend Aussie grindfreaks "Super Fun Happy Slide" to just anyone.
As for Gridlink, paying full price for a 12 minute blast fest does not turn me on. I prefer a little more punk and thrash with my blast.
as for 12 minutes of blastbeats, jon said it nice here: http://bit.ly/7vzNFw
206: I say that you can't generalize each grind band as being about slabs of music, the entirely same way that you can't 'recommend Aussie grindfreaks "Super Fun Happy Slide" to just anyone.'
It depends! But as far as I'm concerned, the compilation is damn sexy stuff for the modern grind enthusiast.
Chang is a grind purist with a crystal clear vision of what - according to him - grind is and what grind should be, as shown on "Amber Gray" (by him and Matsubara, most notably), the aural essence of death-grind.
GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND GRIND
I am excited to listen to this. A few bands on here I haven't heard, so thanks for making it easy to check 'em out.
I would definitely add Maruta too.
Well I agree but I dream the brief should acquire more info then it has.
Many thanks for this mix. For a lifelong metalhead still swimming in the shallow-end of the grind pool, this is pure gold.
I'll definitely be buying a bunch of albums because of this - I haven't heard a good many of these bands before.
In particular: Keitzer, Parlamentarisk Sodomi, Graf Orlock (can't believe I never checked these guys out), Afgrund, Who’s My Saviour?, Cyness and Nashgul.
I enjoyed this a lot. I discovered some bands I otherwise would've never heard of. I plan on picking up some of the releases. Afgrund really impressed me.
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