Monday, January 9, 2012

Grindcore Bracketology 2: The 1-8 Matchups

Ok, you bitched, you moaned, you cajoled, you wheedled and you whined. The end result is a stronger faceoff structure. So now it's time to drop the gloves.
Just like the last outing, I'll post the matchups each week and you tell me who should win and, just as importantly, why. In the event of a tie or a really close decision or just because I'm a total dick and I feel like pissing in your eye, a well reasoned argument can carry the day.

So let's get down to it. You've got until Sunday to make your case.

The Old Guard
1. Olivo/Freeman (Repulsion) v. 8. Dickinson (Heresy/Unseen Terror)
Michigan grave robbers v. an English hardcore hooligan.

The Innovators
1. Procopio/Baglino (Human Remains) v. 8. Kapo (Swarrrm)
Unsung American innovators v. an artistic Japanese oddball. If Kapo loses, Perpetual Strife just might cry.

The Punks
1. Burda/McLachlan (Phobia) v. 8. Martinez (Cretin)
The premier punk duo v. the mistress of the grotesque.

The Technicians
1. Matsubara (GridLink/Mortalized/Hayaino Daisuki) v. 8. Page (Body Hammer/Robocop)
If Matsubara didn't exist, Studio Ghibli would have had to animate him. Page can make music out of toothbrushes and an electric fans. He's also a kick ass young guitarist.

18 comments:

Perpetual Strife said...

Olvio/Freman- Seeing Repulsion live (twice!) was like nothing else. It was pure energy, and it fucking rocked. Archetypal is what Horrified is, and those riffs are no different. Quintessential as it can get in terms of grindcore, Heresy never had a chance.

Kapo I feel like I've lost my voice in this argument, but do yourself a favor and lsiten to each of Swarrrm's full lengths if you haven't already and tell me if you've heard anything like it before.Kapo's guitarwork is a nexus of emotion and innovation in the world of grindcore. And yes, I will cry.

Burda/McLachlan It's easy to forget how far Phobia goes back, but these guys ahve stayed true to their first release and churned out solid, punky grindcore from the getgo. Their energy live was amazing, something punk lives for, and their simplistic riffing is a key to that.

Matsubara duurdurudididlyduuuur

My world verification was "comed," what a sexy post.

Unknown said...

Despite me usually siding with hardcore and punk I choose Olivo/Freeman in the first category. There's something about Slayer riffs played faster that I can't get enough of. And hey, didn't Kerry King say Slayer is the perfect blend of punk and metal?
Human Remains. I just like them way more then Swarrrm.
A rough one here. I prefer Repulsion to Unseen Terror but I do I prefer Repulsion over Phobia? I guess this since is just about guitarists I'm going with Phobia because those guys have been a grinding a long time, tour relentlessly(no pun), do distros and just generally embody the genre. Cretin seems more like a studio band which is okay because their songs rip. But Phobia just grinds more heads.
I'm sorry Ryan Page, you write good songs in Robocop but Matsuraba fucking shreds like it's no one business. Though again this isn't about who's better per say but it's hard to top Mr. Takafumi Matsuraba.

Ryan Page said...

No offense taken shane my vote goes to Matsubara as well.

Ryan Page said...

Also martinez is a bass player, but I'll take cretin over phobia any day.

Human Remains wins as well.

Anonymous said...

1. Olivo/Freeman.

2. Kapo. If the category was "Most Innovative," I'd pick Human Remains, but all other things being equal, I can listen to more Swarrrm in a sitting than Human Remains.

3. Martinez.

4. Matsubara.

Andrew Childers said...

uhh ryan. matt widener was the bass player in cretin. does martinez play bass somewhere else? i thought she only had one band.

Ryan Page said...

I'll quote Rick Perry on this one "Oops..." sorry BC Rich's are deceiving. I stand corrected. Sorry about that.

Andrew Childers said...

no worries. widener plays guitar in citizen/liberteer. i can't remember if he played guitar or bass in exhumed. he's a versatile dude so it's an easy mistake to make.

Arekusu said...

Heresy

Human Remains

Phobia

Mortalized

That was easy :)

Moe said...

Olivo/Freeman
Procopio/Baglino
Burda/McLachlan
Matsubara

Bill Willingham IV, Esquire said...

Old Guard. Olivo/Freeman - I can pretty much second what Shanetera said about this one. Blistering, timeless, gnarly.

The Innovators. Procopio/Baglino - A close one (sorry Perp), fo sho. I dig both bands, but something about Human Remains ability to go from bleep-blonk to full on mosh riffs so seamlessly just makes me grin. Plus, their effect on some younger bands right now is cool to see (ie, newest Noisear album).

The Punks. I'll abstain. I dig Phobia, but my secret shame is that I've never really listened to Cretin. I'll go fix that.

The Technicians - Matsubara. Page is the shit, no doubt, but I had to go with Matsubara. Insane thrash at warp speed with batshit melody crammed into it!

Page is a young dude, though, so if he keeps it up people are going to be losing to him in these things one day...

HeroinJesus said...

old gaurd: gonna go with repulsion cuz...well, it's fuckin repulsion

Innovators:I'm not a huge fan of either of these bands (i don't know why but i've never been able to get into human remains, don't crucify me)i'm just gonna go swarrrm on this one

the punks: FUCK YEAH PHOBIA

The technicians: love mastabura, but honestly jigoku is one of the most played albums in my itunes, robocop is sweet but i'm giving this one to ryan because i love body hammer so much

Sean said...

Repulsion, Kapo, Martinez, Matsubara

Alex Layzell said...

First off this guitarmegadon bracketology is yet another wonderful idea from the ever inspiring Childers! Kudos
Down to Business

Old Guard: Olivo/Freeman, Repulsions dirty string scuzz is just too good.

Innovators: Kapo, admittedly I haven't really given Human Remains the time of day they probably deserve, but Swarrrm in every aspect win awards in innovation.

Punks: Martinez, some of Phobia's guitar work seems to gimmicky and too much effort for little reward, Martinez makes her work sound stellar across the board.

Technicians: Matsubara pretty much for the same reasons everyone else has covered.

takin it said...

1. Repulsion

2. Human Remains

3. Phobia

4. Gridlink

DONE!

Chaosphere said...

1 Repulsion
I love Heresy and Dickinson's guitar playing pure grinding hardcore. But this is a grindcore competition and Repulsion are one of the true grinddadys.

2 Human Remains
Swarrrm are insane, intense and innovative. But the sounds coaxed out of those guitars by Procopio and Baglino and completely inHuman and vile yet completely cohesive. Bear in mind that they never used any weird effects like Agata from Melt Banana, it was all in the fingers and volume knob. Plus Procopio's in Gridlnk and stood in for Discordance Axis which few can pull off.

3 Phobia
I'm new to both these band but I like Phobia a bit more.

4 Gridlink
Only just checked out Pages work and he's awesome. But he's got a few years to go to get to Matsubara's face melting, finger shredding, hyper warp speed grind.

HeroinJesus said...

i can already tell mastabura's gonna win this whole thing. like straight up, i love gridlink, i love mortalized, but this site is too full of gridlink fanboys (don't mean to be offensive about that) for him to not win.

Chaosphere said...

Weel I'll be voting him out when he end's up againt Rob Martin