Grindcore Bracketology 3: The 2-7 Matchups

Round one is in the books, folks. I don't think there were any surprises with this one, but here's who will be hitting the showers early.

I don't  think any serious grind fan will discount just how awesome and quietly underrated Enemy Soil's Casualties of Progress is, but Horrified is a grindcore cornerstone. Repulsion trounced them 20-4.

In a matchup of early punky grind, Napalm Death's Scum ran all over Extreme Noise Terror's A Holocaust in Your Head by 19-5.

We all appreciate what Matt Widener did with Liberteer, but cmon, Discordance Axis' The Inalienable Dreamless is The Inalienable Fucking Dreamless. (I'm kinda a fan of this record). This one wasn't even close at 22-3.

Finally, I was curious how this one would go down since I juiced the rankings to force proteges Cellgraft to square off against masters Insect Warfare. I thought this might be the best chance for a spoiler, but I underestimated your love of World Extermination, which stomped all over External Habitation by 22-2.

So that was round one. You can keep tabs on how the brackets are shaking out here. Meanwhile, here are your 2-7 matchups. Once again, you have until Sunday. You can vote here or at the Facebook page. Have at it.

THE GEEZERS

More Metal
2. Napalm Death-From Enslavement to Obliteration v. 7. Assuck-Misery Index

More Punk
2. Brutal Truth-Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses v. 7. Unseen Terror-Human Error


THE UPSTARTS

More Arty
2. Pig Destroyer-Prowler in the Yard v. 7. Nasum-Helvete

More Farty
2. Womrot-Abuse v. 7. Sakatat-Bir Devrin Sonu

Grind in Rewind 2012

This is probably the hardest year end list I've ever compiled because 2012 gave us a good, varied crop to pick from and I masochistically enforced a 10 albums only limit on myself. That means I've written this post about seven times, tweaking the order and shifting bands in and out of the lineup. But I think I'm fairly comfortable with my top 10. Unless I change my mind and rewrite it next week. Anyway, here's my favorite albums from 2012 as of right now. Feel free to add, delete and reorder my choices and lecture me on my stupidity in the comments. Here's to a productive 2013. 

10. Detroit
Detroit
Grindcore Karaoke
Detroit's self titled record, their second album of the year, was an example of evolution through regression. The Canadian youngsters (some of whom can't legally buy beer in the States), proved their mettle by getting in touch with their troglodyte selves, turning in a buzzing, biting little critter of an album that's perfectly noisy and decidedly single-minded. Detroit are already banging out riffs in preparation for a more traditionally full-length record. I sincerely hope they build off the template they've established here.

9. Napalm Death
Utilitarian
Century Media
If you told me at the start of the year that venerable grind geezers Napalm Death would be busting out one of the most visceral, exciting and varied records of their career 20 years and 11 albums after the current lineup solidified, I would have been highly skeptical to say the least. But Utilitarian kicks all kinds of ass. Liberated by their elder statesmen status, Napalm Death are free not to give a fuck and indulge in whatever whim struck them in the studio. So you've got crazy saxaphone and Gregorian chanting staple-gunned to crusty death-grind and somehow it all just works. A little less chanting would have been fine by me, but when everything is this damn good, I can't really complain. Sticking Napalm Death on a year end list is cliche at this point, but this is easily one of my most-listened albums of the year.
 
8. Standing on a Floor of Bodies
Sacrilegious and Culturally Deficient
7 Degrees
Legions of demonic doomsters and even the mighty Mythbusters have struggled in vain to achieve the brown note--that mythical infrasonic tone that can make you shit your pants. Frightmare duo Standing on a Floor of Bodies prove that it's not how low you drone, but how effectively. Right after I wiped off the shit Standing on a Floor of Bodies scared out of me, I strapped on my Depends and put Sacrilegious and Culturally Deficient on for another spin. Eschewing the modern horror trend for just jump cut shocks, Standing on a Floor of Bodies keep their bass-slung grind/violence shocks old school, building a claustrophobic atmosphere that revels in breaking down your psyche rather than traipsing through your viscera.

7.  F.U.B.A.R.
Lead Us to War
Hammerheart
There wasn't another album this year that felt as massive as F.U.B.A.R.'s Lead Us to War. While they're not likely to win a foot race with some of their speed obsessed contemporaries, the Dutch grind/violence institution made sure every second of their long awaited album hit you firmly between the peepers and left an indelible mark. Fast, slow, screaming, despairing, F.U.B.A.R. had a range and sincerity sorely lacking in too many grind bands. They delivered their diatribes with the subtlety of a car crash, and I loved every second of it.
 
6. Antigama
Stop the Chaos
Selfmadegod
This has been a good year for getting sci-fi all up in your grindcore and Antigama's stop gap EP Stop the Chaos was a great excursion beyond the asteroid belt. Jetting into the black infinitude gave these technically adroit Poles a platform to get all cyberpunky up in here. It doesn't hurt that Stop the Chaos is also Antigama's most focused, song-centric batch of tunes in quite a while. This will keep you occupied until NASA figures out what caused those organic compounds on Mars (aliens, duh). The chaosmongers are coming to take you away.
 

5. The Kill
Make 'Em Suffer
Blastasfuk
Australia has been on a grindcore tear in recent years as The Kill are rightly the country's alpha dingo. Named after one of Napalm Death's finest songs, the band lives up to its name, ripping and snorting through 15 songs in under 20 minutes of impeccably performed grind nastiness. This is everything you want in a grind record and not a jot more. But you'll be too busy scraping your brains off the wall to care. They make you

 suffer; it doesn't matter why. 

4. Liberteer

Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees

Relapse 

I still think a more varied vocal assault would have really pushed this revolutionary call to arms over the top, but that's getting pretty damn nitpicky when you consider the staggering breadth and originality Matthew Widener served up as Liberteer. I listen to way more grind than is probably healthy for any stable person and I can say I've literally never heard anything like this. The operatic sweep and ideological focus of Better to Die on Your Feet Than Live on Your Knees is unlike everything you've ever heard before. The way it integrates into a singular musical experience speaks to a level of thoughtfulness and foresight sorely lacking from a lot of other musical quarters. Viva la revolucion.

3. thedowngoing
ATHOUSANDYEARSOFDARKNESS
Bandcamp
More like a thousand years of screaming in unending agony as demons strip away your flesh one teensy thin layer of skin at a time. Australia's gruesome grindcore twosome thedowngoing roared back again in 2012 with yet another tidy 10 minutes of soul flaying insanity that traps you in the pincer of Mathias Huxley's insane screeching and white-noised ear drum rape. Noisegrind has always been a fringe of a fringe of a musical underbelly, but thedowngoing's deliberately inaccessible art should get wider acclaim anywhere that people declaim their love for anything extreme. Time to add one more lethal addition to the long list of venous nasties that infest the antipodes.

2. Sakatat
Bir Devrin Sonu
Everyday Hate
What Bir Devrin Sonu lacks in length, Sakatat more than make up for with raging aggression. There is not a wasted second to be found here as Sakatat minced through a maelstrom of grind and wipeout screaming. Sakatat succeed by burning grindcore down to its most basic constituent parts and then kicking their fucking asses with energy and aplomb. Enjoy all eight minutes of Bir Devrin Sonu because Sakatat have just called it quits. They weren't joking when they named their album End of an Era.

1. Dephosphorus
Night Sky Transform
7 Degrees
Dephosphorus transformed more than the night sky with their sophomore effort; the Hellenic trio upended many of my preconceptions about what grindcore could be and convey. Night Sky Transform has evolved so far beyond mere grindcore that even trying to squeeze them into that label feels like a gross disservice to what they've brewed up as they musically venture into the empty(?) spaces between the stars. The first time I heard Axiom in 2011, this immediately became my most anticipated album of 2012, and Dephosphorus did not fail to deliver, even if they charted a course I didn't expect. Axiom was more immediate and visceral, but Night Sky Transform is ultimately the more rewarding musical experience if you take the time to invest yourself in its otherworldly meditations on the cosmic irrelevance of humanity and the splendor that is the universe at large. All hail aurora.

G&P Review: Sakatat

Sakatat
Bir Devrin Sonu
Everyday Hate
I blame GridLink for this proliferating notion that you can fob off less than 10 minutes of music on people as a full length album. Goddammit, Chang, how many more lives must you ruin? This is why we can't have nice things.
But setting aside for the nonce semantic arguments about the definition of a full length, Sakatat present you with probably the finest eight minutes of straight up, ripping grindcore you're likely to hear this year on debut *ahem* full length Bir Devrin Sonu. While they don't overstay their welcome, Sakatat just do all the little things right. They don't let their blasting obscure that the band is bringing genuine riffs to the table, like the latest iteration of "Adim Adim Enerki" (previously heard on their 2010 split with Dispepsiaa). Easily the finest song in the band's repertoire to date, it skips a tripping beat over an insistent, prowling guitar riff. Even when they end on the (relatively) slow song ("relatively slow" here means punk tempo) "Tahammul Etmek Kabul Etmek Demek," they still keep it to a tight two minutes that keeps its central riff piquant by surfing it over roiling waves of busy drumming.
The entire Bir Devrin Sonu experience is an exhilarating cannonball and careens ahead without a glance to the right or left for eight straight minutes. Don't expect to be surprised, but expect to thoroughly entertained. No experimentation, but no bullshit either. The best comparison to Bir Devrin Sonu is probably Wormrot's Dirge. In both cases the bands bust out simple albums that have a fun core, feel good grind that doesn't skimp on memorable riffs and an infectious energy.

[Full disclosure: Everyday Hate sent me a review copy.]

The Young Turks: Sakatat Mark the End of an Era

"It's fitting, it's right. Anatolia has always been the cradle of civilizations. New consciousnesses were born here. The Europeans have always looked down on us; they used to call us the Sick Man of Europe, but I tell you, it's Europe that is the Sick Man. We have wisdoms from thousands of years of civilizations and empires and religions, but they never listened to us because they invented the Enlightenment and the Renaissance and capitalism and democracy and technology, and those are the monologues of the twenty-first century. Maybe they'll realise that the future is going to be a dialogue. Maybe they'll realise that ideas can come from the Islamic world -- new ideas, ideas the world has never seen before, completely revolutionary ways of thinking about what it means to be human."

Ian McDonald
The Dervish House
2011



Ian McDonald's novel The Dervish House places Turkey at the center of the mid-21st Century energy and technology revolution. Turkey becomes the key linkage between the abundant fossil fuel resources of the Middle East and Russia and the power-hungry markets of Old Europe. McDonald's Turkey is also the growing center of the booming nanotech revolution, ensuring its prominence for decades to come, marking it as a rising economic and cultural juggernaut to define the decades to come.
We've got a ways to go before that vision is realized, but Sakatat are making the argument for Turkey's prominence as the powerhouse nexus between the tradition of continental European grind and the rising vitality of the Asian upstarts. Sakatat will commemorate the waning of old grindcore and the rise of new cultural pathways this summer with their first full length, Bir Devrin Sonu (That's End Of An Era for all you anglophones) courtesy of Bringer Of Gore (the LP) and Everydayhate (the CD version).
Sakatat built their reputation with a series of exceptional EPs and splits, honing their signature brand high octane grind, but the Ankara trio spent more time sculpting a total listening experience for Bir Devrin Sonu, vocalist Semih O. said.
"We’ve been gathering ideas and new tunes for the album during last two to three years so it is safe to say that we had the image of what would eventually become our full-length already," Semih said. "Being obsessed with making our records sound like a single-cut rather than bunch of short and fast tunes lined up after each other, recording a longer-length release has actually become quite a challenge."
The ferocity that defined Sakatat's past efforts was a matter of necessity because the band has never had the time or resources to camp out in a studio and contemplate their collective grindcore navel. While Sakatat were allotted more studio time than your average Bela Tarr film when it came time to record Bir Devrin Sonu, Semih said the savagery hasn't suffered because of the added comfort.
"This record and the recording session differ from the previous ones in so many ways: firstly we’ve spent quite a lot of them tightening this record so it is safe to say it is the fiercest recording we’ve ever done," he boasts. "Secondly, considering the length of the recording, this time we had more than three hours in the studio for the first time ever, which enabled us to work on the details. Lyrically, it is still straight and to the point with no metaphors whatsoever. However, this time we’ve covered a couple of new issues including the recent state of the so-called DIY scene. So, I would like to think that we ended up recording the album that would represent the sound, style and the attitude that we had always aimed for."

Tarih? (History?)

Sakatat have won me over to their cause even though I don't understand word one of what Semih is screaming. The band's commitment to DIY punk ethics also extends to singing exclusively in their native Turkish, to better address the issues they feel most personally. Though English has become the default language of the international metal community, Sakatat have made their Turkish roots and uniquely Turkish politics an integral part of the band's identity.
"I'd like to think singing in our native language is a big part of what we stand for," Semih said. "Grindcore or hardcore/punk in general is supposed to be anti-capitalist, so how would it make any sense to sing in the Yankee language? I have a lot of respect for bands singing in their own language which, to me, is a strong statement, itself. On the other hand, that shouldn’t necessarily mean you need to sing in your own language to be 'political enough.' If we have lost any attention solely because our name sounds 'weird' or people are too lazy to check out the translations to figure out what the lyrics are about, then this is a risk that we are willing to take."

Birleşmiş Milletler, Bölünmüş Halklar (United Nations, Divided Peoples)

For the last several years I've become convinced that the vital heart of grindcore has shifted away from Europe and North America. Complacent First World punks seem to have lost that genuine sense of outrage and anger that keeps grind relevant. Instead, they're being lapped by up and coming corners of the globe like South America and South East Asia where memories of genuine political and cultural repression are vividly fresh. Standing at the cultural crossroads of Europe and Asia, Sakatat seem uniquely poised to reap the benefits of grindcore's past and promising future. (If you can name Turkish grind bands other than Sakatat and Ketum, you're doing better than me. Semih does recommend Burial Invocation, Godslaying Hellblast, Engulfed and "old-timers" Cenotaph.)
But my thesis may be flawed, Semih says. Rather than complex notions of shifting cultural balance, he suggests it's as simple as firing up your browser window.
"In my opinion, it has a little to do with anything else than the fact internet has helped people who were too lazy to go to the post office reach those scenes," Semih said. "I think the international DIY grindcore/metal/punk scene has always been there if you knew how to find it. If one’s main source of new bands are basement shows in their neighbourhood or features in multinational car company-sponsored magazines, then nobody should be surprised if he/she misses a whole lot of great bands and ideas that are out there. In our case, oppression in Turkey has come to a point that requires a lot more than playing grindcore for the same 50 people over and over again to overcome the urge to outrage."
Saktat will do all they can to incite that outrage all across Europe this summer as they hit the tour routes and festival circuit in support of Bir Devrin Sonu.
"Well, now that we finally recorded a longer-player, we would like to do as much touring as possible," Semih said. "However, although there are talks of other tours in the future, with so much uncertainty regarding the future of our personal lives, we are unable to announce anything at this point besides the already booked one-month tour around Europe in July 2012, which includes Play Fast Or Don't Festival and Obscene Extreme Festival in addition to about 20 other gigs in Germany, Poland, Czech Republic, Slovakia, Hungary, Italy, Slovenia, Croatia and Austria. The tour dates and details regarding the album will be announced on our web-site within a few weeks: www.sakatatgrindcore.com."

You Grind...But Why?: Sakatat

Turkey's Sakatat rule and rule hard. That's really all you need to know. The trio won me over on the strength of a four song tour promo CD that destroyed your average band's most polished effort, and now I'm a slavering fan for life. For a band that writes some of the most amazing, concise grind perfection around, vocalist Semih O. will wax rhapsodic about the style at great length given half a chance. If you don't want to blow of holiday plans with your family and thrash in the basement with friends after this, you probably don't have a pulse.

"We barely had any access to decent metal where I grew up, so during my childhood I would listen to basically anything I could get my hands on, whether it be some local metal band or first two Carcass albums on a dubbed tape which is how I got to know grindcore," Semih said. "However, it would take me a while to actually appreciate it. I think I was in high school when I got this Napalm Death VHS from an older metalhead, and I remember watching it back to back, over and over again. Around the same period, I happened to receive tapes and records of bands like Agathocles, Grossmember, Rot and plenty of other obscure underground bands, and all of a sudden grindcore has become the thing. Until then I (and everyone around me) was mostly into death metal and other genres of metal (which I still am) but all those bands introduced me to the other side of the fence which, in a way, was rather punk than metal. So, it is safe to say it was actually grindcore that made me aware of the fact that there is also a huge punk/hardcore scene out there to dive into, but that is another story. I don't remember actually thinking about it back then, but I guess grindcore has had everything I liked about metal (extremity, brutality) minus pretty much everything it lacked of (political awareness,some kind of sloppiness that I actually enjoyed, the DIY attitude etc...).
"Back then I'd been playing the drums for years already. However, all I have been doing since the 6th grade was to spend my weekends rehearsing with local metalheads of my age just for the sake of doing it. So, as soon as I graduated from high school, I spent the summer working and eventually bought a drum-kit and the first thing I did (even before tuning the drums, haha) was to convince my high school desk-mate Onur to record the four punky grindcore tunes I had came up with down in our basement of which two ended up being on our spontaneously formed band's demo that would be called K?sa ve Çi? (Short and Raw).
"Getting into and playing grindcore for me was a pretty spontaneous occasion, however what kept my interest fresh in this humanly non-normal and occasionally lo-fi and raw noise have been the feeling that made me wanna tear my clothes off and smash my head on the monitor, the politically-aware attitude that came up with the noise and the fact that I could even release my outrage against the social and political oppression of the daily life through the bullshit lyrics that we would bury within the short and fast tunes we came up with. Throughout years, all the people we've met during our tours in faraway countries, the bands I've got to see at DIY shows and listened to on the black wax also proved that this wasn't a fad but more of a life-style or at least what would eventually become a big part of my life. And I guess that explains why I [would] rather meet my bandmates to record a new 7" (and consume whole lot of tea before, during and afterwards) than spend the weekends with my parents in my hometown, went on tours in fuck-knows-where [rather] than go on a vacation or more recently, cancelled my trip to the seaside so as to save some cash for the new records that came out this year."

G&P Review: Sakatat

Sakatat
Western European Tour Autumn 2010
Self Released
If Germany ever gets tired of bailing out their fellow European Union members, maybe the continental collective will finally sit down and get serious about Turkey’s desire to sign up. If nothing else, it would piss off those insolvent Greeks. As an added benefit, it would let the E.U. lay claim to Sakatat, bolstering their grindcore roster in the face of Southeast Asia’s recent ascendancy.
In good faith can I deem a four song CD-R meant to be a tour promo an essential record for the grindily minded? Yes, yes I can. Collecting tracks from their splits with Dispepsiaa and Mesrine, Sakatat just bring it hard with a palpable desperation. I’ve been saying for a couple of years now the locus of grind innovation and passion has moved from North America and Europe to developing nations where either cultural repression or economic instability have given them genuine cause for outrage and unease. Turkey may not be teetering on the edge of collapse like some, but Sakatat bring the kind of intensity that’s been lacking in bands that can kick off a tour and be pretty assured of getting a job when they roll back home to mom’s couch. These guys sound fucking serious; like grind is all they’ve got.
This is the sound of slavering madmen set loose; you can practically feel the spittle flying through the stereo. The songs burrow like boll weevils into your brain, often deploying a perfectly timed paused, letting you draw half a breath before sucker punching you in the solar plexus with their brass knuckled brand of tooth chipping grind. A lot of their songs are free for download on their website and you won’t go wrong adding them to your playlist.

[Full disclosure: the band sent me a review copy.]