Grindcore is an extreme fusion genre of heavy metal and hardcore punk that originated in the mid-1980s, drawing inspiration from abrasive-sounding musical styles, such as thrashcore, crust punk, hardcore punk, extreme metal, and industrial. Grindcore is considered a more noise-filled style of hardcore punk while using hardcore's trademark characteristics such as heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, grinding overdriven bass, high-speed tempo, blast beats, and vocals which consist of growls, shouts and high-pitched shrieks. Early groups such as England's Napalm Death are credited with laying the groundwork for the style. It is most prevalent today in North America and Europe, with popular contributors such as Brutal Truth and Nasum. Lyrical themes range from a primary focus on social and political concerns, to gory subject matter and black humor.
A trait of grindcore is the "microsong", far shorter than average for punk or metal. Several bands have produced songs that are only seconds in length.Metal: The Definitive Guide (Garry Sharpe-Young), US Death Metal and Grindcore Many bands, such as Agoraphobic Nosebleed, record simple phrases that may be rhythmically sprawled out across an instrumental lasting only a couple of bars in length.
A variety of subgenres and microgenres have subsequently emerged, often labeling bands according to traits that deviate from regular grindcore; including goregrind, focused on themes of gore (e.g. mutilation and pathology), and pornogrind, fixated on pornographic lyrical themes. Another offshoot is cybergrind which incorporates electronic music elements such as sampling and programmed drums. Although influential within hardcore punk and extreme metal, grindcore remains an underground form of music.
Characteristics
Known for being "among the noisiest, fastest and rawest kinds of metal," grindcore is influenced by crust punk,"In Grind We Crust" Terrorizer #181, March 2009, p. 46, 51 thrashcore, hardcore punk, death metal and thrash metal, as well as noise musical acts like Swans. The name derives from the fact that grind is a British term for thrash; that term was prepended to -core from hardcore. Grindcore relies on standard hardcore punk instrumentation: electric guitar, bass and drums. However, grindcore alters the usual practices of metal or rock music in regard to song structure and tone. The vocal style is "ranging from high-pitched shrieks to low, throat-shredding growls and barks." In some cases, no clear lyrics exist. Vocals may be used as merely an added sound effect, a common practice with bands such as the experimental and jazz-infused band Naked City.
A characteristic of some grindcore songs is the "microsong," lasting only a few seconds. In 2001, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded Brutal Truth the record for "Shortest Music Video" for 1994's "Collateral Damage" (the song lasts four seconds). In 2007, the video for the Napalm Death song "You Suffer" set a new "Shortest Music Video" record: 1.3 seconds. Beyond the microsong, it is characteristic of grindcore to have short songs in general; for example, Carcass' debut album Reek of Putrefaction (1988) consists of 22 tracks with an average length of 1 minute and 48 seconds. It is common for grindcore albums to be very short when compared to other genres, usually consisting of a large track list but having a total length of only 15 to 20 minutes.
Many grindcore groups experiment with tuned-down guitars and play mostly with downstrokes of the pick, power chords and heavy distortion. While the vinyl A-side of Napalm Death's debut, 1987's Scum, is set to Eb tuning, on side B, the guitars are tuned down to C. Their second album From Enslavement to Obliteration and the Mentally Murdered EP were tuned to C ♯. Harmony Corruption, their third full-length album, was tuned up to a D. Bolt Thrower went further, dropping 3½ steps down (A).Johnson 2007, page 04. The bass playing is often overdriven.
Blast beat
The blast beat is a drum beat characteristic of grindcore in all its forms,Adam MacGregor, Agoraphobic Nosebleed review, Dusted, 11 June 2006. Access date: 2 October 2008. although its usage predates the genre itself, in Adam MacGregor's definition, "the blast-beat generally comprises a repeated, sixteenth-note figure played at a very fast tempo, and divided uniformly among the kick drum, snare and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal." Blast beats have been described as "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence."Strub, Whitney. "Behind the Key Club: An Interview with Mark 'Barney' Greenway of Napalm Death". PopMatters, 11 May 2006. Retrieved 17 September 2008. Napalm Death coined the term, though this style of drumming had previously been practiced by others. Daniel Ekeroth argues that the blast beat was first performed by the Swedish group Asocial on their 1982 demo. Lärm ("Campaign For Musical Destruction")Ekeroth, p. 22. Dirty Rotten Imbeciles ("No Sense"), Stormtroopers of Death ("Milk"),Stormtroopers of Death, 1985, track 11. Sarcófago ("Satanas"),Sarcófago, Sepultura ("Antichrist"),Sepultura, 1986, track 10. and Repulsion also included the technique prior to Napalm Death's emergence.
Lyrical themes Grindcore lyrics are typically provocative. A number of grindcore musicians are committed to political and ethical causes, generally leaning towards the far left in connection to grindcore's punk roots."Grindcore Special," p. 46. For example, Napalm Death's songs address a variety of anarchist concerns, in the tradition of anarcho-punk. These themes include anti-racism, feminism, anti-militarism, and anti-capitalism. Early grindcore bands including Napalm Death, Agathocles and Carcass made animal rights one of their primary lyrical themes. Some of them, such as Cattle Decapitation and Carcass, have expressed disgust with human behavior and animal abuse, and are, in some cases, vegetarians or vegans.Carcass biography. NME.com. Access date: 25 April 2009. Carcass' work in particular is often identified as the origin of the goregrind style, which is devoted to "bodily" themes. Groups that shift their bodily focus to sexual matters, such as Gut and the Meat Shits, are sometimes referred to as pornogrind. Seth Putnam's lyrics are notorious for their black comedy,Eduardo Rivadavia, Anal Cunt bio, Allmusic. [] Access date: 25 April 2009. while The Locust tend toward satirical collage, indebted to William S. Burroughs' cut-up method.
History Precursors The early grindcore scene relied on an international network of tape trading and DIY production."Grindcore Special", p. 44. The most widely acknowledged precursors of the grindcore sound are SiegeSteven Blush, "Boston Not L.A.", American Hardcore, Feral House, p. 171. and Repulsion, an early death metal outfit. Siege, from Weymouth, Massachusetts, were influenced by classic American hardcore (Minor Threat, Black Flag, Void) and by British groups like Discharge, Venom, and Motörhead.Mudrian 2004, p. 50. Siege's goal was maximum velocity: "We would listen to the fastest punk and hardcore bands we could find and say, 'Okay, we're gonna deliberately write something that is faster than them, drummer Robert Williams recalled. Repulsion is sometimes credited with inventing the classic grind blast beat (played at 190 bpm), as well as its distinctive bass tone. Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth declares that "Horrified was and still is the defining core of what grind became; a perfect mix of hardcore punk with metallic gore, speed and distortion.""Grindcore Special", p. 41. Writer Freddy Alva credited NYC Mayhem as a notable precursor, calling them "arguably one of the fastest bands on the planet back [in the mid 1980s]".
Other groups in the British grindcore scene, such as Heresy and Unseen Terror, have emphasized the influence of American hardcore punk, including Septic Death, as well as Swedish D-beat."Grindcore Special," p. 43. Sore Throat cites Discharge, Disorder, and a variety of European D-beat and thrash metal groups, including Hellhammer,"Grindcore Special", p. 45. and American hardcore groups, such as Poison Idea and D.R.I. Japanese hardcore, particularly GISM, is also mentioned by a number of originators of the style."Grindcore Special", p. 52. Other key groups cited by current and former members of Napalm Death as formative influences include Discharge,"Dark Recollections: Napalm Death, Scum," Terrorizer, issue 183, May 2009, p. 84-85 Amebix, Throbbing Gristle,Mudrian 2004, page 31. and the aforementioned Dirty Rotten Imbeciles. Post-punk, such as Killing Joke and Joy Division,Interview with Mick Harris, DVD half of Napalm Death's Scum 20 year anniversary reissue. was also cited as an influence on early Napalm Death.
British grindcore
Grindcore, as such, was developed during the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom by Napalm Death, a group who emerged from the anarcho-punk scene in Birmingham, England.Glasper 2009, p. 11 While their first recordings were in the vein of Crass, they eventually became associated with crust punk,"Crustgrind", "Grindcore Special" part 2, p. 46 The group began to take on increasing elements of thrashcore, post-punk, and power electronics, and began describing their sound as "Siege with Celtic Frost riffs".Glasper 2009, p. 12 The group also went through many changes in personnel.Glasper 2009, p. 14 A major shift in style took place after Mick Harris became the group's drummer. Punk historian Ian Glasper indicates that "For several months gob-smacked audiences weren't sure whether Napalm Death were actually a serious band any longer, such was the undeniable novelty of their hyper-speed new drummer." Albert Mudrian's research suggests that the name "grindcore" was coined by Harris. When asked about coming up with the term, Harris said:
Other sources contradict Harris' claim. In a Spin magazine article written about the genre, Steven Blush declares that "the man often credited" for dubbing the style grindcore was Shane Embury, Napalm Death's bassist since 1987. Embury offers his own account of how the grindcore "sound" came to be:
Earache Records founder Digby Pearson concurs with Embury, saying that Napalm Death "put hardcore and metal through an accelerator."Blush 1991, page 35 Pearson, however, said that grindcore "wasn't just about the speed of [the] drums, blast beats, etc." He claimed that "it actually was coined to describe the guitars – heavy, downtuned, bleak, harsh riffing guitars [that] 'grind', so that's what the genre was described as, by the musicians who were its innovators [and] proponents."
While abrasive, grindcore achieved a measure of mainstream visibility. New Musical Express featured Napalm Death on their cover in 1988, declaring them "the fastest band in the world."Glasper 2009, p. 22 As James Hoare, deputy editor of Terrorizer, writes: