Bump’n’Grind – Don’t call it a comeback
It’s been…
…two years since we bumped and ground. Whipped our heads back and forth and said we’re angry. Yesterday, an epiphany: enough grind has dropped to say that I’m sorry.
Smearing | Acts of Service | December 10
This isn’t gonna be a 2025 roundup, but I did want to include this one from back in December because it’s just the type of grind you can’t go wrong with. A 16-minute barrage of blasting that draws equally from crust and hardcore that keeps the urgency high throughout, only offering the occasional reprieve in the form of some breakdowns. You can probably guess from its length that the final track gets a bit more experimental; on top of that, some tracks skewing slightly skronkwards (most notably “Subsidized”) provides an additional smattering of variation. Leaning more into these elements might save future efforts from fading into the background as easily, but this is not intended to be a high-minded, challenging experience. It’s a pissed-off pamphlet against capitalism, perfect for a post-work purge.
For a more recent release that I felt hit a very similar spot, check out HCPM by Killing Pace.
Kani Kannushi | Crustaceanal Hymns of Sobbing Worship | January 1
Uhm… yes. Well. I suppose with everything going the way of the crab, it stands to reason that crabgrind would be the ultimate form of the genre, but Kani Kannushi might be a bit ahead of their time. As you’d probably expect from the art, this one features a LOT of squeaky girl anime samples, but rather than relegating them only to intros, they’re implemented into the songs, often in warped and mangled fashion, to an extent that they could be credited with vocal duties. Together with the guttural main vocals, they reside atop an ever-swirling cacophony of grind, brutal death, chirpy chiptune melodies that occasionally devolve into noise, and brief forays into techno and Japanese-style post-rock. For such a hyperactive blend that purposefully wants to abolish notions of genre, the result is surprisingly cohesive. Tracks like “The Sheeple Bow Before the Kani” balance all the disparate elements pretty well and let a distinct, individual style shine through. Worship the Kani, I guess.
Feed Them Broken Teeth | Poison of the Masses | January 2
Michael Baer is a very prolific dude from Louisiana dabbling in experimental death metal, drone, and whatever the hell Toilet Penis was. With his grind project, he also proves to be based af, as this record chronicles “the inevitable self-consumption of fascist empire.” This happens in the form of horrifically dark goregrind that barely ever lets up throughout the album’s run time. The snare is popping, the vocals are conjured up from the bowels of the earth, and the samples are classics, providing some of the few seconds of peace. Memorable moments aren’t exactly plenty, but the whole thing is terrific to behold as it plows along on its single-minded path of utter obliteration.
For further gory goodness that’s a bit more generous about letting you breathe now and then, don’t miss Abyssurge by Strup.
Forcefed Horsehead/Shaving the Werewolf | From Horrid to Worse | February 13
Obviously, everyone remembers the excellently named Forcefed Horsehead from my recent Riff of the Week submission, but it bears repeating that this “Thrash-y grind-y thingamabob” kicks major ass. The usual hyperbolic aggression of the genre takes a bit of a backseat to (neo)crust and some slightly more groovy elements, but the result is still a pretty brutal beast, particularly on “Keelhaul” and “Cryptids.” These guys have consistently hit dead center of a genre intersection I hugely enjoy, so I would highly recommend to get not only this, but their entire back catalog.
The far less excellently named Shaving the Werewolf are not, in fact, a shitty metalcore band from the 2010s, as you can tell by the name having uppercase letters and spaces. Instead, “Smoking the Crack of Dawn” (that title makes up for a lot) initially struck me as “what if you turned the meanness dial on Cancer Bats way up,” but soon enough became more like “mathcore for people who don’t like mathcore” (e.g. me). The closest comparison is perhaps Freighter; there’s plenty of chaos, a certain angularity, and even similar use of synths (?) to lay eerie melodies on top the shredding guitars, but things are generally kept more straightforward than with other acts of the genre.
Croaked | Fucking Croaked | February 13
Thanks to Brock Samson for bringing this one to my attention. Croaked is the person behind The Mosaic Window doing very death-leaning deathgrind with a nice level of versatility, interspersing fits of sheer aggression with mid-tempo and even melodic parts. “Voluntary Radiation,” in particular, could almost pass for melodeath, but the vomiting, mildly distorted vocals are doing their part to maintain the grindcore… uh… core of the music. Overall, both the diversity and the impressive technical ability remind me of Nest of Scum, another one-man-project I’ve covered in the past. Both seem to follow a somewhat “anything goes” approach, not overly concerned with strict genre boundaries, but rather following ideas wherever they may lead. Great stuff, and it clocks in at barely over 10 minutes, so you’ve no excuse not to give this at least one spin.
That’s it for today. What’s that? All this new-fangled grind isn’t for you? Nobody did it better than Repulsion? In that case, I have one last bonus recommendation with Necrotic Mass. Absolutely excellent old school stuff. Thanks for reading!
