Bump’n’Grind: The Catchuppening
Up is the direction in which we must catch.
So typical. Can’t even leave grindcore unsupervised for just half a year without releases piling up like crazy. We’ve got a fair amount to get to, so I’m keeping the blurbs extra short. No embeds either cause I don’t want editors to hate me.
No/Más | Consume / Deny / Repent | April 29, 2022
Coming at us from Washington with more slashes than your 90s horror movie collection, this thing draws about evenly from grind, death, and hardcore influences. Possibly enough crossover appeal to pull in grind skeptics. The growls, in particular, would fit well on an OSDM record. Well worth the price tag (lol @ trying to make money with music though).
Coffin Nails | Years of Lead | April 1, 2022
The cover art made me expect modern grind with noise and sludge influences, but old school goregrind is actually where they’re coming from, at least musically. Gurgling vocals spew forth over raw shredding that reminds me a bit of Repulsion. They even got the occasional guitar solo!
Narakah | Nemesis Cloak | July 1, 2022
Quite sophisticated cover art and the occasional ambient noise don’t mean that we’re dealing with anything fancy here. While there’s some dissonant elements in the riffing, the ridiculous gutturals, merciless blasting, and samples from e.g. Ghostbusters do their part to dumb things down to classical, furious grind fare.
Bodyrot | Fleshwork | May 20, 2022
Debut demo, so we may forgive the rookie mistake of wasting a whole minute with a slow intro part. Apart from that, there’s nothing that’s not to like here, especially if World Extermination is your grind gospel. A dash of crust allows for occasional respite from the onslaught, but for the most part, it’s high-quality, high-speed mayhem. More please.
The Slow Death of Gaia | Paper/Tongue/Portal | June 18, 2022
Just two tracks plus an interlude, but I gotta say, for experimental grind verging on mathcore, this is pretty dang good. Some clean, spoken vocals add a noise rock feel, and even that ends up working out. Maybe I’m just broken.
Tulip | Derangement, Exquisite Tenderness | July 15, 2022
Let’s stay mathy for a minute. In case you missed the premiere where I compared them to Freighter, let me repeat and expound on that comparison: it’s mathcore that isn’t immediately off-putting. Lots of weird rhythms, but not 27 of them per song, so you’ve got time to get into them. Also lots of fun bleeps and bloops.
Brainwasher | Vicious Circles | August 15, 2021
From Gothenburg, although neither the city’s main export nor their “big” grindcore countrymen have had much influence on this. Crusty grind that doesn’t bring all that much to the table besides a slightly unusual, very good vocalist. By no means bad, but could be a little more interesting.
Nurser | Nurser | March 25, 2022
This is more like what I was expecting from Coffin Nails, taking the crushing heaviness and the agonized, hateful vocals of sludge and combining them with a grind framework. If discomfort is your comfort zone and you don’t much mind having all the air squeezed out of your lungs, this is the one for you.
THRIF | Echo Chambers | July 22, 2022
I’ve aged 40 years in the 4 years since I premiered THRIF’s last EP, but these guys sound younger and crisper than ever. With a third member in tow and a much improved sound, their crusty and sludgy grind is still dirty as heck, still pissed at the US, and still fiercely DIY.
Belarus Beaver | Symphony of Fallen Trees | July 29, 2022
Clean grind with a tech death edge and the thematic single-mindedness of Slugdge. Can you guess what their animal of choice is? I’d argue that the album should have ended with the absolute anthem that is “True Beaver of Death,” but it doesn’t feel overly long, and I’m surprised that despite the shitpost-level concept, the music is anything but ridiculous. Let’s see if they transcend the genre before we’re all killed by collapsing dams.
