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.
Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands in 1981. None of the band's original members have been in the group since 1986, but since Utopia Banished (1992), the lineup of bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris, drummer Danny Herrera and lead vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway has remained consistent through most of the band's career. From 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado and Mitch Harris as replacements for guitarist Bill Steer. Following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece.
Scum is the debut studio album by English grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 1 July 1987 by Earache Records. The two sides of Scum were recorded by two different lineups in sessions separated by about a year; the only musician in both incarnations was drummer Mick Harris.
Possessed is an American death metal band, originally formed in 1982 in the San Francisco Bay Area.
Michael John Harris is an English musician from Birmingham. He was the drummer for Napalm Death between 1985 and 1991, and is credited for coining the term "grindcore". After Napalm Death, Harris joined Painkiller with John Zorn and Bill Laswell. Since the mid-1990s, Harris has worked primarily in electronic and ambient music, his main projects being Scorn and Lull. He has also collaborated with musicians including James Plotkin and Extreme Noise Terror. According to AllMusic, Harris's "genre-spanning activities have done much to jar the minds, expectations, and record collections of audiences previously kept aggressively opposed."
Shane Thomas Embury is a British musician, who is primarily known as the bassist of the grindcore and death metal band Napalm Death since 1987—the longest-serving member of the band.
Mortician is an American death metal band formed in Yonkers, New York, in 1989. They have released most of their albums since their House by the Cemetery EP with Relapse Records, but have released their latest album with their own label, Mortician Records. They have toured several times throughout America and Europe. The band is inspired by horror and slasher films, which is heavily expressed in the lyrics, artwork, and the uses of samples throughout their discography.
Hollenthon is a heavy metal band from Austria founded in 1994.
Repulsion is an American grindcore band from Flint, Michigan, founded in 1984.
With Vilest of Worms to Dwell is the second studio album by Austrian symphonic death metal band Hollenthon, released by Napalm Records in 2001.
Sore Throat were a British crust punk band formed in Huddersfield in 1987. They are known for being one of the earliest exponents of the grindcore subgenre known as "noisecore", as well as for launching the careers of several prominent members of the British heavy metal community.
Gorerotted were an English deathgrind band formed in 1997 that disbanded in January 2008 and reformed with new members as The Rotted. Gorerotted's lyrics and song titles were largely inspired by horror films and serial killers. The band's song titles often incorporated humorous rhymes or puns such as "Cut, Gut, Beaten, Eaten", "Put Your Bits in a Concrete Mix", and "Only Tools and Corpses", a pun on the popular British sitcom Only Fools and Horses, the latter beginning with a similar introductory drumbeat to the sitcom's theme music.
For God Your Soul... For Me Your Flesh is the debut album of the Austrian death metal band Pungent Stench. It was originally released in 1990 on Nuclear Blast. The original CD pressing came with ten bonus track off the split LP with Disharmonic Orchestra and the Extreme Deformity EP. The lyrics mostly deal with cannibalism and are often tongue-in-cheek.
Praise the Names of the Musical Assassins is a compilation album of "rare and unreleased material" by Austrian death metal band Pungent Stench. It was originally released in 1997 through Nuclear Blast, two years after the band had split-up. The album, "which collected all the rare and unreleased Pungent Stench material available," contains tracks from the band's early demo tapes, Mucous Secretion, and Extreme Deformity, which was released as the group's first EP in 1989. These "infamous" demos, along with a split-LP with Disharmonic Orchestra, caused a considerable amount of interest in the group, eventually leading them to sign a record deal with German label Nuclear Blast.
Masters of Moral - Servants of Sin is the fourth album of the Austrian death metal band Pungent Stench. It was originally released in 2001 on Nuclear Blast. The album was recorded after the band had re-united. The lyrical content is more Christian-based, though there are other themes such as school shootings and paedophilia.
Ampeauty is the fifth album of the Austrian death metal band Pungent Stench. It was originally released in 2004 on Nuclear Blast. The lyrical content is more fetish-oriented than on the previous albums, with many songs focusing on acrotomophilia and apotemnophilia.
Disharmonic Orchestra are an Austrian death metal/grindcore band.
Cripple Bastards is a grindcore band from Asti, Italy. They were formed in 1988 in order to keep their area on the hardcore punk map as most of the other bands around them were breaking up.
Martin Schirenc is an Austrian guitarist and vocalist, best known as a founder of death metal/grindcore band Pungent Stench and symphonic death metal band Hollenthon.
Straight Ahead was an American straight edge hardcore punk band formed in Queens, New York City in 1984 by drummer and vocalist Tommy Carroll, guitarist Gordon Ancis and bassist Tony Marc Shimkin.
