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 and high-pitched shrieks. Early groups like 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 blast beat is a type of drum beat that originated in hardcore punk and grindcore, and is often associated with certain styles of extreme metal, namely black metal and death metal, and occasionally in metalcore. 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 bass drum, snare, and ride, crash, or hi-hat cymbal." Blast beats have been described by PopMatters contributor Whitney Strub as, "maniacal percussive explosions, less about rhythm per se than sheer sonic violence".
The 'original' or traditional blastbeat is a single-stroke roll played between your cymbal and snare, with your kick playing simultaneously with every cymbal hit.
Napalm Death are an English grindcore band formed in Meriden, West Midlands, in 1981. While none of its original members remain in the group since December 1986, the lineup of vocalist Mark "Barney" Greenway, bassist Shane Embury, guitarist Mitch Harris and drummer Danny Herrera has remained consistent through most of the band's career since 1992's Utopia Banished, although, from 1989 to 2004, Napalm Death were a five-piece band after they added Jesse Pintado as the replacement of one-time guitarist Bill Steer; following Pintado's departure, the band reverted to a four-piece rather than replace him.
Scum is the debut studio album by English grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 1 July 1987 by Earache Records. The two sides of the record were recorded by two different lineups in sessions separated by about a year; the only musician in both incarnations was drummer Mick Harris. The two sides are very different, and the two taken together serve to bridge stylistic elements of heavy metal and punk rock. While the songs on the A-side are influenced heavily by hardcore punk and anarcho-punk, the vocals and lower-tuned electric guitars on the B-side anticipate subsequent developments in extreme metal. Loudwire put it in the list of the best 10 metal album of 1987.
Goregrind is a fusion genre of grindcore and death metal. British band Carcass are commonly credited for the emergence of the genre. Goregrind is recognized for its heavily edited, pitch shifted "watery"-sounding vocals and abrasive musicianship rooted in grindcore.
Nasum was a Swedish grindcore band from Örebro, formed in 1992. The band released four studio albums and developed into "one of that country's premier metal acts". They disbanded after the December 2004 tsunami killed the band's frontman, Mieszko Talarczyk.
Thrashcore is a fast tempo subgenre of hardcore punk that emerged in the early 1980s. Thrashcore is essentially sped-up hardcore, often using blast beats. Songs can be very brief, and thrashcore is in many ways a less dissonant, less metallic forerunner of grindcore. The genre is sometimes associated with skateboarder subculture.
Terrorizer is an American grindcore band formed in 1986 in Los Angeles, California. After disbanding, its members gained recognition by playing in influential extreme metal bands, such as Morbid Angel, Napalm Death and Nausea. To date, Terrorizer has released four studio albums, and broken up twice. The band reunited again in 2009, this time without Pintado, who had died three years prior.
Discharge are an English hardcore punk band formed in 1977 in Stoke-on-Trent, England. The band is known for influencing several sub-genres of extreme music and their songs have been covered by some of the biggest names in heavy metal and other genres. The musical sub-genre of D-beat is named after Discharge and the band's distinctive drumbeat.
Carcass are an English extreme metal band from Liverpool that was formed in 1986. The band have gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Bill Steer and bassist and vocalist Jeff Walker as the only constant members. They broke up in 1996, but reformed in 2007 without one of its original members, drummer Ken Owen, due to health reasons. To date, the band have released seven studio albums, two compilation albums, four EPs, two demo albums, one video album, and six music videos.
Extreme Noise Terror are a British extreme metal band formed in Ipswich, England in 1985 and one of the earliest and most influential crust bands. Noted for one of the earliest uses of dual vocalists in hardcore, and for recording a number of sessions for BBC Radio 1 DJ John Peel, the band started as crust punks and helped characterise the early, archetypal grindcore sound with highly political lyrics, fast guitars and tempos, and often very short songs.
Earache Records is a British independent record label, music publisher and management company founded by Digby Pearson in 1985, based in Nottingham, England, with offices in London and New York. The label helped to pioneer extreme metal by releasing early grindcore and death metal records between the late 1980s and mid-1990s. Its roster has since diversified into more mainstream guitar music, working with bands such as Rival Sons, the Temperance Movement, Blackberry Smoke, Scarlet Rebels and the White Buffalo. The company also hosted the 'Earache Express' stage at Glastonbury Festival in 2017 and 'The Earache Factory' at Boomtown 2018. The label's logo is a homage to Thrasher magazine, as Pearson was a skateboard culture enthusiast.
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."
Rotten Sound is a Finnish grindcore band from Vaasa, formed in 1993. The band comprises vocalist Keijo Niinimaa, guitarist Mika Aalto, bassist Kristian Toivainen, and drummer Sami Latva. The band has released eight studio albums and "earned a reputation for being one of the most intense bands on the Scandinavian death metal/grindcore scene".
"You Suffer" is a song by English grindcore band Napalm Death from the band's debut studio album, Scum (1987). The song is precisely 1.316 seconds long. The song was written by Nicholas Bullen, Justin Broadrick, and Mick Harris during the March 1986 demo sessions for From Enslavement to Obliteration.
Fear, Emptiness, Despair is the fifth studio album by British grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 31 May 1994. Napalm Death's inclusion on the Mortal Kombat soundtrack brought significant exposure to the band and this album, alongside the fact that the band's label Earache had formed a partnership with Columbia Records which allowed the album to disseminate to a wider audience. RAW magazine listed Fear, Emptiness, Despair as one of the essential album of the 1990s.
The following is a comprehensive discography of Napalm Death, an influential English grindcore/death metal band.
The Obscene Extreme festival, shortened as OEF, is an annual music festival in the Czech Republic, that focuses on extreme metal subgenres grindcore and death metal, as well as hardcore punk. It was founded in 1999 as a birthday party by Miloslav "Čurby" Urbanec. It was described by Vice as "Europe's craziest grindcore party". It is noted by the Czech Radio for its "exceptionally tolerant and friendly atmosphere". The festival offers exclusively vegetarian and vegan food within its premises since its inception.
Grindcore in Indonesia refers to a regional scene of Grindcore music that originated during the early 2000s. Prominent bands include Noxa, Extreme Decay, Tersanjung13, Funeral Inception, and JASAD. Indonesian grindcore retains a number of a influences from both foreign grindcore bands, such as Napalm Death, and other genres.
