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 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.
Emo is a music genre characterized by emotional, often confessional lyrics. It emerged as a style of hardcore punk and post-hardcore from the mid-1980s Washington, D.C. hardcore scene, where it was known as emotional hardcore or emocore. The bands Rites of Spring and Embrace, among others, pioneered the genre. In the early-to-mid 1990s, emo was adopted and reinvented by alternative rock, indie rock, punk rock, and pop-punk bands, including Sunny Day Real Estate, Jawbreaker, Cap'n Jazz, and Jimmy Eat World. By the mid-1990s, Braid, the Promise Ring, and the Get Up Kids emerged from Midwest emo, and several independent record labels began to specialize in the genre. Meanwhile, screamo, a more aggressive style of emo using screamed vocals, also emerged, pioneered by the San Diego bands Heroin and Antioch Arrow. Screamo achieved mainstream success in the 2000s with bands like Hawthorne Heights, Silverstein, Story of the Year, Thursday, the Used, and Underoath.
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 albums of 1987.
Crust punk is a subgenre of punk rock influenced by the English punk scene as well as extreme metal. The style, which evolved in the early 1980s in England, often has songs with dark and pessimistic lyrics that linger on political and social ills. The term "crust" was coined by Hellbastard on their 1986 Ripper Crust demo.
Circle Takes the Square is an American screamo band from Savannah, Georgia. It is composed of founding members Drew Speziale and Kathleen Stubelek, as well as Caleb Collins. Their debut release was a 6-track self-titled EP released in 2001, followed by a 7" split with Pg. 99 in 2002. In 2004, they released their debut studio album As the Roots Undo on Robotic Empire, which released the CD, and HyperRealist Records, which released the gatefold LP. The album gained them considerable acclaim and the band toured extensively to promote it during the year. This included a six-week east coast tour that took the band into Canada for the first time, supported by Arkata and Raise Them And Eat Them. The band's second album, Decompositions: Volume Number One, was released after an 8-year silence on December 21, 2012, as a digital download; physical editions of the album were released in April 2013.
Holy Molar is a noise rock band from San Diego, composed of vocalist Mark McCoy, guitarist Gabe Serbian, bassist Justin Pearson, drummer Maxamillion Avila and keyboardist Bobby Bray.
Plague Soundscapes is the second studio album by The Locust, and their first with ANTI- Records. It features a more refined sound than previous The Locust albums, with a greater emphasis on keyboards.
Some Girls was an American hardcore punk band consisting of a collective of musicians who came from different backgrounds and all who had established hardcore bands.
Justin Pearson is an American musician and record label owner, known for being the vocalist and bassist in a number of San Diego-based noise rock, punk and grindcore bands, as well as running his record label Three One G Records. Starting off in the punk outfit Struggle in 1994, ensuing projects such as Swing Kids, The Locust, Dead Cross and Retox. He has collaborated with Kool Keith, Gabe Serbian, Karen O, Nick Zinner, Adam Gnade, Invisibl Skratch Piklz, Asia Argento, The Bloody Beetroots, Silent, among many others.
Flight of the Wounded Locust is a 7-inch EP by American noise rock band The Locust. It was released in 2001 on Gold Standard Laboratories. Flight of the Wounded Locust was also the band's final recording as a five-piece.
Sonny Kay is a visual artist and musician.
31G Records, or Three One G, is a San Diego, California-based independent record label, started by musician Justin Pearson in 1994 and focusing on punk and experimental music. The label has released a number of albums and compilations in what has been described as "freak punk" and "spaz-rock." Musicians on the label frequently collaborate, creating supergroups such as Holy Molar, Some Girls, and Head Wound City. Three One G's roster has featured many noise rock bands.
The Locust is the debut studio album by American grindcore band The Locust.
Head Wound City is an American hardcore punk supergroup consisting of Jordan Blilie and Cody Votolato both of The Blood Brothers, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and Justin Pearson and Gabe Serbian, both of The Locust.
Humanure is the second studio album by American deathgrind band Cattle Decapitation. It was released on July 13, 2004 through Metal Blade Records and has been noted for its iconic cover art, depicting a cow defecating what appears to be human body parts in a wasteland environment — the image has been compared to the artwork for Pink Floyd’s album Atom Heart Mother. Humanure generated some minor controversy around the time of release for its obscene imagery.
New Erections is the third and final studio album by American band the Locust. It was released on March 20, 2007, via ANTI-, their second album for the label. The cover art is by Neil Burke.
Gabriel Serbian was an American drummer, guitarist and vocalist, most famous for his work in The Locust, Cattle Decapitation, Holy Molar and Zu. He was also a member of Head Wound City, a hardcore/punk rock supergroup.
Powerviolence is a chaotic and fast subgenre of hardcore punk which is closely related to thrashcore and grindcore. In contrast with grindcore, which is a "crossover" idiom containing musical aspects of heavy metal, powerviolence is just an augmentation of the most challenging qualities of hardcore punk. Like its predecessors, it is usually socio-politically charged and iconoclastic.
Retox is an American hardcore punk band that formed in 2011. The four-piece was founded by Justin Pearson and Gabe Serbian, both of whom had previously performed together in The Locust, Holy Molar and Head Wound City. The two additional members are Thor Dickey and Michael Crain. Serbian was replaced by Brian Evans in 2013. Retox has since been signed to Ipecac Recordings and Epitaph Records and released three studio albums: Ugly Animals (2011), YPLL (2013) and Beneath California (2015).
Dead Cross is an American crossover thrash supergroup formed in Southern California. The band consists of guitarist Michael Crain (Retox), bassist Justin Pearson, drummer Dave Lombardo and vocalist Mike Patton.
