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.
Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham. The group formed in 1982 under the original title O.P.D. but did not release any complete music until 1988 when Justin Broadrick and B. C. Green renamed the band and decided to use a drum machine for percussion. Melding heavy metal with industrial music and later with electronic music and dub, Godflesh's sound is widely regarded as a foundational influence on other industrial metal and post-metal acts and as significant to both experimental and extreme metal.
Harmony Corruption is the third studio album by British grindcore band Napalm Death, released on 1 July 1990 on Earache Records.
Scorn is an English electronic music project. The group was formed in the early 1990s as a project of former Napalm Death members Mick Harris and Nic Bullen. Bullen left the group in 1995, and the project continued on an essentially solo project for Harris until 1997 when it was stopped. Scorn was relaunched in 2000 until the end of 2011. Harris restarted the project in 2019, but stopped it again in late 2022.
Carcass are an English extreme metal band from Liverpool, formed in 1985. The band have gone through several line-up changes, leaving guitarist Bill Steer and bassist-vocalist Jeff Walker as the only constant members. They broke up in 1996, but reformed in 2007 without original drummer Ken Owen, for 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.
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.
Jeffrey Walker is an English musician, best known for his work with death metal band Carcass for which he is also the main lyricist. Before Carcass, he played in the hardcore punk band Electro Hippies. After the initial demise of Carcass, he went on to form hard rock band Blackstar with two former Carcass bandmates, and joined American grindcore band, Brujeria. Loudwire placed him at number 22 on their list of Top 25 Extreme Metal Vocalists.
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.
Justin Karl Michael Broadrick is an English musician, singer and songwriter. He is best known as the lead singer and a founding member of the band Godflesh, one of the first bands to combine elements of extreme metal and industrial music. Following Godflesh's initial breakup in 2002, Broadrick formed the band Jesu.
Nicholas Bullen is an English musician and a founding member of the grindcore band Napalm Death.
Noise for Music's Sake is a double-disc compilation by British band Napalm Death. It was released on 8 July 2003 on Earache Records. This album is a retrospective of the band's entire career. The first disc is a best-of compilation; the second disc contains rarities. The booklet includes 20 pages with interviews of band members Shane Embury and Mark "Barney" Greenway. It also includes a guide to all the songs from the second disc, and a complete "Family Tree" detailing every person who was ever in the band.
Peaceville Records is a British independent heavy metal record label. The label was founded by Paul "Hammy" Halmshaw in Dewsbury, England, in 1987, who was also a drummer of Sore Throat. Originally a tape label releasing anarcho punk, the releases moved towards metal through crust punk and similar forms of metal-influenced English hardcore punk. Halmshaw started running the label full-time in 1988, although the original tape label incarnation was founded in 1981 as a vehicle for releasing Instigators demo cassettes.
Streetcleaner is the debut studio album by English industrial metal band Godflesh. It was released on 13 November 1989 through Earache Records and was reissued with a second disc of previously unreleased material on 21 June 2010. The album is widely acclaimed by critics and is often cited as a landmark release in industrial metal; though not the genre's first release, Streetcleaner helped define what industrial metal would become.
Electro Hippies were an English thrashcore band formed in St Helens/Wigan, England, in 1985.
Grindcrusher is a CD/LP released by Earache Records in 1989, showcasing nine of the label's bands. It contained a number of pioneer grindcore and death metal groups such as Napalm Death, Bolt Thrower, Morbid Angel, Carcass and Repulsion. This compilation was later rereleased in 1991 as Grindcrusher: the Ultimate Earache, augmented with 14 extra tracks by the likes of Entombed and Nocturnus.
Jim Whiteley is a musician who in the late 1980s played bass guitar in several Birmingham-based hardcore and grindcore bands, most notably Napalm Death.
