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.
Fistful of Metal is the debut studio album by American heavy metal band Anthrax, released in January 1984 by Megaforce Records and Music for Nations internationally. The album includes a cover of Alice Cooper's "I'm Eighteen". This is the band's only album to feature vocalist Neil Turbin and original bassist Dan Lilker, who were replaced by Matt Fallon and Frank Bello, respectively. Former original guitarist Greg Walls claims that Anthrax "ripped him off" as he claims he wrote the material on the album.
Stormtroopers of Death was an American crossover thrash band formed in New York City in 1985. They are credited as being amongst the first groups to fuse hardcore punk with thrash metal into a style often referred to as crossover thrash. The band is also known for reuniting Anthrax members, guitarist Scott Ian and drummer Charlie Benante, with their former bassist Dan Lilker. Their instrumental song "March of the S.O.D." from their 1985 debut album, Speak English or Die, was the Headbangers Ball intro anthem for many years. Another song from the same album, "Chromatic Death", was also used during the show as a segue between ads and videos.
Extreme metal is a loosely defined umbrella term for a number of related heavy metal music subgenres that have developed since the early 1980s. It has been defined as a "cluster of metal subgenres characterized by sonic, verbal, and visual transgression".
Daniel Adam Lilker is an American musician best known as a bass player, but also guitarist, pianist, drummer, and vocalist. He has played bass in numerous heavy metal bands, including Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, S.O.D. and Holy Moses, and grindcore bands Brutal Truth and Exit-13.
Speak English or Die is the debut album by the American crossover thrash band Stormtroopers of Death, released in August 1985.
Brutal Truth was an American grindcore band from New York City, formed by ex-Anthrax, Nuclear Assault, and Stormtroopers of Death bass guitarist Dan Lilker in 1990. The group disbanded in 1999, but reformed in 2006 and continued to release music until 2014.
Nuclear Assault was an American thrash metal band formed in New York City in 1984. Part of the mid-to-late 1980s thrash metal movement, they were one of the main bands of the genre to emerge from the East Coast along with Overkill, Whiplash, Toxik, Carnivore, and Anthrax, the last of which was co-founded by Nuclear Assault bassist Dan Lilker, who had left Anthrax shortly after the release of their first album. Nuclear Assault released five full-length albums and toured relentlessly throughout the 1980s and early 1990s, and broke up in 1995. The band reunited briefly in 1997, and permanently from 2001 to 2008 and again from 2011 to 2022.
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.
Venomous Concept is an American hardcore punk band formed by Kevin Sharp of Brutal Truth and Shane Embury of Napalm Death in 2004. Sharp and Embury were joined by Danny Herrera and Buzz Osborne, who was later replaced by Danny Lilker. They have released three albums: Retroactive Abortion (2004), Poisoned Apple (2008), and Kick Me Silly VCIII (2016). They have also released two split albums: one with Japanese grindcore band 324 (2006), and the other with Australian extreme metal band Blood Duster (2008). The band's name is a play on Poison Idea, in the style of name-mangling Japanese hardcore acts.
Sounds of the Animal Kingdom is the third studio album by American grindcore band Brutal Truth, released on September 23, 1997. It was the band's first release on Relapse Records, and last with guitarist Brent McCarthy. Recorded with Billy Anderson, it showcased a more experimental and varied style than the band's previous albums, incorporating elements of blues, psychedelic rock, noise, southern rock and free jazz. In 2006, the album was remastered and reissued with its preceding mini album Kill Trend Suicide (1996).
Nicholas Howard Barker is an English extreme metal drummer best known for his work in Cradle of Filth from 1993 to 1999, Dimmu Borgir from 1999 to 2004, Brujeria from 2003 to 2005 and from 2016 to 2022, and Shining from 2022 to 2023. Currently he is the drummer for Borstal, Liquid Graveyard, Twilight of the Gods, and United Forces.
The Plague is the second extended play by the American thrash metal band Nuclear Assault. The six-track EP was originally released as a 12-inch vinyl record through Combat Records in 1987, and later combined with the band's full-length debut, 1986's Game Over, into one CD by Relativity Records.
Terrorizer was an extreme music magazine published by Dark Arts Ltd. in the United Kingdom. It was released every four weeks with thirteen issues a year and featured a "Fear Candy" covermount CD, a twice yearly "Fear Candy Unsigned" CD, and a double-sided poster.
John Connelly is an American musician, best known as the lead vocalist and guitarist of New York City thrash metal band Nuclear Assault.
Parabellum was a Colombian extreme metal band from Medellín, which was active in the 1980s. The band was described by Terrorizer magazine, as one of the world's first black metal bands as well as the first extreme metal band from Colombia, and one of the first from all South America. According to writer Emilio Cuesta, Øystein "Euronymous" Aarseth—a musician associated with the early Norwegian black metal scene—has said Parabellum and Medellín's Reencarnación were both influential to his own band Mayhem.
Pounder is an EP from Nuclear Assault, released on June 1, 2015. It is the band's first EP since 1988's Good Times, Bad Times, and their first studio recording since 2005's Third World Genocide. This was also their final work as a band to include new material before Nuclear Assault disbanded again in 2022.
Dayal Patterson is a British author, music journalist and founder of publishing house, Cult Never Dies. He has written several non-fiction books about heavy metal music and has contributed to a number of metal magazines, such as Decibel, Terrorizer,Metal Hammer, Classic Rock Presents, Record Collector, NME, Zero Tolerance and online publications such as The Quietus. His trilogy of books on black metal, Black Metal: Evolution of the Cult, Black Metal: The Cult Never Dies Vol. One. and Black Metal: Into the Abyss, have been labelled 'essential reading' for black metal enthusiasts.
