User:61x62x61/Types of Grind
| Grindcore | |
|---|---|
| Stylistic origins | Crossover thrash Crust punk Extreme metal Post-punk Industrial Noise |
| Cultural origins | Mid-1980s England |
| Typical instruments | bass - drums - guitar - vocals |
| Derivative forms | Power violence |
| Subgenres | |
| Goregrind - Noisegrind - Pornogrind (complete list) | |
| Fusion genres | |
| Crustgrind - Cybergrind - Deathgrind | |
| Other topics | |
| Death growl − Extreme metal − Blast beat | |
Grindcore, often shortened to grind, is a gathering of extremes: it draws inspiration from some of the most abrasive popular music genres available—noise, death metal, early industrial music and the faster varieties of punk rock (D-beat, crust, thrashcore). Though an unwelcoming style of music to most, grindcore's influence spread across the music world, most notably on power violence, avant-garde jazz, and the commercially successful industrial and nu metal genres.
Grindcore is characterized by heavily distorted, down-tuned guitars, extreme tempos, frequently accompanied by blast beats, songs often lasting no more than two minutes (some are seconds long), and vocals which consist of growls and high-pitched screams, similar to those found in crust punk. Lyrical themes range from social and political issues (Napalm Death) to gore (Carcass) and humor (Anal Cunt).
Historical roots and influences
[edit]This music genre was developed during the mid-1980s in the United Kingdom by Napalm Death, shortly followed by fellow Brits Carcass, America's Terrorizer, and Belgium's Agathocles.[1] The name "grindcore" was supposedly coined by former Napalm Death drummer Mick Harris. When asked about coming up with the term, Harris said the following:
| “ | Grindcore came from "grind", which was the only word I could use to describe Swans after buying their first record in '84. Then with this new hardcore movement that started to really blossom in '85, I thought "grind" really fit because of the speed so I started to call it grindcore. | ” |
Other sources contradict Harris' claim. In a Spin magazine article written about the genre, Steven Blush declares that "the man often credited" for dubbing the style grindcore was Shane Embury, Napalm Death's bassist since 1987. Embury offers his own account of how the grindcore "sound" came to be:
| “ | As far as how this whole sound got started, we were really into Celtic Frost, Siege - which is a hardcore band from Boston - a lot of hardcore and death-metal bands, and some industrial-noise bands like the early Swans. So, we just created a mesh of all those things. It's just everything going at a hundred miles per hour, basically. | ” |
Earache Records founder Digby Pearson concurs with Embury, saying that Napalm Death "put hardcore and metal through an accelerator". Pearson, however, said that grindcore "wasn't just about the speed of [the] drums, blast beats, etc." He claimed that "it actually was coined to describe the guitars - heavy, downtuned, bleak, harsh riffing guitars [that] 'grind', so that's what the genre was described as, by the musicians who were its innovators [and] proponents."
Some key groups cited by current and former members of Napalm Death as formative influences include Discharge, Lärm, Amebix, Repulsion, Throbbing Gristle, Dirty Rotten Imbeciles and the aforementioned Siege, Celtic Frost and the Swans. Post-punk, such as Killing Joke and Joy Division, were also cited as an influence on early Napalm Death, the latter cited on the DVD half of Napalm Death's Scum reissue.
Other seminal grindcore groups include Assück (Florida), Sore Throat (UK), and Brutal Truth (New York City).
Subgenres
[edit]Crustgrind
[edit]Crustgrind (also known as Crustcore) is a grindcore / crust punk fusion genre. It is typified by a less frequent use of blast beats and metallic riffing than other forms of grindcore, but harsher vocals than most crust punk. Examples include Disrupt, recent Phobia, and early Extreme Noise Terror.
Cybergrind
[edit]Cybergrind is a form of grindcore influenced by electronic music in that, alongside the instruments used in ordinary grindcore, it uses computer-generated sounds, synthesized instruments and/or drum machines. Electronic drums are often used to attain very high beats per minute rates not ordinarily possible with a human drummer on a physical kit. Agoraphobic Nosebleed and The Earth Dies Screaming are most often credited with coining the term, and are popularly associated with cybergrind. Additionally, cybergrind can be associated with breakcore and noisecore artists such as Hecate.
Deathgrind
[edit]Deathgrind is a grindcore/death metal hybrid, often with a focus on the technicality of death metal and intensity of grindcore. Assück, Brutal Truth, Pig Destroyer, recent Napalm Death and later Nasum fall into this category.
"Rocky Mountain Hydrogrind"
[edit]This is the style of grind played by bands like Cephalic Carnage and the White Mice. It is deathgrind that takes influence from technical death metal, sludge metal and jazz fusion.
Goregrind
[edit]Goregrind is a form of grindcore characterized by pitchshifted vocals, riffing influenced by late '80s death metal, and explicitly gruesome, gory lyrical themes. Early Carcass and Regurgitate are the most well-known goregrind groups.
Pornogrind
[edit]Goregrind characterized by extreme sexual themes, vocals that range from pitchshifted growls to absurdly high-pitched screams, and groove-based riffing. Pornogrind bands include GUT and early Cock and Ball Torture.
"肛門の訓練の粉砕の堅いたわごとの中心"
[edit]肛門の訓練の粉砕の堅いたわごとの中心 is the style of gore grind played by japanese bands like Gore Beyond Necropsy. It takes influences from Noisegrind.
Noisegrind
[edit]Noisegrind is a grindcore subgenre with an emphasis on noise and/or speed rather than musicianship. Other features include feedback, out of tune or improvised instruments, and poor production. Examples of noisegrind bands include: early Anal Cunt, Fear of God, and some material from The Gerogerigegege.
Musical style
[edit]Down-tuned guitars
[edit]The vynil A-side of Napalm Death's debut, Scum, is set to standard tuning while on side B the guitars are tuned downed 2½ steps. Their second album and 1989's Mentally Murdered EP were tuned to C#. Harmony Corruption, their third offering, was tuned up to a D. Fellow grindcore practitioners Carcass also had the habit of the downtuning their guitars - specifically, to a B. Godflesh, early on associated with
the grindcore scene, had their guitars tuned to either B or C sharp.
Microsongs
[edit]One well-known characteristic of grindcore and related genres is the microsong; songs lasting seconds. In 2001, the Guinness Book of World Records awarded Brutal Truth the record for "Shortest Music Video" for 1994's "Collateral Damage." The song lasts 4 seconds. In 2007 the video for the Napalm Death song "You Suffer" set a new "Shortest Music Video" record: 1.3 seconds.
Legacy
[edit]Although an intentionally uncommercial genre, grindcore's influence quickly spread throughout the hardcore and metal worlds.
- Power violence, though less metallic than grindcore, was, nonetheless, influenced by many early bands.
- John Zorn's group Naked City, from New York, performed an avant-garde form of polystylistic, grindcore-influenced jazz.
- Industrial metal bands such as Fear Factory have cited debts to the genre over the years.
- Some nu metal acts also acknowledge the style's influence: Wes Borland, former Limp Bizkit guitar player, is an avowed Carcass fan. Slipknot's #3, percussionist Chris Fehn, also describes Carcass as an influence on the band.
- The Panacea, a prominent breakcore musician, describes himself as "the digital version of Napalm Death"
See also
[edit]- Extreme music
- List of grindcore bands
- Napalm Death: Thrash to Death (BBC documentary)