Top 5 Grindcore Albums

Grindcore is the last logical extreme in the evolution of punk's love affair with extreme metal. Guttural vocals, down-tuned and speedy guitars, blast-beats and lyrics concerned with either gore or sociopolitical themes (sometimes both). To the uninitiated, grindcore can appear to be just a lot of noise, I will admit that it seemed that way to me at first. Then I listened to 'You Suffer (But Why?)' by Napalm Death. I was pretty amused by the World's Shortest Song. Then I listened to the rest of the 'Scum' album... I was blown away. I never heard anything like it before or since. This is a very short list of my Top 5 Grindcore Albums. As you will notice, I am a fan of the rawer and less technical side of grindcore. [Honorable Mention: Again, there will be deserving bands and albums left off this list (Brutal Truth, Assück, Noisear, Nasum, Impetigo, Electro-Hippies, Doom and Pig Destroyer to name a few).] And so it all begins...

1. TERRORIZER - World Downfall

"THE DEAD SHALL RISE FROM THE GRAVE TO DESTROY ALL MANKIND!!!"

'World Downfall' is a special album. It makes a shift in a genre, a place in time and a moment of musical perfection. This band was only together for a year but was enormously influential, so much so that Chuck Schuldiner of Death came all the way to California from Florida to try forming a band with their members. After the break up it's members went on to join the bands Nausea (not the New York crust band), Morbid Angel and Napalm Death. Interestingly enough, it was Shane Embury of Napalm Death (a undying fan of Terrorizer's 2 demo tapes) who persuaded Earache records to approach the members of Terrorizer spread across the nation from Cali to Florida to come together and record an album that would stand as a legacy to their power. It delivers in spades and then some. 'World Downfall' is heavy as hell, clear without giving up any sense of rawness and unrelenting in its brutality. While Napalm Death's "Scum" is my first love with grindcore, this album is the ultimate expression of the genre.

Terrorizer ~ Fear Of Napalm

2. NAPALM DEATH - Scum

"YOU SUFFER, BUT WHY!?!?"

An album that is recorded by one band but each half is recorded by a different lineup. An album that has a production fidelity that makes "Welcome To Hell" by Venom sound pristine. Raw and sloppy speed at a breakneck pace. This is Scum. This is the single greatest grindcore album of all time. While Napalm Death's sound and abilities would become developed and refined over the next 20+ years and grindcore as a genre would acquire a great deal of technicality and precision and leave behind its sloppy and raw beginnings this is still a monumental work that could never be duplicated. On this album, Napalm Death took their influences from all forms of extreme metal and punk, their radical political doctrines and fused it into a sonic monolith. While grindcore may have been already been in existence (although without the name) with bands like Repulsion, Extreme Noise Terror, Electro-Hippies, Carcass and Napalm Death forging this new sound, "Scum" was the album that put the stamp on the genre and would define it forever. Sure, "Horrifed" by Repulsion came first and there were many other albums and bands around at this time, but this album was the one that pulled everything together and gave it a definitive shape.

Napalm Death - You Suffer But Why? [Guinness world record for shortest song]

3. REPULSION - Horrified

"WORMS IN YOUR HEAD, SOON THEY WILL BE DEAD. NOTHING TO FEED ON IN YOUR EMPTY SKULL."

Some people criticize Repulsion as being a two dimensional band. Not much in the way of substance or style. And to a certain degree, they would be right in saying this. There is nothing subtle about this band. The artwork is of a decomposing human head. The album title and band name are one word terms of disgust and shock. The lyrics consist of gruesome depictions of gore and brutality in simple rhymes. The music is a high speed, distorted and down-tuned blur that blends together quite often. However, this album is too primitive yet too ahead of it's time, just simply too awesome to be dismissed as such. This album is truly a definitive album from the first grindcore band. All of these songs existed on tape as demos under the name Repulsion or Genocide but like Terrorizer Earache resurrected this defunct band to record a true album. Besides being the ground zero for grind, it was a significant influence on death metal (several members of this Flint, Michigan band moved to Florida to temporarily join Chuck Schuldiner's legendary and pioneering band Death) and also was the first gore-grind band (a sub-genre that would gain recognition with the band Carcass). This album just blisters your ears and leaves you bleeding from the forehead from banging your head against every conceivable surface due to its brutal excellence. Enjoy or may "Pestilent Decay" and "Festering Boils" visit your mortal frame!!!

Repulsion - Stench Of Burning Death

4. EXTREME NOISE TERROR- A Holocaust In Your Head

"TWELVE YEARS ON HAS ANYTHING CHANGED? LAUGHED AT, RIDICULED, TAKING THE BLAME. SCREAMING FOR CHANGE WITH AN IGNORED VOICE. FREEDOM OR REPRESSION WE OFFER THE CHOICE."

 Extreme Noise Terror were the originators of a trend within grindcore of having dueling vocalists. They are also unique in their total rejection of the grindcore label saying; "We were known as hardcore punk. Then it became this 'Britcore' thing that Sounds and NME came up with, with the Electro Hippies, Napalm, Carcass and Bolt Thrower all rolled into one, all playing the same shows and then [Napalm Death] made the word 'grind' up. But they were always a bit more metal than us and we didn't really know what this word 'grind' meant." Saying that Napalm Death was "a bit more metal" was an understatement. Extreme Noise Terror was raw hardcore punk taken to the extreme ends and was coupled with a strong vegan/P.C. stance which they later toned down as they gained non-vegan members and become a little more open minded and realistic in regards to political correctness. However, ENT remained political as ever and thank God for that!This is as punk and political as grindcore gets and man is it tasty!

Extreme Noise Terror ~ Bullshit Propaganda

5. Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction

"SALIVATING - SANGUIS, PHLEGM, FROTH AND FOAM. MASTICATING - YOUR MANDIBLE STRIPPED TO THE BONE"

Let me start this one out by saying that I nearly had to do a coin toss to decide whether I selected this album or "Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses" by Brutal Truth. Both are enormously influential, important and damn excellent. Carcass' "Reek of Putrefaction" won out simply because of its utterly unique qualities. This is the album that prompted the creation of the term "Gore-Grind". While they were most certainly influenced by Repulsion, Carcass approached the subject of gore from a medical angle (apparently to forward a vegan message by showing how terrifying gore and carnage is) which made for some interesting usage of English as they tore their lyrics from professional medical volumes and adorned their album's cover with the goriest autopsy photographs they could find. Example: The song I quoted above is "Oxidized Razor Masticator" which literally means "Rusty Razor Chewer". They also down-tuned the guitars and bass so low on this record and pitch shifted the vocals to make them even more guttural than their peers that the vinyl was pressed at lower volumes to avoid cancelling out the higher frequencies. The members of Carcass have frequently complained of the mastering of this album but that is up to the individual listener but a remastered version of the album would be most welcome so that we could finally see what their original vision was.

Carcass ~ Oxidized Raxor Masticator