Given the importance that this blog had (and has) in my life and considering my recent years’ life choices, I’ve decided to co-operate with some friends from the so-called scene. If you are into noisecore, noisegrind, ultramedallo and general shitnoise antimusical aberrations, you surely know Raffaele. His blog has always been a deep inspiration to me and he’s hands down one of my favorite persons in this world, plus I think we share 90% of our musical taste, so good for us! It was an obvious choice to start with him and, luckly, he had this great essay laying around his hard drive. It’s long, it’s in-depth, it’s filled with great bands and talks about things that will make your ears bleed with joy. Have a nice read!
BIRTH OF IGNORANCE: A BRIEF HISTORY OF BANDS THAT WERE (ALMOST) PLAYING GRINDCORE WITHOUT EVEN KNOWING IT
By Raffaele Sironi, 2023
When I started this article, an obvious question popped into my mind: “when was grindcore as a genre born exactly?”. Of course Repulsion’s “Slaughter Of The Innocents” demo from June 1986 would be the right answer for many people. But not for me. Despite the unquestionable impact it had on the underground as well as on the tape trading scene, I think we could set official grindcore’s date of birth approximately one year later, on the 1st of July 1987.
The day Earache Records released Napalm Death’s “Scum”. Ok, I can hear all you geeks screaming: “Scum side A was recorded in August 1986, a couple of months later than Repulsion’s demo!” which is of course undeniable. But I don’t think anyone can deny that Scum had a way bigger impact simply due to the fact that, being a full length album distributed worldwide, it got a much wider exposure compared to a self-released demo that basically only circulated between true underground afecionados. NxDx clone bands indeed started popping up everywhere immediately after Scum’s release. Unfortunately, Repulsion’s demo remained more of a “niché” thing until it got the long-awaited vinyl press by Necrosis Records. But that happened two years too late, in 1989. Not to mention Mick Harris himself coined the word “grindcore”, so my guess is that grindcore as a genre was born the day Scum was released. Feel free to disagree, but you’re wrong, ahahah!
But the goal of this article is not to determine who invented grindcore. I just needed to set a specific date to explore which bands worldwide were “almost” playing grindcore before it began to exist as a thing on its own. Let’s call it “proto-grindcore” from now on. While both Repulsion and early Napalm Death were clearly also influenced by extreme metal, I’ll focus more on the hardcore scene since it was the one that, since its inception in the early 80s’, kept pushing down the accellerator in the global contest of unleashing the fastest bands ever. I’m not denying that metal also influenced early grind bands, but grindcore is just the extreme of hardcore/punk: it has indeed the same political content & DIY attitude, well, at least in its early on.
So, let’s start this journey in the country where the whole thing exploded: the United Kingdom. If Crass set the standards for politically-charged anarcho-punk, Discharge took it to another level writing faster and way more violent music and could be finally be labeled hardcore/punk. A couple of years later, straight outta the slums of Bristol, Disorder and Chaos UK came on the scene with the fuzziest guitar sound at the time. But all these bands still used the classic d-beat tempo. The speed factor became a popular thing in her majesty’s “fascist regime” only around 1986, when suddenly Napalm Death (who started in 1981 as a Crass clone) as well as their contemporaries Heresy, Ripcord and Extreme Noise Terror started playing faster and faster. But none of these bands fall in the proto-grind category: they were all pure hardcore bands (well, technically ENT is crust/hc, but I think you get my point). But if we dig deeply in the most remote, obscure and dark corner of the brits punk/hc scene, we would uncover three bands that were way ahead of their time, already playing hyperfast and super distorted hardcore around 1982-84. I’m talking about Asylum, Skumdribblurz and Plasmid.
Asylum, hailing from the industrial wastelands of Stoke-On-Trent, has been rightfully called the missing link between Discharge and japanese noisepunk. They existed for a very brief period but their “Is This The Price?” 1982 demo is without any questions a perfect example of what we are taliking about: “buzzsaw guitars, fuzzed bass, charging drums and gargled vocals battle each other in a maelstrom of lo-fi production murk that reflects the bleak outlook of their lyrics”. One of the earliest in taking the “noise not music” approach to the next level!
Skumdribblurz were active between 1983 and 1986. They almost never rehearsed and never recorded anything. But during these 3 short years, they managed to play around 100 gigs (and refused to be paid when they were offered money!). Legacy apart, they left to posterity just a bunch of hard to find live tapes. In their recent interview featured on General Speech#9, they affirm that “the ethos of the band was simple, to be the worst, most crappiest, but fastest and noisiest absolute cliff of white noise band ever“. If this ain’t proto-grindcore enough, just go on youtube and check for yourself if I’m telling the truth! They were even resposible for coining the “campaign for musical destruction” motto that was later stolen and made popular by Larm and Napalm Death. An absolute proto-grindcore classic that definitely influenced Napalm Death in morphing their sound toward more extreme sonics!
Plasmid were another short-lived UK band that at least released a demo in 1984 before quickly vanishing into obscurity until the Aussie Shortfuse Records reissued it as “Lust For Power” 7″ around 2006 and made this forgotten gem available again for the following generations. Hyper fast and heavily distorted hardcore, way ahead of its time. It’s not a big surprise that later their drummer ended up playing with Heresy.
While not exactly protogrind, Suburban Filth, with their ultra short songs and totally inept musical approach, deserves to be named as one of the forefathers of the most nihilistic and extreme noisecore bands to come! Same can be said about Eat Shit (no, they weren’t from Nebraska as they claimed!) who managed to be even more chaotic and unskilled than Suburban Filth if that’s even possible (just check their one sided “Leather, Bristles, Studs & ‘Akney” ep if you don’t believe me!).
Not sure if Genocide Association is worth mentioning here since they were more of a joke band that “…was an amalgam of riffs from many other bands’ demos, hand sampled on a tape-to-tape boombox and then shouted over with our own political lyrics”. But since Digby Pearson, who later would run Earache Records, was one of the masterminds behind this project that existed between 1982 and 1984, I’ll let you decide.
Time for us to leave the white cliffs of Dover and head over to mainland Europe. The Netherlands, to be more accurate. While definitely more fastcore than proto-grind, Larm absolutely deserves to be mentioned here. Their side of the legendary split lp with Stanx from 1984 was some of the fastest hardcore around at that time in the old continent and influenced legions of bands to play faster.
While France isn’t exacly renowned for the quality of its early hardcore scene, they gave us one of the best proto-grindcore band ever: Rapt. Hailing from a small city in the north of the country and active from 1984 to 1987, they unleashed superfast and short bursts of anger that fall perfectly into our category, Their splits with Herraids and Final Blast are releases definitely worth checking out if you’re not familiar with them.
I might be biased of course, but I do think that Italy, my own country, had the best and most varied scene in Europe back then. The first band I want to mention is Underage from Naples. Their music was hardcore influenced by the UK anarcho punk/hc played just a bit faster, no question about that. But because of poor equipment and just coincidence, they managed to have the perfect ultra-distorted guitar sounds on their 1983 “africani, marocchini, terroni” 7″. It’s so distorted and full of reverb that’s almost hypnotic and in my opinion it reminds Confuse early stuff (sound-wise).
Also worth mentioning is Negazione from Torino. While they were a pure hardcore band, their dissonant riffs and high-pitched vocals (expecially on their “tutti pazzi” ep from 1984) definitely pushed things on a weirder and more extreme spectrum.
But the italian proto-grind band par-excellence is Agonia from Verona. These guys didn’t release anything when they were active in the early ’80s. Then they suddenly broke up and the singer recruited Zambo (drummer from Wretched) to play all the instruments for a final recording session. The result is their split lp with Hydra from 1985. While all the spoken words definitely kill the vibe and the intensity, the music could be probably labelled as one of the very first noisecore record ever: 23 tunes of short, hyperfast and loud “music”. Only a handful of other bands around the globe were that ahead of their time in that period.
To find the band that used blast beat regularly for the very first time, we need to move up north to the Scandinavian penisula. Daniel Ekeroth in the book “Swedish Death Metal” points out that his fellow countrymen Asocial featured them in their “How Could Hardcore Be Any Worse?” demo from 1982! Unfortunately on their excellent “Det Bittra Slutet” 7″ from 1984 they slowed things down to more common swedish hc tempos, otherwise we would be saying that grindcore was invented in Sweden! Well, there actually was a side project of Ake & Chrille from Mob 47 joining forces with Per & Ola (who both later would form the very first swedish grindcore band Filthy Christians), that went pretty close to it: Protes Bengt. Their “In Bengt We Trust” 7″ from 1986 is filled with 32 tracks, all of them 30 seconds long (or even shorter!) and super fast! Think at classic swedish hardcore but played at Siege-esque speed and you know we’re fully in the proto-grind department here!
But to make things even more interesting we gotta cross the Gulf Of Bothnia to the land of strange language, alcohol abuse and general weirdness better known as Finland. The Finnish hardcore formula might be repetitive, but when you find the perfect recipe, why change it? Well, three bands decided at last to speed it up and the end result definitely fits into our paradigm. I’m talking about Kuolema, Sekunda and Sorto.
Kuolema formed in 1982 and immediately sounded like Terveet Kadet on meth. They started playing the noisest, fastest and most fucked-up music ever. Apart from some self-released tapes, nobody gave them a chance until the late 90s, when suddenly everybody started appreciating the genius of these crazy finns and every fart they recorded finally got the reissue treatment.
Another similar band was Sekunda. They are well-known for appearing in all the classic finnish hardcore compilations released by Propaganda Records “Russia Bombs Finland” and “Hardcore ’83” as well as the “Lasta” comp. 7″. They also released a 7-minute long demo tape that’s just an adorable sloppieness fest. While not being the fastest nor the noisest, their very short songs and general attitude made an impact of the future grindcore scene. The Patareni guys were indeed so obsessed by them that they included (most probably without even being authorized by the band) Sekunda tracks in their messed up Cicciolina/Buka split 7″.
Last but not least, Sorto from Tornio. The only one that at least managed to release something on vinyl back then, the incredible “Aina Valmiina” 7”. Tim Yohannan on his review in MRR#41 nailed it perfectly: “this one-sided, six-songed EP is a raging, eccentric, jazzy thrash noise fest, much in the crazy approach of the late NEOS. Real short tunes, no let up.” Proto-grindcore, indeed.
On the other side of the Atlantic, things were moving even faster. You know, in the land of the free (guns) everybody is always busy. In California, around the early 80s, a new generation of metalheads were already pushing down the accellerator. Bands like Slayer, Metallica and all the Bay Area Thrash scene have always focused on being faster than the previous generation (thanx to their punk influences!). Hardcore bands were the same in that respect. A band that relocated from Texas to San Francisco was able to cram 22 songs in one 7”, almost all less than one minute long. Of course I’m talking about D.R.I. “Dirty Rotten” ep from 1983. Definitely not proto-grind but for sure a huge influence in speeding everything up and getting to the point without messing around. In general, around the early ’80s, american hardcore bands were way faster than their european counterparts. You know, from Dead Kennedys to Septic Death, from Negative Approach to Urban Waste, the list would be endless.
But a special mention goes to the band that just released a single demo (well, and three tracks on a compilation lp) but played a key role in the conception of grindcore. If you are not living under a rock, you already know I’m talking about Siege’s “Drop Dead” demo from 1984. Hailing from a small town in Massachusetts, not only they were damn fast, but their hyperdistorted guitar and deranged vocals were something totally new and unexpected that shocked many listeners at the time. They were so weird that the narrowminded dumb-macho sXe scene from Boston never accepted them. But luckily their demo circulated everywhere else, spreading the word all around the globe. If these guys didn’t get together, we could only dream of bands like Infest, Napalm Death or Rupture. To understand how important they were, I’ll just add that Siege drummer Rob Williams appears on the back cover of the debut full length of the undisputed noisecore kings Anal Cunt “Everyone Should Be Killed” (he’s the guy punching the other guy lying in the street). Enough said.
A more obscure band that definitely fits our parameters perfectly is Cyanamid from New Jersey. Affiliated with the legendary Mutha Records, a label run by a sketchy biker and well-known for releasing material of some of the wildest US bands like The Worst, Chronic Sick and Fatal Rage. A scene constantly ignored or even hated by people in bigger cities because of the band’s misathropic and provocative attitude. But like everything, the most interesting things sprout from the outcasts. Cyanamid’s only official release is an ep titled “Stop The World” from 1984. While the opening and closing tracks are extremely long, slow & dissonant tunes (respectively, 5.19 and 6:55 minutes long!), in the middle they squeezed 5 tracks (the longest lasts 1:08, the shortest 0:13 seconds!). Also their earlier material proves again that they are absolutely playing in the same league of all the other proto-grind masters mentioned above.
Another bunch of weirdos (from New Jersey as well) that deserve a mention here are Psycho Sin. Stuart Schrader from shit-fi.com described them perfectly: “their EP should top any list of 80s shit-fi music. If a line can be drawn from the real-people psychedelia and folk of the 60s and 70s through the DIY experiments of the punk era, Psycho Sin mark another point, perhaps the endpoint, on that line as it extends into the mid-to-late 80s”. A visionary band for sure.
But America’s most obscure secret lays well hidden in New Mexico desert. And no, it’s not Area 51. I’m taking about Corporate Whores. Their “Revenge Of The Whores” tape from 1984 has been described on General Speech#10 as coming from “a band that at times had the speed of the Neos, the heavy dirges of Siege, and a raw guitar tone that could go head to head with Disorder”.How a similar band, expecially from the US, remains basically unknown to everyone is a mystery I can’t get my head around.
I might have said enough about Repulsion earlier, but I haven’t mentioned Genocide yet! For those who do not know, before changing their name to Repulsion, these Flint, MI heroes released 3 demos under the monicker Genocide between 1984 and 1986. Expecially on the third one “The Stench Of Burning Death” you can definitely hear them becoming the monster they are well known to be. We are fully in the metal department here, but who cares? These midwesterns gave an incredible contribution in developing the genre we’re analyzing here.
Let’s close the North America chapter of our trip with a canadian band from a remote area of British Columbia: Neos. “This high school trio played noisy, lightspeed HC in an attempt to be the “world’s fastest band”, which at the time, they probably were”. Both their eps from 1982(!!) are so incredible that they need to be mentioned here, even if we’re still fully in the realm of hardcore.
Hardcore generally exploded a few years later in South America. But not in Brazil. Lixomania “Violência & Sobrevivência” 7”, the first hardcore record to ever came from this country, is from 1982, so they were basically perfectly alligned with the rest of the world. But before digging into the more obscure corners of brazilian hardcore, let’s take a detour to the state of Minas Geiras to look into the amazing metal scene that blossomed in the filthiest corners of Belo Horizonte. In 1985, Sepultura used blast beats in their first full length “Morbid Visions” and, the next year, Sarcofago did the same in the seminal “I.N.R.I.” album. Not only did these guys make it into the history of metal, but they took their Bathory, Celtic Frost and Slayer influences to the next level, making their metal way more extreme and faster than it has ever been. If you like your stupid norwegian black metal super fast, you’ve gotta buy these guys the next few rounds, to say at least.
But let’s get back on track. A totally obscure band that only got their material released for the first time ever in 2018 and fits perfectly in our category is Ruidos Absurdos (that translate to Absurd Noise, indeed). These guys were active between 1983 and 1985 and pushed everything well over the limit playing the crappiest, noisest hardcore punk ever. Add a totally no budget shit-fi production, et voilà, we got an instant winner.
A similar tale can be told about Ulster. They released an even more extreme and faster demo one year before Ruidos Absurdos. Luckily they “only” had to wait until 1995 to see it finally pressed on wax as the “M-19 E.P.” by ABC Records from Sao Paulo. If with Ruidos Absurdos we are in the “barely-listenable” territory, Ulster managed to get a more-than-decent production.
Wait, I almost forgot about SP Caos. Again, they only released a demo in 1984 that remained undisclosed until someone gave it the long-overdue repress. The recipe is the same: quick, raw & distorted ruido, but you already knew that.
But that’s nothing compared to what would come out of the land of “Ordem e Progesso” (Mentira! Mentira!) a few years later. Around 1985, well-known brazilian hardcore band Olho Seco shared a slab of wax with a band that was basically playing grindcore or even noisecore, I dare to say. I’m talking about Brigada Do Odio. Their side of the lp lasts only 11 quick minutes and in this short time they crammed 14 ultra fast tracks. Seriously, it’s just 11 minutes of blast beats overwhelmed by fuzzy guitars and a singer that’s screaming his lungs out. If I had to pick a proto-grind band to show people what I’m talking about, it would be Brigada Do Odio.
Let’s go back to Belo Horizonte to talk about Atack Epiléptico. While their first record only came out in 1988 (a year too late for our thesis), they released a demo in 1986 that I must admit I’ve never listened to, but that has been described as similar to their later output so I’ve decided to include them anyway. Plus I don’t think they listened to Repulsion or Scum before recording their split lp with Offessor, so fuck off and lemme talk about them. Just a dickskin less extreme than Brigada Do Odio but otherwise we are in the same league here. Brutal, fast and extreme hardcore with rough production in the classic southamerican tradition. All these bands opened the gate for the 90s’ brazilian noisecore wave, the most prolific and radical that this god-forsaken planet has ever seen.
Moving to Medellin, Colombia. In those years, the city was under siege by Pablo Escobar’s drug war. From these miserable conditions, perhaps the most radical metal scene ever erupted: ultra metal or metal medallo, if you prefer it. The pioneers were of course Parabellum. They released just two 12” with four songs in total that perfectly capture the anguish of their existence in such a radical environment. While they were both released in 1987, the songs were written in 1984 and they only managed to record them three years later due to financial issues. The end result is something so extreme, gloomy, fast and distorted that I just had to mention it here. Same thing could be said about Blasfemia, active only between 1986 and 1988. They shared some members with Parabellum and their “Guerra Total” 12” has a production that’s even rougher and darker if you can believe it. It’s not a coincidence that in the very late ’80s, the same people were part of the hardcore medallo scene that gave us the very first southamerican grind/noise bands such as Herpes, Restos De Tragedia as well as Confusion and Ataque De Sonido. A well hidden colombian secret that only in recent times received the attention it deserves is Tempus, the missing link between Parabellum and Herpes. They were active only between 1986 and 1987 and they featured Carlos Maria “La Bruja” Perez among other well-known names from that scene. They recorded a couple of studio sessions that got lost for many years only to resurface in recent times as the “cantos bajo tierra” lp. Production is surprisingly good and their music fits perfectly our paradigm under any point of view. I must admit I got some doubts about its legitimaty since, honestly, it’s too good to be true. They got mentioned in an old MRR scene report but, other than that, there are no other evidence of their activity back then. That being said, this sounds a lot like Herpes with perhaps a more metallic edge, so I felt kind obliged to mention them.
As once my friend Beau wisely stated: “Australia: we might get a C for hardcore but we surely get an A+ for KBD”. Yeah, mate! The land down-under might be well-known for their excellent punk bands from the late 70s, but their ’80s hardcore scene wasn’t exactly the most brilliant or innovative one. A couple of bands from Melbourne still make it to this article and one of them is crucial for the future of extreme music. While the vast majority of the Melbourne scene was mainly influenced by UK82 bands, Death Sentence were way more fueled by the fastest bands from the first wave of USHC. Their “Ryan-Thanx For The Support” 7” from 1985 contains 7 tunes not too dissimilar to what Siege did on the other side of the globe the previous year. Maybe not exactly proto-grind, but no one was this fast in the lucky country back then.
That was until the following year, when from the suburbs of the city emerged a weird project, avangarde I’d dare to say, calling itself Seven Minutes Of Nausea. Things wouldn’t be the same again. Their 1986 demo titled “Karen’s Edge” contained 104 tracks in less then 14 minutes. Almost all were less than 10 seconds long and played at lightspeed with guitar doing the worst possible noise over it and Mick Hollows screaming radical political statements over it. Nobody did anything so radical until that day. A new genre was born; noisecore.
Recently a totally obscure aussie gem has been unleashed to the masses (well, I should better say to the 200 lucky bastards who managed to get a copy of it!) by Shortfuse Records. I’m talking about the Tribe “8 minutes of nausea” 7”. Totally lo-fi recording, hyper distorded sound and short & fast tunes make this a perfect last minute entry for this article!
The last stop of our global tour will be the land of the rising sun. A country full of contraditions, where future and past collapse into each other, generating a present where high standards of living crashes into very strict social rules. To make it short, the perfect enviroment where angry teens and outcasts could develop a prolific and unique punk/hardcore scene and unload their frustration, writing extreme and unique angst-ridden music.
Back in the ’80s, japanese hardcore wasn’t as popular outside of its shores as it is nowdays. Pratically no one in the western world knew about it, except for a bunch of maniacs (or nerds if you prefer) that were digging in it. One of them was an english guy named Lee Dorian. If you look closely at the photo on the back cover of “Mentally Murdered”, you’ll notice the Confuse logo painted on his military trousers. I don’t think that’s a coincidence. Since 1984, these Kyushu gentlemen took the Disorder/Chaos UK sound to the next level, turning up the distortion knob to eleven. While never exceeding too much in the speed game, the whole Kyushu noise-punk scene that gravitated around Confuse (Gai, Gess, Sieg Heil etc…), for sure contributed hugely to increasing the level of distortion for the next generation of punks.
Moving slightly up north to Hiroshima, Gudon “残忍聖者” debut flexi from 1985 was basically the same thing but the end result is even more brutal. After this release they “mellowed out” their sound to a more traditional japanese hc, but their early material fits definitely our parameters. I guess it’s also worth mentioning another band from that area that released a much sought-after record that goes for tons of money in these days: State Children “bomb shelter for the money making” one sided flexi from 1985. Sloppy and barely-on-time, they sounds totally amatourish compared to the bands I mentioned before. But their insane vocals and fuzzy guitars are totally on point here.
Moving to Osaka, we find two other bands that could be included in the noise-punk folder: Gasmask and Coward. Their eps respectively from 1985 and 1986 are mandatory material for every fan of this sub-genre. But Kansai’s capital is also the hometown of probably the most fundamental japanese proto-grind band; SxOxBx. While dumb racist scum made fun of them on their 1989 european tour calling them “mini-Napalm Death”, the reality was quite the opposite. The Birmingham lads were indeed deeply influenced by the “Leave Me Alone” 7” that came out on Selfish in 1986, the most rage-driven adrenalin hardcore release from that year that featured copious amount of blast beats. And if that’s not enough, go listen to their “Noise Violence And Destroy” collaboration with japanese noise masters Hijokaidan to fully understand the importance of this band. I’m not an expert of harsh noise at all but the collaboration between these two radical scenes is crucial in my opinion to understanding the urge of japanese people to always push everything to the extreme.
Do I need to write something about Tokyo crucial bands like GISM, Gauze or Lip Cream and their influence? I don’t think so, their legacy is enough if you’re even just remotely into this kind of music. But there’s a Tokyo band that absolutely needs a few words. Of course I’m talking about Juntaro Jamanouchi’s crazy project better known as The Gerogerigegege. Formed in 1985 in Tokyo strip club district, their vast discography explores every possible extreme sub-genre and bring it to the next level. And they also pushed punkrock well over its limits by producing a destructive cacophony that resemble noisecore already in their beginnings, as testified by side A of the “Senzuri Monkey Metal Action” 7” (released in 1992 but recorded in 1986!). Also on the “Tokyo Anal Dynamite Singles” collection cd there’s a one minute track called “First Recording” from 1985 proving again they were already playing proto-noisecore since their inception!
Let’s move up north to the island of Hokkaido to talk about a rather obscure band that released my favourite japanese proto-grind ep ever; Tranquilizer “s/t” single sided flexi from 1985. In his book “Flex!” Burkhard Jarisch described them perfectly: “crazy, superfast, atonal hardcore with everything on overdrive (even the vocals are distorted!)”. Seriously, the singer sounds like he’s spitting bees, not words from his mouth! If the drummer was just a bit faster, this would be probably one of the best grindcore band ever. Too bad their second ep didn’t even come close to the standards of the first one.
I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I did writing it. Unlike a certain documentary about grindcore, I tried to cover as many countries as possible and give each continent an equal amount of space and attention. Yet, I do not pretend to have written the ultimate proto-grind history. I’m pretty sure there are still a lot of bands all around the globe I’ve never heard about that just released a rehearsal or live tape (or not even that!) that would fit perfectly here. But that’s the beauty of underground music, ain’t it? Even in an era where every fart recorded in a dirty basement 40 years ago and only circulated among a restricted circle of friends is available online, there’s still a lot of new music that needs to be discovered.
Sore Throat, Nausea and Headache 