What distinguishes good grindcore from bad grindcore?

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Just wondering. I've listened to albums like "Misery Index" by Assuck, and even though it's considered a classic in some circles, I'm not sure I could say it's any better or worse than any other grindcore I've heard. Then again, I haven't really ever actively listened to it.

― Lee is Free (Lee is Free), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 17:55 (nineteen years ago)

"I've listened to albums like "Misery Index" by Assuck"

"Then again, I haven't really ever actively listened to it"

????????????????????????????????????????????????????????????

― scott seward (scott seward), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:01 (nineteen years ago)

¿¿/.?

― roc u like a § (ex machina), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:07 (nineteen years ago)

killer breakdowns

― Alan N (Alan N), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:09 (nineteen years ago)

PRECISION IN THRASH

― calvin johnson has ruined rock for an entire generation (orion), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 18:20 (nineteen years ago)

"electronic music all sounds the same"
"rap music all sounds the same"
"country music all sounds the same"

― HUNTA-V (vahid), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 22:06 (nineteen years ago)

I recommend What to Listen For In Grindcore by Leonard Bernstein

― A-ron Hubbard (Hurting), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 22:07 (nineteen years ago)

Isn't Assuck technically "power-violence"?

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 22:54 (nineteen years ago)

...which is a different genre than grindcore altogether due to its polical messages and aesthetic similarities to punk rock (though I usually make the call by the sloppiness of the drummer, but that's just me).

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 22:56 (nineteen years ago)

it's the tone of the groan.

― HUNTA-V (vahid), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 22:59 (nineteen years ago)

Oh wow, this is so weird, this thread popping up today, I had the craziest dream last night. I was hitchhiking and got picked up by this trio of metal dudes, who had long hair but with the sides shaved like Nikki Sixx and Tommy Lee in that awful Motley Crue video. Anyway, they picked me up but they were real jerks. I asked if they were a 'grind gore' band (I know it's 'gore grind' but for some reason I didn't in the dream and came off sounding like someone's lame dad trying to be hip) and they said "It's GORE grind, and yes we are. We listen to Cephalic Carnage and Skinless and shit." "Oh wow," I said. "You guys into doom metal?" They all shook their heads 'no,' in disgust. So I said

"ahh, you gore-grind assholes are all the same."

Then I woke up.

Listened to Worship's "Last Vinyl Before Doomsday" first thing, feeling like a soldier / ambassador for true funeral doom, even in my dreams.

Oh yeah, grindcore - and all of it's subgenres - mostly sucks.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

Grindcore is an especially "techie" genre to aestheticize considering the things usually pointed to as signifiers of "good" grindcore are:

1. How "sick" the drummer is (the faster the better)
2. How "tight" the band is as a group (the tighter the better)
3. How "brutal" the songs are (the more brutal the better)
4. How "clean" the production is (the more you can hear the better)

It's almost like grad-school jazz in a lot of ways. Once people stop finding ways to top the previous bands (Napalm Death -> Brutal Truth -> Pig Destroyer) in speed and brutality, I think grindcore might die a sad, abacinated death.

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 23:01 (nineteen years ago)

some buddies of mine play in a band called GAZA, they just put out their debut album. they're getting some pig destroyer comparisons, but they'd probably scold me if i actually called them "grindcore". i can only take so much of them on disc, but they are fun to see live. they mix in some nice ambience along w/ the brutal parts occasionally. look 'em up on myspace if yer into it

― 6335 (6335), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 00:23 (nineteen years ago)

I had a roommate who was really into grindcore for a while.

What distinguishes good grindcore from bad is how crazy the band is live. How many times per set does someone jump into the drumset and knock it all over? Does the drummer keep playing somehow? Stuff like that.

― Zachary Scott (Zach S), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 00:27 (nineteen years ago)

BRUTALITY.

although, i strongly disagree with the assertion that cleaner production means better grind. Spazz, Capitalist Casualties, and countless other fucking RAD grind bands have had some awful production.

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 00:38 (nineteen years ago)

That's why it's number 4. Sometimes shitty production means more brutal, y'know?

So would anyone argue with the assertion that Pig Destroyer is the best grindcore band alive?

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:04 (nineteen years ago)

Nope. But they transcend, sorta. I mean, lyrically, that dude is great. I heard he wrote a book too? He doesn't look much like he could sing for such a brutal band.

― Roger Fidelity (Roger Fidelity), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:07 (nineteen years ago)

let's no forget how amazing Terrorizer was. please. :]

― Cameron Octigan (Cameron Octigan), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:10 (nineteen years ago)

grindcore is a state of mind

― latebloomer: not to be confused with the dolphin from Seaquest DSV (latebloomer), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 03:56 (nineteen years ago)

-- Whiney G. Weingarten (christophe...), November 14th, 2006.

wasn't grindcore originally pretty much an evolution of crust punk though?

i mean, there's definitely punk-leaning grindcore and metal-leaning grindcore.

― latebloomer: not to be confused with the dolphin from Seaquest DSV (latebloomer), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 03:59 (nineteen years ago)

Yep. But I--more specifically--meant "somehow (through sound or stance) connected to mid-90s hardcore."

― Whiney G. Weingarten (whineyg), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 06:48 (nineteen years ago)

gotcha

― magnificently-crafted waterfalls of latebloomer (latebloomer), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 07:00 (nineteen years ago)

>> although, i strongly disagree with the assertion that cleaner production means better grind. Spazz, Capitalist Casualties, and countless other fucking RAD grind bands have had some awful production.

I wouldn't call Spazz or Capitalist Casualties grind really, they're power violence. Although as already mentioned there's not a huge difference. But early Napalm Death or Extreme Noise Terror isn't exactly well produced and that stuff rules.

― Colonel Poo (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 09:39 (nineteen years ago)

good grindcore - carcass

― Charlie Howard (the sphinx), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 11:22 (nineteen years ago)

Has grindiecore been invented yet?.

― NickB (NickB), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 11:25 (nineteen years ago)

grimecore

― You've Got Scourage On Your Breath (Haberdager), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 11:35 (nineteen years ago)

two years pass...

oh, (:07)
fear of god (:13)
will there ever be (:31)
a discography cd (:15)
available to the public (1:15)
please include "world under my fingernail" (:32)
thx (:03)

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:23 (seventeen years ago)

also, g-anx were pretty cool

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:25 (seventeen years ago)

Fear of God of with Schlimpfucher Dave Phillips?

― WoW... An Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed (gnarly sceptre), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:35 (seventeen years ago)

that's the one

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:37 (seventeen years ago)

It was so easy to do
And now
I got my hands deep in your guts

― WoW... An Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed (gnarly sceptre), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:38 (seventeen years ago)

the 'remix' on the swissotic commune document rulez

― WoW... An Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed (gnarly sceptre), Tuesday, 18 November 2008 17:39 (seventeen years ago)

i was actually a little underwhelmed by that, i guess i thought it'd be a little more chaotic and batshit crazy. maybe i need to give it another shot.

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 01:51 (seventeen years ago)

Were they quite renowned? I really know next to nothing about them, except that they were clearly incredibly early for the sound they had.

And I can't recall how different the original 'My Hands Deep in Your Guts ' is, but I think the 95 version is basically identical but with the sound of beer bottles crashing at the end. I was half kidding, I guess. Still.... MY HANDS DEEP IN YOUR GUUUUTTTS!!!

― WoW... An Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed (gnarly sceptre), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 10:30 (seventeen years ago)

I'm not sure how well known Fear Of God were in the late 80s, but they are quite renowned as grindcore pioneers nowadays.

― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 10:44 (seventeen years ago)

what he said. the only people i knew who liked them at the time were the people i tape traded with. when i played grindcore shit for my fellow metal ppl they thought it was 'noise' or something. it wasn't until "necroticism" and "harmony corruption" that they paid attention.

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 12:07 (seventeen years ago)

You guys have just given me a new grindcore band to discover, thanks!

― MacDara, Wednesday, 19 November 2008 12:30 (seventeen years ago)

Careful cos there's 2 bands called Fear Of God! I've never heard the other one.

― I KNOW WHAT YOU'RE UP TO (Colonel Poo), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 13:14 (seventeen years ago)

the other one are like thrash metal with a chick singing. never really cared for them myself.

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 13:51 (seventeen years ago)

Is the answer to this thread anything to do with dreadlocks, btw?

― WoW... An Online RPG Funeral Gets Ambushed (gnarly sceptre), Wednesday, 19 November 2008 17:52 (seventeen years ago)

no, it's ALL GOOD GRIND COMES FROM THE 80S

CHALLOPSED!@

― wind and wtfering (GOTT PUNCH II HAWKWINDZ), Thursday, 20 November 2008 04:57 (seventeen years ago)

eleven years pass...

I got this Agathocles album (Razor Sharp Daggers) and it sounds like it was recorded inside a refrigerator.

also got Regurgitate's first album, and unlike their polished yet still sick classic "Carnivorous Erection", it basically sounds like Reek of Putrefaction if the band had been told they had to play their instruments in a separate room.

I love grindcore.

moving onto Siege now.

― Bublé in the changer, I wish I was dead (Neanderthal), Thursday, 19 December 2019 03:53 (six years ago)

also I saw this band called Dolphin Splatter once and they ruled, they did like 16 songs in 10 minutes, so their set was usually like

"THIS NEXT SONG IS CALLED...IMAPUTITINTHEBACKOFYOURHEADPOPPOPPOPSPLATT *CYMBAL CRASH*! THANK YOU!"

― Bublé in the changer, I wish I was dead (Neanderthal), Thursday, 19 December 2019 03:56 (six years ago)

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