10 Must-Listen Grindcore Albums from Q1 2023
Welcome back to Invisible Oranges’ grindcore roundup series! Because last year’s two features received such a warm response, in 2023 we’re going to be running them quarterly. That means this writer is going to be sifting through the depths of contemporary grindcore in search of its most volatile gems. Given grind’s legendary brevity, if there’s one subgenre of metal that’s easy to consume voraciously, this is it. Imagine trying to keep abreast of every new funeral doom release, you’d have to warp space-time (plus you’d turn into the withered wojak meme).
This roundup traverses releases from across the globe, traveling from the US to East Asia via Scotland and Scandinavia. Like all metal, grind speaks a universal language, one that gets reinterpreted according to the respective landscapes of its birth. These releases also reveal the expansive permutations that the genre frequently undergoes, in contrast to its perceived limitations. We hope you find something within these releases that grips, excites or challenges you.
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Scalp – Black Tar
January 13th, 2023
Closed Casket Activities
A formidable grind/powerviolence fusion, Scalp’s Black Tar is an explosive collection from which no light escapes. These twelve minutes are a harrowing, unpredictable descent into a world marred by addiction, trauma and psychosis. Guitarist Devan Fuentes has described the album as influenced by seeing “a side of humanity that was pretty disturbing to accept”. The animalistic nastiness of these viscous eight tracks has undoubtedly come from a very real and very dark place, which makes this gaze into the abyss as piercingly grim as it is viscerally thrilling.
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Coffin Nail – The Hanged Man
February 6th, 2023
Voice And Filth Records
We featured Coffin Nail’s killer 2022 release Years Of Lead in the first of last year’s roundups, describing it as utilizing “gargled vocals, omnipresent blast beats and sandpaper-textured guitars”. The Hanged Man features all these and more, but is bolstered by production that’s even more murky and primal this time around. Amidst all the carnage are some surprising atmospheric quirks that rise above the mire – the spooky horns that close out “Brood Parasites”, the hellish beats of “Due note in nero”. These levy the album’s lumpen ugliness, ensuring The Hanged Man remains a well-rounded sojourn into the pits of war metal hell.
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See You Next Tuesday – Distractions
February 7th, 2023
Good Fight Music
Now this is how you do a comeback record. Distractions sees See You Next Tuesday jettison everything the band once did that was so distinctly noughties – the punny track titles, the OTT silliness – in favor of a dense fusion of grind, death metal and mathcore. It makes for a savage but coherent collection, one that’s more intense and far less flippant than anything the band have previously put out. Grind purists won’t be into it (see the breakdowns on “Hey Look, No Crying” and “I’ll Never Smile Again”) but for less dogmatic fans of extreme metal, Distractions proves a very welcome – ahem – distraction.
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Thin – Dusk
February 10th, 2023
Twelve Gauge Records
The latest release from one of the most distinct and forward-thinking grind bands out there, Dusk is a brilliant album that’s thrillingly willing to play around with the genre’s foundations. It possesses a uniquely brittle texture that’s aptly-thin and skeletal, while the frantic tempos and dense song craft are deployed with unpredictable and subtly-complex technical skill. Reference points for these fourteen tracks range from Portrayal Of Guilt to Artificial Brain, which goes some way to surmising Dusk’s blend of abrasive emotion and technical ambition. A highlight of the year so far, regardless of subgenre.
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Festerdecay – Reality Rotten To The Core
February 24th, 2023
Self-Released/Everlasting Spew Records
No grind roundup is complete without a gross, corporeal deathgrind album. The debut from Japan’s Festerdecay (we actually featured a similar Japanese band last year in Pharmacist), Reality Rotten To The Core is everything you want from this type of Carcass-worshiping, gore-obsessed metal. There’s the fleshy collage artwork, track titles like “Liquidized Gallbladder” and an endless stream of murky, obtuse and frequently-groovy riffs. This brand of grind is an acquired taste, but for the musical gorehounds out there, Festerdecay have a viscera-soaked treat in store for you.
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Vermintide – Ashamed Of My Species
March 3rd, 2023
Self-Released
Grindcore is one of the most explicitly political music genres. This inherent anger at the sociopolitical status quo is taken to ferocious extremes by Israel’s excellently-named Vermintide. Given that there’s more than a touch of brutal death metal in the slams and gutturals of these thirteen cuts, not every grind fan is going to take to Vermintide’s savage concoction. Ashamed Of My Species is a blunt instrument, but one that eviscerates environmental destruction, religion and warfare with admirable and abrasive glee. The album closes with Napalm Death and Magrudergrind covers, which should win back any heads put off by the death metal breakdowns.
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Endless Swarm – Manifested Forms
March 3rd, 2023
To Live A Lie
Released via two killer labels – Germany’s Coxinha Records and L.A.’s To Live A Lie – Endless Swarm’s Manifested Forms is a wickedly-fun collection of fastcore-leaning grind. There’s as much here for hardcore pit stompers to get their teeth into (the punk riffs on the likes of “Split Brain” and “Antithesis”) as there is the feral grind maniacs. It’s pulled off with thrilling precision, with the dual vocals of frontman Gary Caldwell and bassist Alex Sharp being a particular highlight. They interweave with one another and offer tonal counterpoints, helping chart an unpredictable but unique course through the Scottish band’s wild labyrinth.
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Speech Odd – Odd World
March 12th, 2023
Self-Released
This inclusion might be controversial, given that Odd World is undeniably more of a powerviolence record than it is a grindcore record. Nonetheless, the two styles are heavily interlinked and fans of both subgenres will find much to love in this barn-storming debut EP from Bangkok trio Speech Odd. From the neon artwork to vocalist Pam’s commanding shriek, Odd World is a riotous reminder of both the strength of the scene in East Asia as well as the myriad mutations that grind and powerviolence undergoes once exposed to perspectives beyond just that of western males.
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Forcefed Horsehead – Monoceros
March 24th, 2023
Owlripper Recordings
Why do grind bands always have the best names? Forcefed Horsehead’s moniker is as savage and elegant as the Norwegian band’s alchemical blend of grindcore, death metal, sludge and black metal. This hybrid style is brilliantly-realized, full of atmospheric flourishes and operatic verve that transcends traditional grind linearity. For every unclassifiable extreme metal epic like “The Black Sun,” there’s a short, sharp rager such as “Dragged Back To Life” that pulls you down to the scorched earth. There’s a palpable sense of rule-breaking ferocity about Monoceros, which is as close to a grindcore maxim as you can get.
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Rotten Sound – Apocalypse
March 31st, 2023
Season Of Mist
We close out this Q1 roundup with another Scandinavian band, and it’s an absolutely essential listen from a legendary band. Finland’s Rotten Sound have been consistently releasing top-tier grindcore albums for nearly three decades and Apocalypse only continues this career-long hot-streak. These eighteen tracks are a razor-sharp, serrating onslaught. From sub-thirty second thrillers “True And False” and “Nothingness” to the smartly-structured (relatively) longer cuts “Empowered” and “Suburban Bliss”, Apocalypse just gets everything right. This is the sound of a band who have mastered the genre’s machinations and are now immortalized in its canon.
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