Split Level Housing: Chadhel/Massive Charge Split 7 Inch Review

 

    On an almost daily basis, I think about that scene from the 1993 summer blockbuster, Jurassic Park, in which Dr. Ian Malcolm—played by Jeff Goldblum—mutters the phrase, "Life finds a way." Obviously the character in the film is talking about the unstoppable engine of nature and evolution, but the way I internalize it is more of a predatory sense of fate. As if life will never fail to assert itself upon you in ways that are rarely welcomed. This summer was full of several setbacks and minor misfortunes. However, there was a particular evening that I found myself under the full thumb of the "life" experience. The kind of events that thicken the air of a room in which you don't walk into it, you force a path like a dull knife through a cheese block. Where the air has a sick heat to it and it makes your ears ring. It is the kind of life experience that quite literally has you sitting in the company of death—both of you watching and waiting.

    Fortunately, I currently find myself in the company of dear friends of the blog: the best in Québec, the Esoteric Order Of Dagon practitioners, the grinders Chadhel, and their brand-new split seven-inch with fellow francophones from across the Atlantic, Massive Charge. Undoubtedly, this is a record born from the friendships forged while Chadhel supported Massive Charge on their 2024 tour through Canada and Québec. We last saw Chadhel on the blog with a review of their 2023 split release with rabid dogs, Faché. This split marks Chadhel's first release since their much-acclaimed 2024 split with Hungarian crust-grinders, Jack. (I'm fairly certain there was supposed to be a review of that split, which may or may not be coming.) 

    Very much the opposite of my familiarity with the northern fish-god zealots, I have not heard of Massive Charge prior to this release. Formed in 2003, the French grinders released two full-lengths in 2007 and 2011 before a seemingly eight year hiatus. In 2019 and 2021 the band released a series of singles followed by their third full-length, For Those We Hate, in late 2021. After nearly two decades of releases that flew under my radar, Massive Charge's first release in almost five years has opportunely been brought to my attention.

    Chadhel, ever the formidable and proficiently tight grindcore unit, returns with four new songs on this, their latest, split EP. While delivering a performance just as intense and just as tight, the band is markedly different. According to the liner notes, the band consists of only two members: founding member GT provides guitar and vocals, while former lead vocalist Yan handles vocals and drums. Yan originally joined the band following the departure of founding vocalist JP, who took time away from Chadhel back in 2023. 

    GT's guitarwork is still as focused and sharp as ever. His shrill and discordant fretwork convulses up the fretboard like a power drill. The siren-like repetition is almost pushed to the limit before being pulled back into heavy crushing power chords. GT's rapid off-and-on palmuted riffing, particularly in the opening track, "Internal State Of Manic Rage" lashes out with a venomous ferocity. 

    Normally, I would make an obligatory comparison of Chadhel to that of Pig Destroyer, based primarily on both the adept guitarwork and rigid vocals of prior releases. However, I don't hear that here. Instead, the consistency of the monotonal, guttural vocals in tandem with the pinballing guitar reminds me more of bands like Meth Leppard.

    Obviously, this change in lineup resulted in an aberration in the band's songwriting and sound. I am not sure if it's psychological because of the two-piece lineup or not, but the songwriting on this EP sounds a little leaner. The band doesn't seem to venture far into arthouse dabblings or over-melodic experimentation. There's a sense of a stripped-down, nuts-and-bolts style of grindcore. Chadhel might be a few members down, but they are still just as fierce. 

    Unlike some of Chadhel's more polished and uber-produced past releases such as 2022's full-length, Failure//Downfall, this current split is comparably more raw and notably underproduced. The drumming seems more natural sounding without any of the usual triggers. The guitar distortion is extremely blown out and sizzling with static. 

    Chadhel only really suffered in the mastering of their tracks. Their side of the EP is lower in overall volume and is very bass-heavy. Turning up the volume to a more appropriate level might result in a headache-inducing strobing of the kick drum or some subwoofer trauma. I found that if you are capable of adjusting the equalization, turning the bass down about two-thirds, boosting the mids all the way up, and cranking the volume allows you to really appreciate the musicianship that much more. 

    France's Grand Est grindcore quintet rounds out the record's B-side with just a mere two tracks; nevertheless, within those two tracks, Massive Charge manages to cover a lot of ground. The band alternates through their blend of metal, grindcore, punk, and hardcore in just over four minutes like a dissociative identity disorder grindcore chameleon. 

    Immediately, track one—"Youth Crusher"—blasts open with fast, drilling death-grind before dropping down into a sort of melodic punk with a hardcore bridge. The hook-laden punk riffs and vocals remind me a lot of the street punk band, The Unseen; if they were pulverized by a double bass pedal and backed by guttural vocals.

    Track two, "Candy Delivery," threw me for a loop upon first listen. The song plays more like a Sick Of It All-style of hardcore rather than a traditional grindcore song. Like a French grindcore Lon Chaney, Massive Charge changes styles completely. Even the vocals are different. If it wasn't for the guitar's similar distortion tone as well as the physical presence of the song on the tracklisting, I would think this was a completely different band. The distinct mix of hardcore and grindcore is very similar to Maryland's Strong Intention and their 2013 split with Department Of Correction.

    Massive Charge pulls it off flawlessly. The guitar on "Youth Crusher" shifts from winding black metal gales to punky palmutes, while "Candy Delivery" is completely different with energetic, uptempo punk verses and plodding hardcore choruses. The drum work is just as tight, just as versatile, just as intuitive.  

    

      This split seven inch between Chadhel and Massive Charge is certainly a fun one, as the bands complement each other well. The two sides of the record definitely overlap like a Venn diagram with each band playing on-theme, while also showcasing their unique takes on the genre. 

    It sounds like Chadhel might not only be outgrowing their eldritch aesthetics but also embracing a more organic, less sterilized sound. While it may sound like I am disparaging Chadhel, I can assure you I am not. Remember, they are still fucking Chadhel and are certainly no slouches. Yet, whether it was intentional or unintentional, the studio mix and mastering did the band a disservice, in my opinion. Perhaps the engineer was trying to match the rawness of the songwriting. 

    I am really anxious to see where Chadhel goes from here. If they can somehow marry the natural sounding recording with their previous, more polished production levels, it will be interesting to see how their current streamlined writing process evolves; especially considering how prolific they are in the studio. 

    I am also interested to hear what's next from Massive Charge, because I honestly have no clue what it will sound like. The band's split with Chadhel stands out in their discography as something new and different. Past records leaned more into that heavy death-grind sound—really tight, blazing fast, razor-sharp. Those prior records sound more like Napalm Death than the Massive Charge on this split. The tracks here introduce that punk and hardcore element that made their side so entertaining. 

    The split is available in the States right now via Throne Of Lies Records and in Europe via Nihilocus Records and Necro Records. 

FFO: Meth Leppard, Wormrot, Strong Intention

Listen to the album: 

https://chadhel.bandcamp.com/album/split-chadhel-massive-charge

https://massivecharge.bandcamp.com/album/split-chadhel-massive-charge

The Gibbering Mouther: Badfeeling - "No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines." LP Review

    2024's No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is an ambitious and collaborative album that was the brainchild of grindcore/powerviolence Italian stalwart, Pompeo "Badfilingo" Pontone, and released on Jungle Noise Records. Like past reviewed titles such as the 2024 split, Asymmetrics, between See You Next Tuesday and meth., No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is a cooperative, yet removed, musical experimentation that was conceived from the Covid pandemic global lockdown in 2020. Pompeo, alongside drummer Valerio Primo, wrote and recorded eighteen songs and enlisted the talents of a consortium of some seventeen international vocal talents. Badfeeling's cast of rotating vocalists are no strangers to the genre. The project's vocalists are borrowed from heavy-hitting grindcore, powerviolence, hardcore, and metal bands—including Whoresnation, Trigger, Reproach, Endless Swarm, ANF, Double Me, Disrotted, and L.UL.U. These artists hail from Scotland, Lithuania, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, France, Italy, Belgium, Slovenia, and the United States. The album's initial concept was an exercise in unity and solidarity among the global grindcore community during the tense and uncertain lockdowns when live shows and touring were impossible.

    Pompeo might perhaps be more well known for his other many bands including Plague Bomb, Taste The Floor, and xKatexMoshx. His catchy hardcore riffs have been an Italian institution for over a dozen years in almost as many projects. His guitarwork in No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is a revved up hardcore/metalcore dozering that barrels through the album and its various genre dabblings. The riffs are pretty straight forward, yet occasionally have a metallic flare that has a sense of mainstream professionalism. The starch and crunchy guitar tone and stout bass give a rich and textured foundation to the throughline of the release. Most songs play as an arrangement of crusty sludge riffs sped up into a slurry of distortion and blast beats, broken up by hardcore jaunts—shuffle, scramble, repeat. Pompeo's palm muted chugs and fast cycling riffs paired with Primo's beatdown and blast beats steer songs in and out of genres and tempos. There are more than a couple of 808 bass drops throughout the mix that further leans into the release's modern metal styling. 

 

    While the majority of the songwriting is mostly that of fastcore and grindcore blend, Pompeo is not wasting the opportunity to include as many influences as he can. Songs and vocals run the genre gamut. The tracks "I Have To Feel Something" (featuring Crippled Fox's Attila Gagyi) and "Love Essential" (featuring Kiras of Will Cope) both exemplify the heavy melodic songwriting presence on the album. "I Have To Feel Something" is more of a melodic punk feel, whereas "Love Essential" has a haunting, black metal swagger. Alternatively, songs like "Campari, Borghetti" (featuring MooM's Sima, Gad and Ezra) and "Modern Life Warfare" (featuring Mirco Desolei of Double Me) favor a trudging sludge tempo. "Black  Iceberg" (featuring Terror Firmer's Gabri Rossi) and "Contrazione" (featuring Dadde of CxIxB) are just good old fashion blasting grindcore.  

    Overall, Pompeo's Badfeeling and No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is a strong, great sounding release. The talent it takes to play through the subtleties of all these closely related subgenres and to still have them all sound so distinct and identifiable cannot be denied. 

    The release isn't without its criticisms. The final track, "The Arm's Dance" is an instrumental doom track featuring a saxophone and borders on gratuitous. Additionally, vocals work better on some songs more than others; their lamination slightly begins to peel around the edges. 

    No Sleep. Bad Dreams. Endorphines. is essentially a love letter to grindcore and thrashcore by a guitarist and songwriter who has dedicated his life to his local scene, harnessing it as a tool to build worldwide bridges. The collaboration among his international peers was accomplished in an innovative and productive way, against a bleak backdrop of recent history.

 FFO: xKatexMoshx, Reproach, Extortion

Listen to the album: https://junglenoiserecords.bandcamp.com/album/no-sleep-bad-dreams-endorphines

The Red Market: Korroded - Body Broker EP Review

 

    In the United Kingdom, during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, the need for corpses for medical dissection and anatomical study was so great that anatomists would hire men known as "resurrectionists" to supply surgeons with fresh cadavers. Resurrectionists would procure newly deceased bodies through grave robbery and other illicit means, selling them to teaching hospitals and anatomy schools. The clandestine business operated in a legal gray area, creating a black market for human remains within the medical profession. The trade became so lucrative that some resurrectionists even resorted to murder to meet the demand—as documented in the infamous Burke and Hare murders. 

    On February 15th, 2002, over three hundred decomposing human remains were found on the property of the Tri-State Crematory in Noble, Georgia. After human remains were sighted on the facility's premises, local law enforcement followed up on reports, and it was discovered that director Ray Brent Marsh had abandoned the bodies outdoors, providing families with wood ash or cement mix instead of actual cremated remains. The scandal was eerily reminiscent of the case involving David Sconce and the Lamb Funeral Home in Pasadena, California in the late 1980s. In addition to mutilating bodies in order to facilitate mass cremations, Sconce also harvested body parts for profit, falsified documentation, and embezzled funerary funds. Sconce was convicted of twenty-one counts of mishandling human remains, a case recently popularized in the HBO docuseries, The Mortician. 

    Earlier this year, in January, thirty-four-year-old Jonathan Gerlach was arrested while leaving the Mount Moriah Cemetery in Philadelphia with a crowbar in one hand and a sack of assorted human remains in the other. For months Gerlach had broken into mausoleums and underground vaults to steal hundreds of human remains. Human skulls, mummified remains, cremains and various other body parts were later discovered at his residence and a nearby storage building. Gerlach, who was allegedly selling human skulls and remains through social media groups, now faces over five hundred counts of vandalism, grave robbery and abuse of a corpse.   

    Korroded's Body Broker EP, released last week, explores themes of mortuary corruption, murderous religious extremism, cartel violence, and amoral dehumanization. The titular track, "Body Broker" deals with the illegal farming of organs and the indignities of after-death care, while "Cremation Entombment" is an observation on the existentialism around cremation. While both tracks uphold the EP's morbidly blatant subject matter, the theme of dehumanization lies at the core of the record as a whole. 

    The deconstruction of the human body into commodities in "Body Broker" could be taken literally, but I also believe it is metaphorical and relevant in today's political climate. The hate-filled rhetoric and unlawful policies of the current administration have led to the persecution and increasing dehumanization of targeted communities, allowing agencies like ICE to operate with impunity. The events in Minneapolis are proof of that, and they should be at the forefront of the conversation in Memphis—especially as the Memphis Safe Task Force and ICE are stepping up their presence in the city with plans for a detention center in Marshall County. When you don't see a person as a human being you become capable of rationalizing, committing, or turning a blind eye to all sorts of atrocities. 

     Memphis, Tennessee's Korroded are a consummate and consistent grindcore powerhouse that combines not only the new school and old school of grindcore, but also thrash metal, beatdown hardcore, and crust punk. They have quickly risen to become one of the top grindcore bands in the state. 2026 has the band returning with their latest six song EP, Body Broker. The last The blog saw of Korroded was our review of their 2023 full-length, Rudiment Butcher. Since that initial record the band has released two additional EP's in the form of 2024's Nanotech Assassination and 2025's Augment To Kill—an annual release run that has had the band honing their mongrel breed of Bluff City grindcore.

    Body Broker's vocals are still that uniquely recognizable gruff, ashtray-mouthed-leads countered by high, curdled black metal shrieks. The lead vocals are a gravelly barking reminiscent of bands like Phobia and Cretin. They are that intimidating mix of crust and hardcore that have that heavy-breathed cadence. The backing vocals are mainly doing spot stacks with the leads, but obviously at a higher register. They seemed to have shed the reverb effect from Rudiment Butcher somewhere within the last few EPs. I think the band is all the better for it. The vocals on Body Broker are cleaner and tighter as a result. 

    Body Broker's guitar and bass are drenched in an ardent distortion. While not exactly the center of attention, the bass guitar has enough hair to match its bark. Its coarse growl sounds like a ground loop in a subwoofer in Hell. The guitarwork is a seething, needling sashay that sticks and moves across the fretboard like a game of five finger fillet. The tone is that thick saturation of blazing and wooly distortion that Korroded is known for. Overdriven power chords bulldoze throughout the songs with little to no elaborate technicality, just punishing metallic menace and headbanging infectiousness. However, the track "Killing Journey," ends with a kind of dissonant, percolating noodling solo that I don't necessarily remember being included in Rudiment Butcher. It's a chaotic climax that steps up the infusion of metal within the riffs without wasting time with more ostentatious solos and grandstanding.

    The drumwork is just as tight as the guitar and just as eclectic. Throwback double time skank beats, cymbal catching jackhammering, and skipping blasts crowd against tight snare rolls and speedy modern blast beats. This makes for an exceptionally bouncy rhythm. Nonetheless, the fast tempo on Body Broker seems to be largely unabated, with the exception of the occasional breakdown. The tail ends of "Generative Mutation" and "Cremation Entombment" have a steely-sludgy hardcore swagger that, along with the guitarwork, really emphasizes that bounce. They hit like a fist gripping a roll of quarters in an alleyway dumpster fight.

    Body Broker comes off even leaner and more to the point when compared to Korroded's past releases—if that's even possible. There was not much fat to be trimmed in the band's thirty-second to a minute-and-a-half songs, but I think they did it. Like the cannibalized bones dug up in settlement ruins at Jamestown, the songs bear the tool marks of where the flesh was cut and carved away. The EP's mix and master is keenly heavy. As with all of Korroded's releases, the tracklisting is broken up with obscure sound clips that range from the atmospherically ominous to the comically absurd. 

    Overall, the EP is a cultivation of refinement. Korroded have been whetting their Mississippi River shiv against the concrete of the street curb and fashioning it into a sharp and lethal weapon of blast destruction and disillusionment. While comparisons to bands such as Terrorizer, Repulsion, and ultimately Cretin can't be ignored, Korroded are distinctly their own.  

FFO: Phobia, Cretin, Repulsion

Listen to the album: https://korroded.bandcamp.com/album/body-broker

Shitting Dicks: AssCock - "Parasitic Depression" EP Review

    I got into writing reviews almost by way of a curse. When I started my first band in high school and began learning how to write and play music, it ruined the experience of listening to music for me. The peek behind the curtain combined with the subsequent musical obsession seemed too much for my wormy little brain. I would neurotically deconstruct all my favorite songs in the hopes of figuring out how they worked. Many years later, in an act of uncharacteristic confidence, I decided to become publicly vocal about it and started the House of Grindcore in 2015. 

    The actual act of writing reviews is a journey in itself. It starts with listening to the releases either in my car or via earbuds while at work. Although, that lends itself to a whole host of problems. Have you ever seen that movie Memento? Guy Pearce plays a guy without a short-term memory, who is trying to solve the murder of his wife and survives off of writing vital information on Post-it Notes and Polaroids. Without making this too convoluted, there's a scene where Carrie-Anne Moss provokes him into hitting her by badmouthing his deceased wife. She then leaves, taking all the pens from the room with her. As he scrambles to write down the incident, she merely waits until he eventually forgets the original provocation, allowing her to take advantage and further manipulate him. Likewise, I often find myself driving, unable to take notes, or at work struggling to find a pen and paper until I inevitably get distracted and the review I had in my head dissipates into the ether. 

        At the possible risk of more self-detrimental illumination, it's safe to say that writing a grindcore review blog in this day and age is obviously redundant. If you have the ability to read this, you have the ability to listen to any release that I could possibly write about. Not to mention, blogs haven't been en vogue since Lost was on air. The only real benefit to writing reviews would be a promotive online presence for bands and their releases. Yet, at the time of writing this, I'm so far behind that any hope of a timely promotion is going to be largely lost. The worst is when the wait for the review is longer than the tenure of the band. 

    In 2024, the obscure band AssCock released the EP, Parasitic Depression. The band's combination of noise, grindcore, and goregrind made for a chaotic release, to say the least. The avant garde noise-grind record seems to be the only output from the band who apparently have almost no internet presence and no legitimately named members. I believe the EP solely exists on Bandcamp and YouTube. 

    Instrumentation on Parasitic Depression takes a backseat to the noise elements, for sure. All the drums and guitarwork are distant and shallow. The guitar sounds like it's played through a ten-watt practice amp—completely blown out—gain all the way up. The thick fuzz of the guitar makes any distinction between notes or riffs or background static fairly impossible. The guitar on track "Cardiomegaly" sounds like just disjointed chords seemingly played at random and is the most distinct and clean the guitar appears on the record. 

    The drumming is there, but can be illusive within the mix. You can hear it more towards the beginning of the EP and at the end. However, most of the blast beats are overall eclipsed by the noise. The cymbal crashes are the only things that cut through the mud. It's almost an aural Magic Eye experience trying to listen for the full kit. "Necrosis Of The Body And Mind" is the most traditional sounding track on the EP, as far as the guitar and drums working together. 

    The vocals on the EP are certainly of a distinct nature. They sound like an intermittent chorus of deep croaks and goregrind gurgles. They're kind of like a far off creek of bullfrogs. They don't have any real presence or rhythm. It reminds me of when you're at the dentist and the hygienist has your head in her lap and you can hear her stomach growling through her scrubs. 

    AssCock's use of harsh noise appears to be priority for Parasitic Depression. Songs are thick with blazing distortion and crushing static. Some songs sound like the band attached a guitar pickup to a straw sucking up the last persistent remains of a milkshake in the bottom of a cup, or like a set of janitor keys in a garbage disposal, or a hail storm on a tin roof. The last track, "End Of Times Jam," sounds like a discordant jazz-grind number performed with drums and someone tapping their thumb on a quarter inch instrument cable jack while it's plugged into a live amplifier. What is most constant are the liquid-esque, retro science-fiction phaser effects throughout the EP. I didn't care much for them. They seemed like space filler with no real necessity. 

   

    Now, Parasitic Depression is art and art is subjective. It has it's merits, but this EP is definitely not for everyone. This falls into that "niche of the niche" folder. Parasitic Depression is more raw, low-fi, and dirty than most of the releases that come my way. The whole EP sounds like it was recorded in a moving cargo van hauling down the highway. The songs are presented in an almost molecular gastronomy version of grindcore; elements are broken down into raw essentials and presented separately and indiscriminately. 

    Personally, I would have liked a little more presence within the mix, especially on the drums and blast beats, to really own that "grindcore" identifier. But AssCock definitely had a vision and definitely made choices for a reason. I'm not going to pretend to know the noise scene or criticize the standards of the genre. So I'm not going to say this is a bad release, because it's not. I know for a fact it has its fans, but AssCock is a bitter cup of tea that will certainly have some listeners clicking away. 

FFO: (???)

Listen to the album: https://asscock.bandcamp.com/album/parasitic-depression

    

    

Return To The House Of Grindcore: Top 10 Favorite Releases Of 2025

    As we shovel the last of the dirt onto the grave of the blackened and bloated corpse of 2025, I can't help but think, as I'm looking down at the shallow woodland grave, "what a fucking shitshow." I don't think I can recall a year of so much blatant hate and utter heinousness. The amount of death and despair that I've seen this year and the shameless passivity in response has me truly despondent. I feel like a frog in a slowly boiling pot of dystopian fascism. 

    Practically from the ball drop of 2025 I saw mangled bodies on the streets of New Orleans, followed by witnessing Los Angeles burn to ash, then the nightmare scenario of the second term of a regime that I think we all knew was vehemently immoral—and now is clearly riddled with psychopathy. And that was just January! Events such as ongoing war, genocide, environmental disasters, AI, ICE, discriminatory legislation, are all universally understood to be glaringly hellish and I don't think I really need to expand on them. However, their detriment to modern life cannot be ignored. Focusing on the positives has become harder and harder. I almost feel guilty when trying to do so, like I owe it to the world to sit in the shit. Positivity was never really my forte. 

    All that said, I think we can agree that grindcore is a constant positive in our lives. Whether it be listening to music, or record collecting, or attending shows, or playing in bands, grindcore has been both the outlet and the distraction. My whole life I've said punk rock saved my life, and as a teenager that was certainly true. At this point in my life I feel like grindcore has given me a community. The House of Grindcore exists solely because of the appreciation and invested interest of those of you who are reading this now. Without the submissions from the bands and labels and the eyes of the readers, this web blog would not be able to survive. Once again this year, I would like to express my immense gratitude to the readers and to all the bands. 

    Below I have listed and ranked my personal choices for the top ten grindcore releases of the year. As it is every year, there were a significant number of exceptional grind releases this year and I did my best to make a representational registry of my favorite. And when I tell you that I accidentally deleted that list, twice, I mean I fucking accidentally deleted it, twice! Hopefully this list is a fair representation of whatever it was that I had originally figured out. I eventually had to just stop fucking with it. 

Honorable mentions:

Durian - "Pecking Order" LP

    Durian returned in 2025 with their second full-length album, Pecking Order. As I understand it, the LP was written, recorded, mixed, packaged, and released entirely independently by the band, without any label involvement. Pecking Order is a relentless bombardment of hurtling blast beats and darting skate-punk riffs. More "grind" than "violence," Durian's slinky and stylized brand of grindcore pulls from several genres—including powerviolence, crust punk, and hardcore—in a way that feels wholly original. Durian pairs just as well with Bandit as they do with Bad Brains. 

    I've always referred to Durian as a "bass player's grind band," as every song is saturated—if not outright overflowing—with the springy-recoil of the band's bass guitar. The album's dense grindcore and its wavering tempo plays like a cassette tape stuck on fast-forward until the batteries in the Walkman eventually wane and die. Pecking Order's exhaustive twenty tracks of unabated blasting and gravelly-throated barks make for a truly torrential album that I don't hear being talked about enough.

 Chepang - "Jhyappa" LP

    The Nepali-American self-identifying "immigrindcore," Chepang return with their first album since their magnum opus, Swatta in 2023. While Swatta was released to high acclaim for its experimentation and far reaching collaboration, Jhyappa sees Chepang more aggressive and stripped down for their Relapse Records debut. The band mixes a fierce, albeit, more polished mix of grindcore a long with death metal, and an almost hardcore tribalism. The band's sharp riffs, lightning-quick drumming, and high-pitched shrieks make for a short yet hammering death-grind listen. (Comparisons to Nasum's broad appeal come to mind.) 

    Now, in every review you will read about Jhyappa you're going to read about a mention of "immigrindcore" and about the "personal self-immolation," themes of the album. However, in present day America—a time of state violence against immigrants, Gestapo-esque ICE raids and abductions, and open xenophobia—the band's immigrant identity sadly takes on different connotations. Whether it was the band's intention or not, Jhyappa has to be looked upon as a form of activism. In a time and place where immigrants are being systematically targeted, persecuted, and criminalized, Chepang's mere existence as a band is, in and of itself, a radical act. Jhyappa's artistic expression becomes a moral and political act of defiance. 

 

10. Stimulant - "Sub-Normal" LP

   Sonically strident and digitally discordant, New York's Stimulant return with a fast-paced, high-powered, aural assault of an album. Sub-Normal is a mercilessly crushing twenty minutes of grinding noise-violence. Like the white stuff around your remote control's dead batteries, the blasting drums and thick guitar distortion are corroded with grating harsh noise, stabbing feedback, and groove plodding slogs. Sub-Normal's powerviolence sludge is thicker than the acidic mud of the third world country where your abandoned iPods rot and ooze lead and mercury into some poor villages' drinking water. The microplastics and circuit boards kill off flora and fauna; and babies are born more cancer than kid. Was that analogy a bit much? I'd say so, but that's how depraved this album is. 

    The dual vocals are a back and forth argument consisting of A) caustic shrieks and B) some old school powerviolence vocals that are clearly shouted from the void or some neighboring alternate dimension. Retro Tron-esque "beeps" and "boops" float atop heavy bombing bass drones that I'm fairly certain broke the speaker in my front driver's side door. Meanwhile, shrill warbles of noisy bleating reverberate like the death rattle of some poor practice space amp head. Sub-Normal is literally screaming at you. It hates you. 

Listen: https://nervealtar.bandcamp.com/album/sub-normal

9. Sulfuric Cautery - "Consummate Extirpation" LP 

   Los Angeles-based Sulfuric Cautery have clawed and gutted their way to the top of the goregrind/grindcore chum pile over the last few years with their unmistakably distinct "propeller blade vs. tin can" hyper-blasting snare tone and detuned gurgle-grind. 

    Blast-beat phenom Isaac Horne’s talent behind the kit is full of ear-catching fills, clamoring transitions, skipping tempos, and jaw-dropping insanity-blasts. 

    Sulfuric Cautery not only released Consummate Extirpation in 2025, but the band also released the twenty-one-track Killing Spree LP back in July. Either album was more than worthy of making this list; however, I chose the nine-track Consummate Extirpation for its longer songs and superior production. Compared to the rest of the band’s more low-fi and raw-sounding discography, Consummate Extirpation’s improved production quality gives the album—and the band—a more sincere edge, in my opinion. Consummate Extirpation trades micro-blast decimation for a heavy blend of grindcore and brutal death metal.

Listen: https://blastaddict.bandcamp.com/album/consummate-extirpation

 

8. Forced Starvation - "Forced Starvation" LP

   To be completely honest, I wasn't expecting much from Forced Starvation. When I first laid eyes on the album cover, I presumptuously assumed the album was another goregrind demo left to rot in the bowels of Bandcamp. The 1920's era Russian famine cannibal cover photo, certainly didn't instill confidence as I have seen that image used on countless releases prior. Nevertheless, as I listened to Forced Starvation's self-titled debut full-length I was forced to eat crow and reconsider. 

    New Zealand's Forced Starvation are absolutely savage! Their rabid and raw grindcore is manically paced and viciously heavy. The drums are a blur of blast beats and boiling punk gallops. The guitars are thick and gnarly, yet can turn hauntingly somber when need be. The vocals are harsh and demonic. Despite the album's rampaging tempo and callous exterior, Forced Starvation manage a quite poignant song about the Bon Secours Mother and Baby Home in Tuam, Ireland. Needless to say, Forced Starvation was probably my most surprising pick of the year. 

Listen: https://forcedstarvation.bandcamp.com/album/forced-starvation

7. Noisy Neighbors - "Insolvent" LP

    San Antonio, Texas' very own genre meme-smiths, Noisy Neighbors, are back, picking up right where they left off with their 2023 release, Derailing the Hype Train. Noisy Neighbors have been consistently turning out pummeling grindcore since their 2018 debut and have yet to falter. Guitarist and drummer duo Shane and John are kings of the onstage banter as well as one of the sharpest songwriting teams in Texas grindcore. Noisy Neighbors' patented brand of no-frills, straight forward, stampeding grindcore is full bore in their latest LP, Insolvent. The album is pure, unremitting, rapid-fire blast beats knotted around crushing metallic riffs, slathered in gruff, and guttural vocals. The album's top-notch studio mix and master gives the drumming a deep impact and the guitar a solid crunch. Insolvent is a heavy and rich sounding record and is yet another addition in the band's extremely strong and respectable discography. 

Listen: https://noisyneighborstx.bandcamp.com/album/insolvent

6. Type: Armor Unit - "Revolutions In Saecula"

    Revolutions In Saecula is arguably the most interesting release on this list. Type: Armor Unit is a one-man sci-fi grind project from Days Of Desolation drummer Owen Swerts, who handled everything from instrumentation to mixing, mastering, and even the cover art. Set twenty thousand years in the future, the LP is a futuristic concept album following a freedom fighter named Kasa, who struggles to survive behind enemy lines in a war against world-threatening techno-fascists. 

    Revolutions In Saecula is more than a detailed galactic parable; it is an unrelenting "space-grind" saga. Stylistically situated between Psudoku and Gridlink, Type: Armor Unit and Revolutions In Saecula deliver a tight stranglehold of blast beats, dissonant tech-grind, and cosmic noise. Any sense of groove or break in tempo is treated as a mocking taunt rather than a reprieve. The only true respite is a single, serene and tranquil astral soundscape that eventually glimmers away into an infinite abyss of screaming guitars. At twenty tracks, Revolutions In Saecula is an operatic grind epic that is as beautiful as it is brutal. 

Listen: https://ampwall.com/a/typearmorunit/album/revolutions-in-saecula

5. Guilt Dispenser - "Detonation" 

    January 1, 2025, day one, Guilt Dispenser dropped this little gemmy on the table like a Paul Allen business card. The metaphorical gauntlet: Detonation is the Los Angeles-based band's first release since their 2021 split with Hong Kong Fuck You. It is a fun-sized blast of schizophrenic grinding hardcore/powerviolence in the best way imaginable. 

    The explosive and chronically shifting high-powered blender of noise, fastcore, grindcore, hardcore, and powerviolence is as brutal as it is erratic. Guilt Dispenser changes genres and tempos like flipping stations on a car radio while stuck at a red light; Detonation is a dynamic grab bag of frantic timing and hairpin turns. 

    Now, I can imagine there might be some controversy regarding this release because the record was pressed on seven-inch vinyl. While I've seen Detonation listed as an EP, the eighteen tracks and the fact that the band refers to it as a full-length should make it exactly that, if you ask me. Being pressed on a seven-inch was most likely just a good economical decision.

Listen: https://guiltdispenser.bandcamp.com/album/detonation

4. Sick Destroyer - "Sick Destroyer" LP

    Everything you could want in a grind record—shredding riffs, breakneck drumming, and throat-scouring vocals—Sick Destroyer's self-titled LP delivers exactly that and more. The Czech and Slovak grinders' debut full-length is both extremely brutal and ravenous: eighteen tracks of absolute, face-melting grind. Sick Destroyer is non-stop punishing. The band's blistering blast beats, in combination with their thick, lashing guitars, create more aggressive forward momentum than perhaps any other release on this list. The album's production is flawless, allowing each instrument to sit heavy in the mix while maintaining just the right amount of grime to give it some texture. With members of Lycanthrophy, Needful Things, Morbid Angel Dust, and Controlled Existence, it's no mystery why Sick Destroyer has quickly jumped to the top of the global grindcore heap.

Listen: https://sickdestroyer.bandcamp.com/album/sick-destroyer-sick-destroyer-lp

3. Meth Leppard - "Gatekeepers" LP

    Their first release in five years, Meth Leppard's Gatekeepers reminds us why the Aussie duo are currently one of the top bands in the genre. Led by the band's surgically-sharp and technically deft thrashing guitar, Gatekeepers plays as both brutally intense and purposefully refined. The guitar tone is stringent and vividly keen, while the mechanized, precision-blasting of the drums is pummeling, washer-tight, and impeccably performed. Meth Leppard manages to hide a tense sense of darkness behind such relentless speed and facetious song titles. The album's tangled guitars, roaring vocals, and clinical blast beats are borderline perfection. The album's compositional depth disciplines the band's speeding intensity into a singularly concentrated grindcore masterpiece.  

Listen: https://methleppard666.bandcamp.com/album/gatekeepers

2. Barren Path - "Grieving" LP

    As I understand it, when Jon Chang walked away from Gridlink, the band turned to Mitchell Luna of Maruta and Shock Withdrawal to step in and provide vocals for the unfinished tracks. That project would eventually evolve into the band Barren Path and their debut full-length, Grieving. 

    Barren Path might have the telltale virtuosic guitar prowess of Takafumi Matsubara and the signature drumming chops of Bryan Fajardo, but the band is a whole new beast. Where Gridlink's later albums drifted further and further into outer space, Barren Path and Grieving have both feet firmly planted in the death-grind dirt. The album is a supersonic, terrestrial tech-grind exercise in sheer precision and velocity. Each member of Barren Path is a master of their craft and their proficiency propels this record into the forefront of the 2025 releases. From its annihilative blast beats to its dizzying guitarwork, Grieving's pulverizing dissonant grindcore has set a high-water mark for both the musicians and the genre as a whole. It doesn't get much better than this.

Listen: https://barrenpath.bandcamp.com/album/grieving

1. Shitbrains/Exorbidant Prices Must Diminish - split LP

    In 2025 Shitbrains members Anthony and Emi lost their home in the Los Angeles fires alongside so many others. Despite such an unimaginable loss, the band was able to release a split LP with Swiss grinders, Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish, and the two bands embarked on a memorable co-headlining tour of the West Coast of the United States and Canada in support of the album. 

    Shitbrains' side of the record is an affirmation in why their frenzied brand of stop-and-go grindcore has them in the highest echelons of the West Coast's grindcore and powerviolence scene. Ballistically crisp as always, Shitbrains' drumming is a ricocheting barrage of power drill fills and tight turn-arounds. Punishingly kinetic, the blast beats are sickeningly fast and blink off and on quicker than a strobe light. The guitar is a blaring spiral that is just as shifty as the drums. The band's dual vocals are scathing enough to scrape the weathering off wood. They blast just as much as the guitar and drums. Shitbrains' latest is as relentless as it is succinct and as clean as it is berserk. 

    Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish have once again found themselves at the number one spot for the second year in a row. That is no small feat. Much like their split-mates, Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish are very much that high-strung, popcorn-snare-worshipping, spasmatic, start/stop grindcore. The band's songwriting is a maniacal stuttering of blistering chaos—almost a crust-punk take on grindviolence. Instruments are leapfrogging over one another, vying for their microseconds of the spotlight. The guitarwork is a violent mélange of punk rock riffs and death metal licks, all chopped up in a blender. The band's beautiful basslines are rich and intertwined; its quick interjections and solos stick out like the bouncing springs shooting out from some broken cartoon clockwork.

    The split between Shitbrains and Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish is a firecracker string of snare busting blast beats and calamitous volatility. This record is a match made in grindcore heaven, but it's the perfect soundtrack to your living Hell. 

Listen: 

• https://shitbrains.bandcamp.com/album/split-w-exorbitant-prices-must-diminish
• https://exorbitantpricesmustdiminish.bandcamp.com/album/split-with-shitbrains

Split Level Housing: Civilian Thrower/Sangre De Idiotas Split 7 Inch Review

     Nothing makes me feel more foolish than when I sleep on releases, especially given that I'm expected to have my typey-little-fingers on the pulse of modern grindcore. However, The House of Grindcore gets a new follower or a new release submission virtually daily. And unfortunately, a lot of those submissions are added to a long roster where they sit idly until I can impartially get to them all. As I slowly make my way through them all, I occasionally come upon a release, sight unseen, that I hadn't even given a prior cursory listen and think, "Oh wow, this is amazing," and I immediately start rehashing that year's Top 10 list in my head. 2023's split between Civilian Thrower and Sangre De Idiotas might possibly be one of those records that had me questioning my ranking system. Thankfully, the end of year rankings are full-lengths only.         

    France's Civilian Thrower, besides having a name that sparks the imagination, are an absolutely prolific band that has released some fourteen records since their initial demo in 2021—all but one of which have been split EPs. The grindcore trio has splits with genre heavy hitters such as Convulsions and Morbid Angel Dust, as well as past blog alumni Proudhon, Mindcollapse, and Vile Species. 

    Civilian Thrower are an especially brutal and pulverizing form of grindcore. The band's combination of speed and weight makes for a highly aggressive collection of seven tracks on their side of the split here with Sangre De Idiotas. 

    Civilian Thrower's vocals are a tandem, wailing pair of high shrieks and gravelly low drags. They sound very similar to a possessed howler monkey armed with a blowtorch. 

    The drumwork has a calamitous precision to it. It switches up constantly, yet manages to juggle between multiple versions of fast sprints of steady snare strikes and even faster blast beat BPMs.  

    The guitarwork is tight loops that change tempo as much as the drums. Riffs have a kind of circular stammering signature style, as well as an unexpected punky bounce to them. Partnered with the drums, the guitar's flared style creates a punctuated syncopation within the songwriting. This is probably most overt in the track, "In Debt Welfare." 

    Sangre De Idiotas are a Slovakian drum and bass grindcore duo made up of members of Sangre De Cristo and Idiots Parade, so the band's name is as clever as it is pragmatic. Meeting Civilian Thrower on their level, Sangre De Idiotas are just as heavy, just as brutal, just as punishing. For a two-piece lacking a traditional guitar, Sangre De Idiotas are putting out an exceptional full sounding recording. Like I've said in recent reviews of drum and bass grindcore bands, the make-or-break is usually a balance between distortion and blast beat tempo. 

    Sangre De Idiotas are certainly not lacking in speed. The drumming is that European high energy, stop-and-go, popcorn snare that I love so much. It's incessant and blistering. 

    As for the bass, it finds a glorious line between enough distortion to cover the spread, as well as a clean audibleness that any grind bassist would be happy with in the studio. The bass tone itself is actually pretty gnarly. It's a tone that is teetering on a medium of growling aggression and bright springiness. 

    The band's vocals are fiery and low and very comparable to Civilian Thrower's. They are even-keeled barks of asphalt and rebar sung in-step with the bass' quick riffing. 

    Now, one of my favorite things about Sangre De Idiotas is their song titles. Their song titles are the length of the songs. As in, if the song is thirty-five seconds long then the name of that song is, "00.35." And I believe this is on all their releases throughout their entire discography. It certainly makes their Bandcamp page look exceptionally uniformed. However, this begs the question: what if there are two or more songs that end up being the same length? Which is which? Does the band purposely write each new additional song to be a new and unused duration of time? I mean, the confusion of a live setlist boggles the mind. Yet, Sangre De Idiotas make it work somehow. Although, I remember the setlists in my last band were chock-full of silly practice space nicknames and I don't think half of us knew the songs' actual titles. Perhaps Sangre De Idiotas have a tracklist of shorthand monikers that we are unaware of. 

    The seven inch split was co-released by grindcore benefactors: Nihilocus Records, Here And Now! Records, Psychocontrol Records, and SSGC Records, who actually submitted this split for review, (obviously a couple of years ago at this point.) Since then, both bands have been fairly industrious. Civilian Thrower has released eight splits since 2023, five of which were released just this year. Likewise, Sangre De Idiotas released a full-length and a split with Morbid Angel Dust in 2025. 

    As far as split mates, Civilian Thrower and Sangre De Idiotas are about as compatible as you can get. Both bands embody that crushing and ferocious style of grindcore: a burly mix, unrelenting blast beats, and antagonistic songwriting. Both bands play the same straightforward, charging form of grindcore, yet each band takes a different path to get there, and each band puts their own distinct style and spin on it. The mix on both sides of the split is a good quality and leans more towards a competent professionalism instead of a rougher, more down and dirty mix that the record could easily have had. This is the kind of record that goes down real easy and has a high replayability.

FFO: Nak'ay, PLF, Deliriant Nerve

Listen to the albums: https://civilianthrower.bandcamp.com/album/split-w-sangre-de-idiotas

https://sangredeidiotas.bandcamp.com/album/split-with-civilian-thrower

Bien Hecho: Deadly - "Luto" EP Review

    Deadly are a grindcore band from the riverside city of Posadas, Argentina. Formed in 2001, under the shadow of a fifty-foot-tall stainless steel statue of governor and military leader, Andrés Guaçurarí, Deadly initially started out as a crust punk band rather than a typical grindcore band. That same year the band released their first demo under the moniker Deadly Noise Crew, entitled Crust Village. It would be another twelve years before the band released their second demo, Seis Cortes Para Mirar Hacia Adentro, in 2013. Two years later the band released their first official EP with 2015's, Todos Los Colores Van Al Negro, and debuted their current, concise version of the band's name.

    My first introduction to Deadly was their 2020 EP, El Abismo De La Desidia. The melancholic grindcore four-song concept EP, which reminded me of a mix between Nashgul and Rotten Sound, showed a definite progression in sound from their earlier demos. To that point, the band's 2023 EP, El Reflejo De La Peste—a collection of mostly live studio recordings from 2020 and 2021—evoked more of a punky, Ratos de Porão vibe. 

    2025's Luto is the latest EP in Deadly's diverse discography and certainly marks a high point for the band. Luto also marks the first instance of the band as an official quintet. In the earliest incarnations of the band Deadly/Deadly Noise Crew operated as a four-piece. Later, the band solidified a steadfast core of musicians in guitarist Adrian, drummer and vocalist Mateo, and lead vocalist and sole original member Tory. This lineup made up the bulk of the band's discography over the last decade. Luto saw the band adding bassist Manuela and second guitarist Sepu. I think their contribution to the EP can't be overlooked. 

    Deadly's songwriting has an emphasis on competent guitarwork and heavy riffing. The guitar, as well as the song composition, has always had a tangible grasp on the band's strong crust punk roots, which might have lent towards a tendency of riff repetitiveness. Luto streamlines its songs by essentially cutting them in half compared to past releases, as well as really utilizing the lead guitar. The leads are a grinding buzzsaw that revs right through the middle of the tracks and adds a much needed depth that was definitely not there in the beginning. You can still hear the fundamentals of the band's signature songwriting, yet the songs are condensed in a way that keeps things from stagnating. Likewise, Luto is a mere four songs in just over four minutes, but manages to include some heavy groove metal, intense blasting, and crusty grind epicness. It's a release that could take its place alongside current contemporaries like Belgium's Barren. Luto embodies both that Scandinavian grind style that has become so popular, as well as the South American love of punk and thrash. 

    While making my way through the band's back catalogue, I remember thinking that each subsequent release was a step towards something that might have been missing on prior releases. Whether it was something in the writing or something in the instrumentation, I feel like the band was missing a component that might have been necessary to help launch them out of the Bandcamp page and onto the global stage. I think releases like Luto and El Abismo De La Desidia are certainly wide steps towards that goal.    

    Deadly has whittled down the two decades of punk and metal they have amassed together from those early demos until those later EPs and focused it into a concise and palatable EP in Luto. Songs are shorter, faster, and singularly focused. 

    Luto, as a record, is mixed and mastered extremely well. It's clean, sharp, and well-balanced. The newly included second guitar and bass are well-represented and clearly audible. Deadly have found a path and lineup that I think supports the band's growth. The EP's polished grind sound, pillared upon a foundation of experience and musicianship, has led to the band's best output to date.

 

FFO: Barren, Rotten Sound, Fading Trail 

Listen to the album: https://deadlygrindcore.bandcamp.com/album/luto