When Covid hit in earnest in 2020 and cities began shutting down. When quarantine became the new national pastime and widespread unemployment swept the country. Shows stopped. Venues closed their doors forever. Bands broke up. But those bands and their members who persevered and survived found themselves with a lot of free-time on their hands. Free-time that was utilized in writing new material and tracking new songs in the studio. So when 2021 came around, we the listeners found ourselves with a plethora of new albums being pressed. Digital EP's being uploaded to Bandcamp. Labels promoting the latest and greatest of things to come. There were so many great releases last year. Some I reviewed here. So many more that I could not. And I'm sure much more that I haven't even heard. Whittling down this list of my favorite releases of 2021 was not easy, but I hope it is well received.
Baltimore's Ixias and their full-length, tinge. is a psychedelic take on grindcore that blends meteorically fast, dissonant grind with a haze of eerie, retro-synth-ambient-noise. It's like if Discordance Axis were hired to composed the soundtrack to the film, Mandy. Or if space-grind band Psudoku manifested within Event Horizon. Ixias' sinister take on spastic metal-flecked blasting plays out like a Kubrickian nightmare. But even with the all ambient atmosphere, songs on tinge still rarely break the one minute mark. This fast, jagged, discordant grind mixes blood and bleach for a unique and punishing flavor.
I remember a lot of hype around the release of this split as the grindcore community patiently waited for the vinyl copies to make their way out of the pressing plant and into distros. And it was well worth the wait. As a band, Hong Kong Fuck You is doing some really interesting things with power violence and grindcore. The drum and (three) bass (no guitar) quintet are blast-beating a path through experimentations in tempo and syncopation mixed with a profane digital pollution; plus a healthy obsession with eating ass.
Guilt Dispenser offers up a stout, stuttering bass-heavy rendition of fastcore. Their micro songs are erratic blasts of abrupt grind that somehow still find time to introduce hardcore grooves in literal seconds. I feel like this record had a lot of listeners coming for the Hong Kong Fuck You, but staying for the Guilt Dispenser.
What can I say about this EP? 6 songs in 4 minutes. Mescaline Maniacs are keeping California street-stank power violence alive and well. While their 2020 self-titled EP was a more traditional hardcore/power violence, 2021's Give Me My Face Back is a raw, feedback drenched, pissed off, methed-out Spazz bordering on grind-violence and starting fights at the Despise You show. Complete with comical audio clips and cover art that looks like a hood-school doodled book cover that has been Xeroxed to death. Absurdist HxC/PV lives.
Another drum and bass power violence band (only two basses this time, though) and another highly anticipated release that lived up to the hype. God help those who slept on ordering this one-sided LP of 20 songs in 10 minutes from 12 Gauge Records. Which sold out pretty much over night and myself being among them. World Peace is a pummeling, low-end power violence trio that hits heavy and fast. Like fast, fast. The instrumentation is a blur of talent and speed. And the mix on this LP is just as amazing. Capturing the bass athleticism and the equally impressive drumming. Both of which will make you forget that this band is sans guitar. It's like listening to Lack Of Interest read Richard Dawkins.
No introduction should be needed for these 30 year veterans of French grindcore. This is the first we've heard from Blockheads since their Relapse Records release of 2013's, This World Is Dead. In that gap between releases the band's sound has gotten leaner and meaner. As if they were living in the wild this whole time and became feral. Trip to the Void is a whirlwind of blast beats, D-beats and crushing guitars. Blockheads could've gone the way of so many other grind bands of their age and settled into tough-guy metal or pacified big label grind. But instead they are still pissed and twice as frenzied. It's also nice to see a 25 track full-length that doesn't even pass the 30 minute checkpoint. Which itself is starting to become a thing of the past. Additionally, this cover photo by photographer Roberto Campos is quite an accomplishment in and of itself.
A match made in grindcore heaven and then quickly aborted into an alley dumpster. The Minnesota kings of cynical cringe hyper-blasting meet the snarky psycho snare worshipers from Wisconsin. Deterioration breed split EP's like rabbits and this release is north of thirty on their discography count. There were like half a dozen this year. This split with Mellow Harsher falls in line with all of those in the fact that it's brutally fast and chock full of heavy riffing. But unlike past recent releases this EP sounds a lot better. Deterioration's unhinged and ironic trailer park grind is legend in the grindcore community.
Mellow Harsher return with another scorching set of high intensity tracks that sounds like a pot of boiling snare drums being shot at with an AK-47. Mellow Harsher is one of the best sounding grindcore bands operating today. Everything they release should be on your shelf. They combine some of the slickest, hardest grindcore mixed with elements of power violence and slather it in high pitched shrieks.
Knoll's Interstice is a solid full-length of blackened death-grind that plays like a maelstrom of blast beats and a torrent of chainsaw guitars blaring through the charnel caverns of some underground catacomb. The dark static stench of chaos is barely reined in by the technical black metal shrills that perpetuate this grinding machine. Musicianship and atmosphere are Knoll's strong points, but speed is their bread and butter. If in the end the band's hoods were removed and it was revealed that they were actually a set of DeWalt power drills the whole time, I would not be surprised.
3. Monnier - Self-titled LP
Monnier is an international super group of sorts. Featuring Makiko Suda from Japan's Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation on vocals. Her screams are the best in Japan and sear their acidic peppermint mark on the music. While all instrumentation is handled by Belgium's premier crust/grind artist, Jasper of Infested Art and Days Of Desolation. His art defined the genre and I'm sure most of you have at least one album cover or a t-shirt of his in your closet as we speak. Makiko is a beautiful artist in her own right. And the duo's collaboration is not only apparent in the music, but also on the jacket art as well. The record itself is comprised of two previously released EP's. Each one full of ballistically ferocious grindcore. Katana sharp dissonant riffs. Venom soaked vocals. Perfect production. All overflowing with light speed blast beats. Now I'm not sure why I haven't heard anything about this LP from anyone outside the band and the label (Loner Cult Records.) So I guess this flew under the radar, maybe? What a sadly underrated release if true.
2. Nak'ay - "Closed Doors/Open Veins" LP
Closed Doors/Open Veins means exactly what you think it does and Nak'ay is exactly the band that can convey such sentiments in under a minute and buried in everlasting blast beats. Nak'ay are a highly tuned machine that have crafted a vicious hybrid of grindcore and black metal. Then reduced it down to its purest form. This weighty concoction of blackened grind manages to create a sense of atmosphere and despondency with the slightest of efforts. And the only thing breaking up this air of gloom is the roaring vocals, dazzling talented guitar work and the ceaseless barrage of blast beats. Closed Doors/Open Veins is a testament to what happens if you champion speed, talent, versatility and inspiration while still keeping things focused and direct.
1. Eastwood - "Antibiose" LP
I am of the ilk that believe that the only genre better than grindcore is the subgenre of grind-violence. And Antibiose proves that Eastwood are currently the apex predators of this category. This German/French four piece absolutely dominated with their 2021 record, Antibiose. It is brimming with machine gun style blast beats that are so fast and impactful that they should have tracer fire. Slinky basslines and coiled guitar-rips that hit like surgical airstrikes. Eastwood explodes effortlessly from grindcore to power violence to hardcore to metal and back again, like the pull on a zipper. This seamless shape-shifting elevates Eastwood into a bracket of pummeling all their own. While still keeping the tried and true grind-violence attributes at the forefront. Antibiose is an astute critique of today's cracking and jaded society set to a soundtrack of crisp, fresh brutality.
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