Another year has come and gone. Another year where I paint myself into the proverbial corner of looking back at the previous year and attempt to curate the best grindcore and grindcore adjacent releases. Despite the fact that I am most likely just stress-raging against writer's block and an encroaching deadline right now, compiling my favorite releases from the previous year is my favorite thing to write about in the blog. I enjoy the inundation of all the releases and the manic frenzy that comes with listening and sorting them all over and over again. The varying styles of all the bands reinvigorates my love of the genre at a time of year where one could easily lose sight of simple pleasures such as listening to music. However, I would be lying if I told you that the compilation of a top ten list isn't anxiety-inducing in its own right.
In past years I have struggled with the abundance with both the quality and quantity of the releases and the overwhelming task of culling through them all. Lo and behold, this year is no different. The longer that I write this blog, the larger the pool of grindcore bands to choose from. A vivid realization that is setting in only now.
Traditionally, I seem to fill a lot of these prefaces with a plethora of apologies and stipulations. So, I shall spare you the contrition and caveats and simply extend some of my gratitude. I would like to thank all of you who support, read, follow, share, submit or otherwise engage with the Return to the House of Grindcore blog in any way. I would like to thank all the bands and record labels who have submitted over the years. You literally make this possible by giving me great new bands to listen to. The friendships and dialogues that I have made because of this blog were unexpected, unintended and are wholly appreciated. I am still here, unnecessary as I am, because of you all.
2024 was what it was. It was a tough year all around, but as far as grindcore was concerned, it was a God damn smoke show. This year I had to forego an Honorable Mentions section due to the fact that there were so many exceptional grindcore releases. My Honorable Mentions were a dozen bands deep and defeated the entire purpose. I will, however, acknowledge some of the bands that make up the twenty-four currently open Bandcamp tabs on my phone's web browser. Chadhel, Deterioration, Houkago Grind Time, Kidnapped, Knoll, Manipulator, Warfuck and Woundflower all had amazing releases this year that cycled through my top ten at some point. I just couldn't fit everything into a concise list. I had the privilege of listening to a lot of music this year and that's a celebration in and of itself. We, as listeners, should be grateful for that gift alone. I don't think any of us got into music or formed bands with the expressed goal of being included in some arbitrary "best of" list on a blog or webzine. But as fans of the genre, our appreciation and support seems to be the least that we can do. Besides, I know we all really got into bands so we could get into shows for free.
Believe it or not, I actually had the most difficult time placing a band in this number ten spot; even more so than number one. There were a set few bands that I knew would make up the front half of this list, but there were so many more bands that I wanted to include on the back end. Even now, as the majority of this list sits complete and idle, the internal debate goes on.
I ultimately decided on Israel's slam/death-grind trio, Vermintide. Their 2024 digital release, Virus Pedigree, is not only just a good album, but it's also an achievement in the growth of the band themselves. The unorthodox, sort of reverse-engineered way that Vermintide came into existence and the evolution into a death-grind band with this amount of ferocity should be a point of pride for the band. I know it is for me. They successfully engineered a standard of technicality and production like that of some more credentialed extreme metal acts, but they harbored the ethos and brutality of grindcore.
Virus Pedigree's latter-step guitar riffs have that hairy deathcore sound along with a polished wiry shriek that adds a certain flavor to the guitarwork as it shifts from tempo to tempo and from rhythm to lead. The heavy slinky basslines are my favorite part of the album. The detuned pop-punk toned riffs are so technically dexterous and aurally gratifying that I couldn't help but gush over them in the February 2024 blog review, but also to the band themselves. Vermintide's implementation of programmed drums could be a point of contention, yet they are so congruent that they are practically imperceptible if you didn't honestly know beforehand. Virus Pedigree was released almost a year ago now and I feel it remains a dynamic listening experience that has a broad multiple genre appeal.
9. See You Next Tuesday/meth. - "Asymmetrics" split LP
This avant-grind collaboration was the brainchild of See You Next Tuesday guitarist Drew Slavik, and from the first listen seemed like something noteworthy. Described as a sort of musical and social experiment, Asymmetrics is technically a split release between Michigan's mathcore/deathcore/grindcore, See You Next Tuesday and Chicago's screamo/noise/metal, meth. From what I have gathered, each band recorded a variety of drum patterns, swapped them and then independently wrote songs around both sets of the Frankensteined drum tracks. So, in short, you get six songs from each band along with a pair of bonus tracks that have both bands playing simultaneously. If that seems convoluted, don't worry about it. All you need to know is that it very much works.
I'll be honest in the fact that I preferred See You Next Tuesday's contributions maybe a little more. The beginning of the record starts out very strong. The production value is high and extremely polished. The instruments break like a thunderstorm: explosive bass drops, a hail of snare blasts and a dizzying tempest of technical guitar peels. See You Next Tuesday drummer, Jimmy Watson, throws down on some God damn gravity blasts that made this album a shoo-in for one of the best of 2024.
Now, I hope it doesn't sound like I'm discrediting meth. and their efforts. The band's style leans more towards the atmospheric and sludgy/stoner feel, but the band also offers up an impressively long and unbroken string of blast beats. And don't forget, the bands switch up drum tracks and also the vibes. Asymmetrics is a unique and experimental way to do a split that I don't recall ever seeing before. Part Frankenstein's monster, part The Postal Service, part Wife Swap, this release is pretty exceptional.
No introduction should be needed for this band. The vast influence of these godfathers of SoCal grind-violence over their more than twenty year tenure cannot be overstated. ACxDC have established themselves as one of those elite bands that came to be respected amongst the grindcore, powerviolence and hardcore communities alike. Their latest 2024 full-length, G.O.A.T., is not only an audacious declaration of the band being self aware of their impact on the genre, but it's also an antagonistic assertion of their superiority and dominance within it. Not to mention the obvious satanic double entendre. 2020's Satan Is King had a chugging metalcore approach to the band's brand of grind-violence that I felt tipped the band's scale more towards that of outright grindcore than towards the powerviolence side of the spectrum. G.O.A.T. seems very much in line with the dark and bulked up undertone that Satan Is King established. Yet, the band reaffirms the the powerviolence and hardcore elements through gang vocals, elbow-throwing moshing breakdowns and rapid fire drumming. There is some real amazing tom and snare work on the album as well as some heavy and catchy guitar riffs. ACxDC have once again proven themselves not only worthy, but also make it abundantly clear that they have no intentions on vacating the grind-violence throne that they have seated themselves upon since the Second Coming EP, at least. G.O.A.T. is a sacrilegious showpiece of blasphemous blasting. This is easily ACxDC's best record to date. Hail Satan.
Since their debut 2021 demo, Barren have had a near perfect track record of releases. The band has been putting out some of the best and most brutal grindcore in the world. Their 2024 split with Sickrecy is no different. The Belgium riff lords are absolutely punishing on the record. As always, the production is top-tier. Its thick gravelly distortion permeates everything. The guitars are utterly crushing and searing with gain. The blast beat drumming has this solid sounding impact, whether it be from the blasting of the snare or the double kick. The vocals here are almost inhuman. I can picture the black bile spewing and spattering underneath the cinder block screams every time I listen to it. The album cover art might as well be a picture of the microphone pop filter after the studio vocal tracking.
I couldn't have thought of a better band to do a split with Barren if I tried. Barren may have finally met their match in Sweden's Sickrecy, and I mean that homogeneously not antagonistically. Sickrecy has a similar vocal style and similarly ferocious guitar tones. I needn't have to explain Sweden's affinity for the Boss HM-2 as well as Barren's fanatical ties to the legendary distortion pedal. Sickrecy has more of a crust punk songwriting style and might have what is considered traditionally more metal guitar riffs, complete with solos and string bending screams. Their thrashing riffs are lightning fast and may perhaps be more frenzied than Barren's.
This split is a grindcore guitar fan's wet dream. It will have you phantom palm muting on the thigh of your jeans, desperately trying to keep up. The rapid fire chugging, the crunchy guitar tone, the mechanized blasting from both of the bands just complement each other so well. The more I listen to this album, the more fun I have and the more I enjoy it.
A new release from harsh grind heavy bombers, Sick/Tired was not on my bingo card for 2024. The band's last full-length album was in 2014—some ten years prior! Whip Hand Paranoia seemingly came out of nowhere. I think I was essentially sent a link by the band that was like, "Oh yeah, and this is a thing."
Whip Hand Paranoia picks right up where Sick/Tired left off with 2014's Dissolution. The band's mean, gritted teeth style of grindcore is a distorted and blown out take on the genre. Its noisy sheen and corroded edges add a taste of rust into the mix without sacrificing production value or clarity. Any true noise-grind elements are really regulated to just a few tracks, but they sound like sonically fried slices of digital Hell. The rest of the album plays relatively straightforward, otherwise. While Sick/Tired's sound is composed mainly of grindcore, it incorporates influences from powerviolence and hardcore. And it's a lot of that hardcore that I believe gives Whip Hand Paranoia its concussive punch. There is a certain sense of earthen tactileness that I can't quite articulate. The dense blast beats and the fuzzy guitar give a World War II pole charge blasting a hole into a Normandy beachhead type vibes. Something about a warbling impact and the shower of the particulates falling around the listener. Sick/Tired have planted a seed of aggression and speed into soil contaminated by electronic waste and heavy metal poisons and Whip Hand Paranoia is what germinated from it.
5. Morgue Breath - "Plaga Sin Rostro" LP
Los Angeles' favorite goregrind/death-grinders, Morgue Breath, returned with their second full-length in two years. As you might recall, Morgue Breath originally started as Ivo "Bastard's" one-man grind project. After repositioning himself as lead vocals and guitar, Ivo added grindcore superstars, Emi Tamura and Isaac Horne from the highly acclaimed Shitbrains and Sulfuric Cautery, respectively.
Despite the band's charnel imagery and the clinically putrescent natured song titles, Morgue Breath doesn't necessarily have a stereotypical goregrind sound. Instead, the band's songwriting tends to focus mostly on consummate musicianship and heavy blasting.
Plaga Sin Rostro is a nonstop seventeen track torrent of blazing guitar riffs and maniacal blast beats. The contrast between Emi's sour high screeches and Ivo's throaty low gutturals is pitch perfect. Very similar are her rumbling basslines to his fiery distorted tremolo riffs and squealing whammy bar adornments. Issac's drumwork might not be as berserk as his work on Sulfuric Cautery, but it is still tirelessly pummeling. Like other gore-flecked grindcore contemporaries, such as Texas' Trucido, Morgue Breath are keeping it grotesque while also keeping the grindcore quintessence at the forefront. They are successfully avoiding the humdrum cliché trappings of your average goregrind outfits, thus ascending above them in caliber and quality.
I told you! Arizona's raging hot, noise-kissed, feedback drenched grind-violence threesome makes their prophetical return to the blog with Paid In Flesh. With twenty tracks in under twenty minutes, you know this release is going to rip. The record is a coin toss between sludgy powerviolence and blistering grindcore that is as hostile as it is entertaining. Groin's vocals are also similarly fashioned in that same grind-violence cast, with a caveman roar and a sharp high pitched coupling. (If you were looking for the results of that aforementioned ACxDC influence, look no further.)
Paid In Flesh is a revved up and tough sounding record that has real teeth. The attack on the drums has a dull, wooden sort of thudding, boiling report. The kick drum is pushed forward in the mix so you can hear every footfall. The combination of the snare and kick presents a distinctive and pleasurable bubbling pop, especially with Groin's typewriter styled blast beats. The guitar and bass meld together in this gnarly way—the buzzsaw guitar riffs are rounded out by a heavy bottomed bass tone. A bass tone that has a guttural bear growl sounding distortion on it that is so fucking mean. What pedal are you running that thing through, Austin? Asking for a friend.
Prague's grindcore powerhouse veterans put out their very first full-length album after almost fifteen years in the game. Out Of Control might be the band's first long-player, but with twenty-one tracks—not a single one of which is over a minute—they did things exactly right. How they are fitting trudgey metal interludes in between lightning quick blast beats in just thirty seconds is a testament in its own right. The guitarwork is clawing and aggressive and often wanes out into whining dirge style leads. The band is known for their excessive pummeling and blitzkrieg style of blasting grindcore. The songs go off like ticking timebombs of staticky fire and scouring vocals.
Controlled Existence's grindcore has a fairly binary, hot and cold approach, both vocally and in tempo. While it might not be anything new, it is executed with precision by the band via their talent and efficiency. At the end of the day, Out Of Control is a starchy, well crafted record. It's a nice hybrid of older grindcore with its metal influences as well as the agility and polish of modern grind. Drumstick drop.
Horsebastard dropped a brand new release right towards the end of the year in late November. No doubt, dead set on upsetting everyone's end of the year lists. Now, I had no idea that this album was in the works or if the band was even active after their 2019 split with Retortion Terror. So when they released this self-titled full-length I was fucking stoked. The band's ballistic, high-octane chaos-style grind-violence is some of the best the genre has to offer. The vocalist's high-pitched screaming is stinging and shrill, not to mention, utterly psychotic. They are part Tasmanian Devil cartoon, part bobcat attack. The lyrics and the low, gruff powerviolence vocals barely reign them in.
The yo-yoing guitar riffs and bass spills are wound so tight that you expect something to snap and maim an eye at any given moment. Horsebastard's hyper-blasting is absolutely devastating. The drumming is a drilling battery of snare and kick and are some of the fastest drums on this list, I'm sure of it. I love the drumwork on this record so much that my firstborn kid's name is going to be—"The Blast Beats On Horsebastard's 2024 Self-titled Album, Jr."
Everything, and I mean everything, is dialed in. This is the tightest and fastest stop-and-go grind-violence that you are likely to find, period! (I often measure things in BPM's, so that means a lot.) Extrapolate that over some astounding twenty-eight tracks, and forget about it. It also doesn't hurt that the production is near perfection. Horsebastard, the record, is so exceptionally good that I might kick myself later on for not making it my number one.
What I think of when I hear a truly great sounding record is not too dissimilar to what you might picture in an early aughts Sprite soft drink commercial. Some hot and sweaty summertime backdrop that frosts over via the power of a thirst-quenching beverage—smash cut to fruit splashing through a wave of water in slow motion. I think of buzzwords like: "clean," "crisp" and "refreshing." From track one of For A Limited Time, that is exactly what popped into my mind.
For A Limited Time is the first studio release from Switzerland's Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish since 2020's split EP with Nothing Clean, and it is a fucking banger! The band's stop-and-go, turn on a dime, blink-and-you-miss-it brand of grind-violence is a thing of sheer glory. The dizzying song structures pivot and shift from one tempo or instrument to another in a way that would even give Spazz whiplash. Bass solos, guitar solos and drum solos all fly by like flipping channels on a television set before settling on machine gun fast blast beats and whirlpool riffs. It's like watching a pinball get stuck bouncing back-and-forth in the bank of bumpers.
Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish hosts a party of vocals consisting of sourly high screams, gravelly roars, siphoning powerviolence yells and whatever falls in between. For A Limited Time is full of scratchy guitar riffs and some of the most satisfying spring-loaded croaking bass leads I've heard in a while. It's an album of right angles and schizophrenic ADHD. Exorbitant Prices Must Diminish is a highly taught and intensely gratifying refreshment that I just want to inhale and drown in. *Slurp—exasperated sigh of satisfaction.*
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