The House Of Grindcore doesn't get a lot of submissions from the Korean Peninsula. In fact, up until last week, I don't think I have ever received a submission from Korea. Like many of you, I'm sure, I was not at all familiar with South Korea's extreme music scene. However, looking to change all that is Jane, lead singer of Korean grindcore band HWA, as well as an up-and-coming online influencer and social media creator based in Seoul, South Korea. Jane is working hard to raise global awareness about Seoul's punk, hardcore, metal, and grindcore underground communities via social media videos, interviews with bands, and international networking. And it was through Seoul's would-be grind ambassador that we were given the 2026 split CD between HWA and their fellow townsmen, Naiite.
HWA are a three piece, dissonant, guitar-driven grindcore band from Seoul that formed in 2024 and are heavily influenced by bands like Gridlink and Discordance Axis. Founding member and guitarist OCheolWang's shrill, angular riffing is obviously reminiscent of Takafumi Matsubara's work in various bands and solo endeavors. OCheolWang's guitarwork is a torrent of dizzyingly discordant and progressively proficient technical riffing. Like Matsubara, OCheolWang incorporates healthy doses of squawky jazz and melancholic melody.
Capitalizing on OCheolWang's fretboard bonfire, Jane's fiercely hyper-pitched vocals emote over the songs with piercing barks. She occasionally reminds me of Closet Witch's Mollie Piatetsky, especially on HWA's track, "Hollow Face." Both Jane and Piatetsky wrangle the line of beauty and chaos and explore personal lyrics of vulnerability and despondency.
HWA's other founding member, drummer GopChang, reinforces OCheolWang's zigzagging guitarwork. GopChang plays a hyphenate of mechanical stamping blast beats and rolling jazz fills. His chopping snare is a signature hole punch that will come into play more later in this review.
Also from Seoul, Naiite features vocalist Pepperman, bassist Askii, and HWA's OCheolWang on guitar and GopChang on drums. You would think that sharing such integral members would make the two bands nearly carbon copies of one another. However, Naiite does an excellent job maintaining a distinct and individual voice. Of the two bands, Naiite is more of a straightforward form of fret-heavy death-grind, much in the vein of bands like Pig Destroyer or Cognizant. OCheolWang's guitar is still spiralingly sharp and discordant, yet he tends to incorporate some warped power chords that ooze through the band's sludgier parts, like in the song, "Caress Triangle." Unlike HWA, Naiite intentionally incorporates the bass into the songwriting, giving the songs a more rounded and heavy fullness to them.
GopChang's signature trampling blasts turn the tracklist into Swiss cheese, much akin to his prior work in HWA, yet his death metal, mid-tempo drumming emphasizes a weighty groove within Naiite's songs.
Pepperman's vocals remind me of a slightly more unhinged version of Limp Wrist-era Martin Sorrondeguy, with the delirious cadence of Pig Destroyer's J.R. Hayes. His screams are generally paint-scrapingly consistent, yet you can hear him drag the depths of his vocal cords to accentuate what I'm sure is either anger or disgust. It sounds as if a skinned knee had a voice.
HWA's first half of the split offers eight tracks in just over ten minutes. Half the songs are remixed and remastered tracks from the band's previous 2025 demo with the addition of bass guitar tracking. The other half are newer songs recorded in May of 2026. HWA's portion is a technical and chaotic tangle of raw emotion and speed that goes down easy. HWA goes well alongside of any of Takafumi Matsubara or Jon Chang's projects.
Similarly, Naiite's side of the split is a combination of five previously released tracks from the band's 2025 demo alongside four new tracks recorded live at BBC Studios in February of this year. More chaotic but less jazzy than HWA, Naiite still manages to maintain an understated control over their tunneling musical mayhem. With no time for harmonious melodies, the band focuses instead on pure speed and fury. Naiite should please most fans of bands like Cognizant, Chadhel, Maruta, Pig Destroyer, and similar acts.
FFO: Gridlink, Discordance Axis, Cognizant
Listen to the album:
Vanilla Thunder Records: https://vanillathunderrecords.bandcamp.com/album/naiite-hwa
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