Saturday, September 26, 2026

Scene Report: The Second Annual Texas Grind Fest


    As of this writing, we are a couple of weeks removed from 2026's Texas Grind Fest II, which took place on September 19th. Like the previous year, we find ourselves in the five-hundred block of East Abrams Street in Arlington, Texas. I parked between the Tarrant County Sub-Courthouse and a Fuzzy's Taco Shop. When I was a kid, that Fuzzy's was a NAPA Auto Parts, and next to it was Lone Star Comics. My father, brother, and I frequented Lone Star Comics often in the early to mid-90s, where I used to regularly purchase back issues of MAD Magazine and random action figures. Across the street was a shabby strip mall that had once served as the original location of Lone Star Comics but, by that point, had become Lone Star's annex storage building. I remember one Saturday, in a concrete lot behind the strip mall, they had a massive sidewalk sale, complete with raffles and giveaways. That strip mall has now been renovated and is home to Growl Records and Division Brewing Pizza Kitchen, among other businesses. As for the lot where the sidewalk sale was held, it's now the home of the last two consecutive Texas Grind Fests. 

Irving Lopez
    Over the past few years Growl Records and Division Brewery have made a point of creating a space for local independent performing bands and artists, so it didn't take long before the Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex punk and metal scenes made something of a tentative home of the joint establishments.
    Probably one of the most important grindcore show promoters in DFW would have to be Dallas musician and grindcore workhorse, Irving Lopez (Trucido, Real Life Ugly, Cognizant, Anomalous Mind Engineering.) He, alongside local scene players: Jakob Barron, Jay Gutierrez, and Will Colley, established the grindcore booking agency, For The Love Of Grind. Their goal was to create a reliable DFW grindcore scene that would foster both quality shows with touring acts as well as a healthy community based on positivity and inclusivity. With the multiple stages, readily available food, libations, and plenty of space, the Division Brewing triad was the perfect venue option for the Texas Grind Fest.

    Last year's Texas Grind Fest was a marked success. All the sets went smoothly and ran on time, there was a great turnout, and we, the audience, were treated to a truly noteworthy and historical event in North Texas grindcore. 
    "Last year went really smooth, despite the heat. This year we will have a tent on the outside stage and an extension for two drum sets on one stage, rather than doing inside and outside stages," Irving refers to this year's Grind Fest. "We did have some financial bumps on the road, but luckily we are able to front all the flight tickets and what not this year."

Bryan Fajardo & Frank Faerman
   In 2025, Texas Grind Fest took place on two stages—one indoors, inside Growl Records, and a second on the outdoor stage in the courtyard behind Division Brewing. The amount of setup time saved between bands was crucial for keeping the festival's tight schedule on time. This year's utilization of the single outdoor stage was by far the most obvious difference in the show's planning compared to last year. Like Irving said, the stage hosted two drum kits; a black and chrome DW kit and a multicolored hodgepodge, Franken-kit that were set up upstage left and upstage right, respectively. I think the goal here was to set up one kit while a band performed on the other. Throughout the show, kits were continuously broken down and reassembled like GoBots (Google it.) Heading up this task were in-house drum techs, Bryan Fajardo (Trucido, Cognizant, Barren Path, Noisear) and Frank Faerman (Cryptic Void, Mutual Hate, Wound Stench, Insect Warfare.)  

    Entering the festival just before two o'clock on September nineteenth, via a small cross street, I walked between the two rows of vendor canopies lined up and down either side of the lot. The vendor booths showcased handmade jewelry, custom skateboard decks, entomology art, live screen printing, and more. One of these vendors was my good friend and prior bandmate, Hunter Daggett (Mouth Breather, Downpour), who was selling patches and T-shirts through his silk screening business, Hellmouth Distro, with all proceeds going towards the out-of-state bands. 
    Past the modest single-table ticket booth, entering into the courtyard proper, a large, segmented canopy lined with garden lights hung over industrial-sized wooden spools upended into tables. Past that was an elevated stage covered by a twenty foot, high-peak tent anchored by massive concrete blocks. To the right of the stage was an alley that led out to Main Street and the face of Division Brewing. It is here that the bands loaded-in equipment and fanned out their merch on picnic tables and additional wooden spools. The sun was oppressive, but the heat only heightened the sweet aroma of Division Brewing Pizza Kitchen's brick oven pizza that hung in the air throughout the evening. 

    As I was helping set up the Hellmouth Distro booth, Irving took to the mic to thank those in attendance and the bands who came all that way before introducing the festival with a sneeze-and-you'd-miss-it noise set from Noise Militant. And after what we all assumed was a sound check, the fest kicked off in full. This year there were no big speeches or flowers given to any local pioneering punk scene philanthropist or guest speeches from the grindcore vanguards of yore. Being that the proverbial bottle was already broken against the ship the year prior, it seems like it was all business this year.

Pain God
    The official 2026 lineup of Texas Grind Fest II included: Noise Militant (TX), Imminent End (TX),  Wound Stench (TX), Pain God (TX), Real Life Ugly (TX), Mutual Hate (TX), Mormon Mincers (CA), Tripas Sangrientas (CA), Thieves (CA), Human Obliteration (CA), Bladda (TX), Bandit (PA), Metrorrhagia (TX), Blastochist (TX), Happy Pill Trauma (CA), Trucido (TX), Fermented Mess (NY), Fake Dust (OR), Shitstorm (FL), Archagathus (CAN). 

Real Life Ugly
    The lineup was absolutely stacked. I heard the term "blast clinic" thrown around multiple times. I tried to get my own rendition of "drumming blaster-class" to catch on, but I was frequently asked to stop saying it. The exceptionality of the drumming performances this year was frankly undeniable. As excited as I was for the bands that I was looking forward to seeing, there were almost just as many bands that I was unfamiliar with. (You can take away my grind card, but I swear, the more bands I hear about, the fewer I know.) Like last year, the bill was front loaded with Texas bands, predominantly from the Houston and Austin areas—two cities that produce a lot of bands in the genre. 
    The first band to really grab my attention was Houston's Wound Stench. Their technical death-grind seemed way too polished and proficient for a band that I wasn't familiar with, especially considering Frank Faerman was behind the kit. It wasn't until much later that I realized that Wound Stench was Apocalyptic Noise Syndicate. I hadn't seen the band live for the better part of a decade and I was obviously unaware of the name change. Despite the egg on my face, Wound Stench played a great set and I got to experience that rare, yet exhilarating feeling of finding an amazing new band at a show, only in this case, I ultimately already knew them.     

Mutual Hate
    Also hailing from the Texas Gulf Coast, Houston's Mutual Hate was another notable set of the day. A fairly recently formed band, Mutual Hate features members of Cryptic Void, who had an amazing performance at last year's Grind Fest. The band is yet another of Houston's supergroups featuring Frank Faerman and Stephen Bower, alongside Kenny Perkins. I think I originally saw these guys during their tenure in Dissent a lifetime ago, possibly at The Alamo in Fort Worth. Either way, I always pay attention when I see Stephen Bower's tall frame take the stage because it's usually a healthy indicator that something heavy is coming.   

Mormon Mincers
    One of the most fun sets of the day was that of California's Mormon Mincers. I had sadly missed the band when they came through Dallas previously, so I was pretty pleased to see them listed on the lineup. The two-piece were clad in Mormon missionary cosplay, complete with black "Elder" name tags, white balaclavas (I remind you, it was an outdoor show and ninety-six-degree heat.) and matching white instruments with gold hardware. Mormon Mincers' blatantly mocking, sacrilegious set was played for laughs, yet was a cerebrally subversive satire aimed at the morally dubious, cult-like atmosphere surrounding religion as a whole. Extremely tight and religiously rehearsed, it was one goddamn hell of a show. Hallelujah.

Bandit: 
Hydrogen Psychosis -
"Crazy Eye"
    Anyone who has seen Philadelphia's Bandit knows that they put on a high-energy, sometimes vomitous, live performance, and their set at Texas Grind Fest was no different. Jack McBride's dizzyingly technical guitar work and Gene Meyer's charismatically unhinged vocal performance gave big Pig Destroyer vibes. It's always an entertaining experience seeing them perform. However, new drummer Surya Pun (Chepang) drew my attention to the side of the stage to watch his show-stealing performance. His speed and blasting power were—in the truest sense of the words—awesome to behold. The band's adept and discordant take on the genre seemed elevated with Surya on the drums
    I regret not chatting up Gene Meyer out of a misplaced sense of camaraderie; since we are both grindcore music critics, only he is more successful, more handsome, and chemically balanced, and I really wish my girlfriend would please stop referring to him as such.

Fermented Mess
    I'm desperately struggling not to drag this out by reviewing every band that played, yet I cannot stress how truly remarkable every band on the bill was. Human Obliteration was a bucket-list band and was one of the more impressive gets for the fest, in my opinion. I witnessed Portland's Fake Dust live for the first time and I was instantly smitten. They were easily one of the best bands of the day. Meanwhile, locals Real Life Ugly and Trucido were solid as fuck as always. 
    However, I would be extremely remiss if I didn't talk about Fermented Mess out of Long Island. Many of you recommended their self-titled album for last year's top-ten list of best albums. I usually take goregrind with a grain of salt, but I feel like I need to apologize to those who were in the know. Fermented Mess were brutal in the flesh. They easily had the most blast-dense set of the night, and drummer Cameron Ty was just a human shaped-blur. Genuinely insane. I wish the band had better T-shirts, or I would have for sure bought one.

Shitstorm
    The band I was most keen on seeing since their announcement was Miami-Dade's Shitstorm, and they did not disappoint. Like the hurricanes of their homeland, their songs of noisy hardcore, powerviolence, and grindcore were violent cyclones that flooded the stage with blasting intensity. Their enthralled and fierce stage presence, as well as their complete disregard for their instruments, suggested a veteran level of punk rock showmanship. They ended their set with blinding, distorted peals of feedback as they put the microphone against the guitar pickups and then leaned the guitar into the crowd with complete abandon.

Archagathus
    True to Irving's word, Texas Grind Fest is bringing in international acts. Headlining this year's fest were Canadian mincecore legends Archagathus. They were probably one of the last bands I would expect to see in my old hometown. With over eighty releases across their twenty year influential career, Archagathus will always be a feather in the cap of Texas Grind Fest. As humble as they were zealous, the band seemed genuinely excited to be there, and they blasted the night to a close.

Shitstorm
    Irving was right when he said last year did go smoothly, and, at least from an outside perspective, it went near perfect. Other than some troublemakers in the pit, 2025's Texas Grind Fest was practically immaculate. In comparison, this year's fest was not as fortunate. Audience attendance was noticeably fewer than last year. Whether it was because many locals were on tour or out of town, the severe heat, or just that the novelty of the event had worn off for casual attendees, the crowd was unfortunately lacking. In addition, this year suffered some minor technical difficulties with the audio and lighting, the latter having more to do with drunken, Doobie Brothers-looking, antagonistic, mustachioed moshers in short-shorts constantly slamming people against the stage lighting truss. These are all standard fare for any show, no matter how large or small, and are unavoidable and ultimately inconsequential. 
    However, a venue bathroom was vandalized with a paint pen and staff at Division Brewery were none too pleased. "Y'all must really not want sick punk bands next year in Dallas. Seriously [it] doesn't make sense to do this shit at a spot that is literally helping us bring in sick bands from outside of the country," Irving railed on social media afterwards. It's no secret that Irving has been eyeing Japanese bands for future Texas Grind Fests and DFW shows. Jeopardizing such a welcoming and providing venue is surely not helping. 
    All the bands paid tribute to Irving and company for providing the opportunity and all their hard work, while also championing both the festival and the Texas grindcore scene. All of the out-of-state bands also had trouble understanding how Texas natives could exist within the Texas summer heat. I, myself, enjoyed it immensely. I love the bands, I love the blast beats, I love-ninety-plus-degree weather, and I love seeing and talking with old friends. While I have no idea how financially successful the event was, I can only assume bands were paid and promoters recouped. Hopefully, venue relations aren't tarnished and new bands will still be excited to come in the future. If there's a Texas Grind Fest III, I'll be there. 


Helpful links:
For The Love Of Grind/Texas Grind Fest: https://www.instagram.com/fortheloveofgrind/
Pain God: https://paingod.bandcamp.com/


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Scene Report: The Second Annual Texas Grind Fest

     As of this writing, we are a couple of weeks removed from 2026's Texas Grind Fest II , which took place on September 19th. Like the...