Grindcore: 85 Minutes of brutal Heavy Metal | 85 minutes |
Unknown | 2003 (posibbly 1990-1991)
1. I have to make one thing clear. I watched this
documentary on Youtube and I was not able to find who or what company produced
this documentary. Although the name of the video is Grindcore, there were only
2 grindcore bands featured in the documentary, which was a bit frustrating
since I was hoping to dig more into the origins of the grindcore scene.
2. Beside Napalm Death and Carcass, being the only two
aforementioned grindcore bands featured in the video, other bands were from a
mish mash variety of genres. So calling this video, Grindcore: 85 Minutes of
Brutal Heavy Music, was a little bit misleading. Well, of course you will get
the guys from Napalm Death, Carcass and a few other individuals having a go at
explaining the music, it does not give that much information.
3. Having said that, despite the misleading title, this
documentary was a fun documentary to watch. Some of the now known bands
featured in the video, among others, were Napalm Death, Carcass, Morbid Angel,
Paradise Lost, Godflesh and Bolt Thrower. Others that were quite new to me,
among others were Prophecy of Doom, Nocturnus, Cerebral Fix and Vengeance
Rising.
4. One individual gave an explanation on defining grindcore
as “Death Metal with a thoughtful edge”. Well, to me grindcore is an
amalgamation of Metal and US Hardcore Punk. Its like having some heavy metal
musician having a go at playing hardcore punk music. Cross over and Grindcore
came out from that womb. Thus the reason why it was widely known as grindcore and not grind
metal. The heaviness and virtuosity came from Metal while the speed and
politically conscious lyrics came from Hardcore Punk.
5. Why was the music played at supersonic speed? It all
boiled down to the wanting to create the utmost extreme, utmost heaviest,
fastest music ever. Thrash Metal took heavy metal and turned up the BPMs. Grindcore
took Thrash Metal, mix it with Hardcore Punk and went speed of light. I believe this was also the reason
why most Grindcore music was minimal and punkish. The lesser notes you
got to hit, the easier for you to go for the speed.
6. I was also got hooked with a couple of bands through this
documentary. For example, now I know Cerebral Fix, a thrashy death metal band
from Birmingham,
with 4 albums under their bullet belts, and I have been banging their albums
through the speakers on daily basis now. Their bass player, Frank Healy (who previously
played guitars for Napalm Death) went on to join Benediction after the Cerebral Fix
broke up. Nocturnus, for example, played this weird technical death metal (shreds
and all) with some nasty psychedelic keyboard shit, and it was extremely mind blowing. Vengeance
Rising was a Christian Death Metal band. Wait.. what?
7. What confuses me the most was the year this video got
released. Everywhere on the internet, the video was stated as being released in
2003. But the style and quality of the videos were very much early 90s. And I
was right. I truly believe that the video was shot somewhere between 1990 and
1991 since Cerebral Fix broke up in 1993. Their song which was featured in the
video was from their second album, which was released in 1990.
8. You can watch this on Youtube. Its fun and who knows, you
might get into one or two bands that you never heard of before.
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