Afgrund - The Age of Dumb (2012)

   Afgrund is a quite interesting band in the modern grindcore scene. They were formed in 2006 by Swedes, but when their third album "The Age of the Dumb" came out, none of the founding members could have been found in the band since a while, and not even Swedish members. So Afgrund became a Swedish band that isn't Swedish. However the frequent line-up changes didn't lead to any change in their style, except they don't write Swedish lyrics anymore.
   Their music mixed the less popular, but pretty old school crust punk influenced grindcore with the themes and sound of modern death metal. Reanimated by the porn grind era of the late '00s, this style started to spread very slowly, but gained less attention and stayed in the shadow of porn grind. After the withrawal of the countless porn grind bands, the style had a bit bigger space to fill, and a decade later crust punk influenced bands became more common and determining in the main scene. On the side of the main essence of Afgrund's music, strong social and political criticism also counts as an old school factor. Interestingly even if punk influences are evident, they doesn't sound like in old grindcore bands, and also not restricted to punk themes. Involving death metal sound and themes is a modern feature, that makes the music way heavier and more brutal. It's debatable (and it's up to the listener) which form is more effective, the old school grindcore, that created contrast by switching suddenly from basic punk themes to extreme speed, or it's modern version, where the contrast disappeared, the music sounds all-round heavy, and therefore became more unified. In case of Afgrund the mixed style proved to be advantageous, since their music is more diverse than what could be experienced at ordinary crust punk or grind/death bands, and on this level because of the increase of enjoyability that followed, also served the intensity in long term.