Bodybag - Predominance of Insanity (2015)

   After the Renaissance of grindcore in the late '00s, Bodybag's old school approach was pretty refreshing and counted kinda extraordinary among the numerous porn grind and goregrind releases of the '10s. Their debut EP "Predominance of Insanity" takes back the listener into the late '80s, when grindcore was just freshly defined by bands like Napalm Death and Terrorizer.
   The EP starts with a song that definitely sounds like an old, long lost and somehow mysteriously reappeared Terrorizer song (this is how Terrorizer's return should have sounded like in 2006 by the way, and maybe then it didn't disappoint so many fans), but in the followings the band demonstrates various approaches to death/grind. And all are sounding pretty impressive. Similar to Terrorizer, death metal themes or at least intense thrashing could be heard in the "resting" parts of the songs instead of punk themes, but in case of thrashing some slight punk-like touch could be sensed. The unifying analogy in the contrast between the insane grinding and fast hammering is in raw primitiveness, that also adds some savage charm to the EP. For the fans of old school grinding Bodybag's music might be extremely enjoyable, a potential long term favorite. 

Nervous Impulse - Time to Panic (2015)

   True to their name, Nervous Impulse have placed quite high standards by their debut if it's about intensity and musickness. Therefore probably it wasn't easy to exceed the first album, but by looking at the details, "Time to Panic" could be marked as a successful attempt.
   The suddenly switching song structures are as insane as ever, and by this step diversity and a constantly frustrated tone is given. But still, some improvement could be sensed in both the themes and the song structures. It's still not the easiest music to go into, but everything comes somehow better organized than before. There are still plenty of unexpected switches that are keeping up the listener's attention and increasing the enjoyability the same time, but this time it's a bit more than pure chaos somehow. And this is proved to be an advantageous improvement. The sound is also heavier than previously, and probably this is responsible for the impression, that this time the band might have focused more on brutal death influenced features. But in truth it's just the side effect of the sound preference, that highlighted heaviness a bit more than on "Enough for Dementia". In total, "Time to Panic" is another excellent death/grind masterpiece, strongly recommended for the fans of the genre. 

Krampüs - Graveyard Blowjob (2014)

   Grindcore or death/grind isn't the most usual style to encounter in the small Hungarian extreme metal scene, therefore Krampüs was able to gain attention instantly by their first full-length album, "Mental Holocaust". Decent, primitive and enjoyable death/grind, that's easy to go into.
    By their return with "Graveyard Blowjob" they continued the same grossness and violence based path spiced with some sexual aberrations and perversions, but this time with way better sound quality than before. It's not the most usual sound if it's about grindcore, more like modern brutal death metal related, but it turned out to be an advantageous step, cause the noisier, lower toned sound instantly highlighted the heaviness of their music. Therefore "Graveyard Blowjob" hits way harder than the first album did by its dull sound, that kinda took from the impression of the music's intensity. Krampüs had a strong old school touch since the beginning, and they preferred to rely on the contrast of thrashing tempo and frequent slow downs. Actual grinding is way less common than how it should be expected. The brutal death tone can compense that, and by the primitive approach during the short songs lengths it works just fine. But this way grinding became like some very special gift that a death/grind band is willing to offer only occasionally. 

Nausea - Condemned to the System (2014)

   Formed in 1987, Nausea counts as one of the earliest grindcore bands, on the side of Napalm Death, Extreme Noise Terror, Carcass, Repulsion and Terrorizer. But unlike these fellow coatenous bands, Nausea had to wait longer for a full-length release, and didn't spark wider attention. It was partly due to their debut's poor rehearsal quality, and partly because of the primitiveness of their early music, that simply couldn't even keep up with the intensity of other grindcore bands.
   While "Crime Against Humanity" was still kind of an experimenting death/grind album filled with a lot of basic punk influenced themes, their returning album, "Condemned to the System" decades later did reach the quality and intensity that a grind/death or grindcore band supposed to. The second album is basically incomparable with "Crime Against Humanity". However, more than 2 decades have been passed meanwhile, and after so many things did happen in the underground on the side of the renaissance of grindcore, that mainly came in the form of porngrind, this kind of strongly Napalm Death and Terrorizer influenced death/grind sounds quite vintage. The concept is also strongly relatable with those two bands. The production is high quality and flawless, and whether the band's intention was to create what they couldn't perform in the early '90s, or just to return to their roots, and release an old school styled album that's actually the main scene was pretty much missing since a long while, they definitely succeeded in both cases. Recommended for the fans of old school grindcore!

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.

Prophecy of Doom - Total Mind War (2012)

   Prophecy of Doom was formed in the late '80s, and as a strongly Carcass influenced band, their music counts as one of the most ancient goregrind relics. However their name remeined less known, probably because of the strong analogy with Carcas that kept Prophecy of Doom in their shadow.
   "Total Mind War" was released as a compilation album that included 2 of their demos, "Second Peel Session" from 1991, and "Ego Death Grind" from 1996. The band had an unusual approach of goregrind, since even though their sound and themes perfectly reflecting the early characteristics of the genre, grinding wasn't the most usual feature to find in their music. The noisy rehearsal sound of the first demo had quite fortunate effect by providing an endlessly obscure impression. By their second full-lenght album, the band revealed some interesting experimenting ambitions by keeping the same sound and themes, but slowing down nearly to doom speed. The "Ego Death Grind" demo came out after that, and what didn't work before in expereimenting, seemed to work well this time. They created something genuine, and even though their late music lacked doom influenced themes, and therefore never reached heavy depths, this direction might remind somehow to what Disembowelment have made back then. For the fans of early goregrind, "Total Mind War" could offer great nostalgy. 

Nervous Impulse - Enough for Dementia (2009)

   From the mid '00s the Renaissance of grindcore has begun and that new wave was represented mainly by porngrind and slamming grind/death bands. It was like a new, modern sound for the genre, but except this and some exact overly exaggerated topic/concept preferences it didn't gave anything new. However, this new wave brought other, more old school oriented bands too, like Nervous Impulse.
   Their short and very intense debut was somewhere between the modern and the old school tendencies of grindcore. The sound, the song structures, switching distorted guttural/high screaming vocal styles, heavier sounding basic death metal or goregrind themes instead of groovy punk influences are definitely the signs of the new wave. Still, the style and the main impression reminds more to the roots of grindcore, and it's more similar to European grind, than to American. In old school American grind/death the songs used to be more unified and they're not building on contrast and themes switches that much. Sudden theme, vocal and speed switches are the most specific solutions in Nervous Impule's musical toolbar. Fast thrashy hammerings switching to mid speed, than to ultra fast gravity blasts, that are usually pulling the other instruments to speed up too. Than the switches keep repeating or they stop for a second suddenly before an outbreak, and everything goes over again. All that gives a very rageful impression that's sometimes unbearably anxious and ends up extremely insane. This fastly repeating diversity might give the feeling that the album is way longer than how it is, and it may be a bit harder to go into, but all-in-one quite effective, and could be enjoyable.

Medical Concepts - Medical Concepts (2008)

   Medical Concepts was one of the countless bands of the late '00s who only had a demo and were possible to find only on Myspace. Still their music have made them outstanding and not only in the impoverished Hungarian metal scene, but also in wider, international perspective.
   The list of Carcass influenced grindcore or goregrind bands might be long, but while they are focusing mainly to be gory and sick as possible, or just simply copying the style of their icon; not many have approached the whole thing by basic simplicity. And that's exactly what Medical Concepts did, and they did that with such ease. By leaving no doubts about their Carcass addiction and their attraction to the main concept, they approached the whole thing from old school death metal influenced grindcore, that except some of the remained long time existing oldies is not so common to find. Less definitely counts more if a music is able to recall the feeling of the early '90s, and the same time it's introducing the intensiveness and freshness of a new era. Groovy and thrashing themes mixed with grinding insanity are creating a very enjoyable musical illustration of the horrors and threats of medical interventions. To understand the lyrics a pathology dictionary might be more useful, just like in old times. The mentioned threats are narrated by deep growling vocal (that together with the old school themes may remind to Deicide), but for emphasizing the importance of some parts a second cawing vocal style is there to support (reversed like in Carcass).
   Unfortunately the band didn't continue their activity, though their demo was quite impressive and counts as something unique even nowadays. Strongly recommended for the fans of old school musickness!

Brutally Mutilated - Tortured Fucked and Mutilated (2006)

  Brutally Mutilated was formed in 2001, and during their first active period (that lasted until 2009) they've released 2 full-lenght albums. Their introducing material was a mix of brutal death and goregrind influenced mainly by old school death metal bands such as Cannibal Corpse, Obituary or Broken Hope.
   The first album was self-released and sounded very promising, and together with their returning record "Tortured Fucked and Mutilated" they gave a nice lesson about exaggerated gore addiction. Since their music represents brutality in high quality, it's a wonder why their name isn't widely known. They prefer very heavy, noisy sound and simple themes in middle speed, that are switching commonly into wild grinding and intense hammering. The raw, noisy sound with the deep animalistic growls reminds somehow to Mortician, but while Mortician took in their primitive slow downs only to increase the effect of grinding and focused more on the distortion of noise, the mid speed bouncings of Brutally Mutilated are kind of groovy and counting as the essential parts of their song compositions. They have good sense to put out the maximum from these themes by giving a very sick impression to their music. Their old school-groovy slamming could be very enjoyable for the connoisseurs of extreme brutality.
More information about the band:

https://www.facebook.com/BrutallyMutilatedTX/

Into the Gore - Pain Must Be Amplified (2001)

  Into the Gore was one of the few bands of the early '00s, who were completely unattached from the actual tendencies of both the mainstream and underground metal scenes.
   While the metal scene in general seemed exhausted and lost the attention of the masses, nu metal took over the mainstream, and the second wave of black metal ruled the remains of the underground. Meanwhile the border of mainstream and underground became blurry by the increasing popularity of new melodic and symphonic black metal bands. Some brutal death bands kept dong their technical and progressive experimentings since the '90s, that became a trend eventually, while others started to mix styles already. Into the Gore's music was somewhere between the two. Their sound definitely reflected the brutal death bands of the era, while they mixed death metal with grindcore elements. The band mainly relied on the combination of intensity and weird theme switches and effects.The appearance of a second, higher toned (in this case also artificially distorted) vocal style was also a typical feature of  '00s death metal bands. Similar to the newbies of that time, their music sounded like a reinterpretation of extremity by trying to find new borders to cross. This means weird sound effects and experimenting song structures to rely on surprise. Because the newbies basically had to face with the impossible task: to create something new that haven't been done before, on the side of unusual style combinations, unexpectedness became the essential part of their formulas. Into the Gore was one of the early heralds of the technical brutal death and death/grind bands that became widespread from the middle of the decade. 

Fleshgrind - The Seeds of Abysmal Torment (2000)

   Since the old school sound of death metal passed away, only a few old bands didn't stop playing in that style. The rare newbies started so rough as possible. To impress their decimated audience, they didn't slip lower than brutal death . Fleshgrind was a perfect example of the further development of death metal after the mid '90s.
   It's only one thing that the modern sound of death had to be brutal. It's also sympathized with technical ambitions and -like in the case of Fleshgrind - with grindcore. Both of these influences were involved to increase the intensity, cause it seemed like even brutal death cannot be enough brutal. Even there was no such competition than before, there was a pressure on the genre that was forced to take a back seat, to show up with something extraordinary. Fleshgrind sometimes used the assistance of sudden theme changes, but they didn't go too far with them. They preferred to experiment with the most exaggerated features and merged from the toolbar of goregrind for occasional speed ups and inhuman vocal style. On the side of the gory and sadistic lyrical topics, the influence influence of Cannibal Corpse is quite evident. This raw and heavy style was exaggerated all-round and enough to impress the fans of musical extremtites. "The Seeds of Abysmal Torment" was probably the most enjoyable album of the band.

Immortal Fate - Beautiful (2000)

   Immortal Fate had interesting musical progress during their short active period. They started with a Bay Area thrash influenced demo in 1990, but soon they turned into death metal.
   After the "Faceless Burual" EP that was an excellent example of putrid sound, they arrived to the top of their musical progression by the demo "Beautiful", that was lately released in 2000. The band wasn't joking with experimenting, they reached the most exaggerated points, the contrast of grindcore and death/doom. These ambitions appeared on the EP too by some Autopsy influences, but on "Beautiful" they mastered this style like nobody else did before. In ordinary grindcore simple, melodic, punk influenced themes are responsible for the contrast, but in this case a demoralizing, noisy atmosphere. By that the main view takes a way darker and unfriendlier tone. These ominous, heavy themes guiding the listener into the most putrid hellpit, where only insane grinding awaits. Deep, whispering growling assisting to the main view. Some parts are so brutal on this short record, that they could impress even the well death/grind trained audience. The sound is primitive and noisy, fits perfectly to this style. "Beautiful" is definitely a masterpiece (unfortunately an very underrated and barely known one), musickness on it's defining level.

Grog - Macabre Requiems (1996)

   After a couple of demo tapes, Grog debuted with the "95 Stabwounds in Your Throat" EP in 1994, that despite the poor rehearsal recording conditions was an impressive record. Two years later by "Macabre Requiems" they've let behind something memorable (a never healing wound, if it might sound better by this concept) in the brutal death / goregrind scene. 

   The an unnecessarily long intro is followed by quite decent songs, that are still sounding quite old school compared to both the late style of the band the current form of the genre. Basically the core of their late works got introduced in pretty enjoyable quality, and it's strongest point was the band's independent aspect of the style. They didn't try to imitate or copy the other, already existing grind/death or goregrind bands, but instead they preferred to build up their own style from the beginning from their own perspective. Death metal and grindcore features are in balance and completing each other well. In similar early records it's more spectacular why the switch from punk to death metal was so much more effective compared to old school grindcore bands. Also this step by step upbuilt is something that's quite missing from the late bands of the scene. At one hand it's understandable, like why bands of the '10s or '20s should pretend like they're experimenting like oldies did in the '90s, but by the lack of this approach the brutal death slamming or goregrind scene turned too homogenic and one sided. And if nearly all bands sounding the same, playing the same and morbid comedy elements are the only factors that could lead to any diversity, it makes difficult to keep larger fanbase at the style longer than a few years. "Macabre Requiems" is not a timeless classic only by it's genuine style or release date, but also because it's like a requiem for the long lost and still missing features of a genre. 

Mortician - House by the Cemetery (1995)

   Similar to Necrophagia, Mortician was also known about it's limitless horror addiction. The goriest films inspired them to transfer their feeling into music.
   But there is a tiny difference: while the bloody scenes don't take too long, in Mortician's music they never end, they completely focused on these parts. Similar to grindcore bands, they liked to add plenty of intros and outros, but these were taken from horror films of course. "House by the Cemetery" was probably the heaviest and noisiest record they ever made, even on the brutal death/grind field it could be sorted to the most brain damaging ones. Of course the catchy effect of it's distorted sound would be hardly possible to reproduce in live, plus they used drum machine all the time and didn't think about the limits of live playing while they used it. The main feeling is extremely brutal and sick, this raw grinding exceeded the level of visual disturbance. The EP includes one of the best Celtic Frost covers too, which is another cause for an enjoyable nostalgia on the side of the continously referred horror classics.

Dead - You'll Never Know Pleasure - Until You've Tasted Pain (1995)

   The roots of the lately very popular pornogrind subgenre are lying in the early '90s in Germany. The style is strongly related to goregrind, except it's seeking the depths of sexual perversity instead of gore. Instead of splatter horror films, porn and everyday's aberrations serving as main inspiration.
   Unlike the ordinary pornogrind that spreaded around in the underground scene 15 years later, it's pioners like Dead had strong death metal, old schol grindcore and even punk influences. For first hearing the influence of Carcass is evident, and the album includes GG Allin covers too (that probably explains many things). Their music wasn't much different from the earliest bands of the genre, except the concept, and that they involved sometimes lighter melodies and occasionally some styles for fun that having not much to do with metal. This often ends up in morbid humor, partly because of the exaggeratated topics (like sado-masochism, BDSM, enjoyong urine and excrement), and partly because the style is not famous about taking things seriously. It's also like an attention-seeking experiment, but more like fun-made, so the outcomes are not so shocking like old grindcore was.
 

Necrony - Pathological Performances (1993)

   Even the title and the visuals leaving no doubts that Necrony was very determined to follow the path of Carcass, the masters of goregrind and ultimate musickness.
   Their one and only full-lenght album may sound nostalgic, because probably Necroticism was their main inspiration. Similar to the third masterpiece of Carcass, the mix of death metal and grindcore is the main feature of "Pathological Performances" with longer song lenghts, and occasional grinding parts. Deep growling vocal style and artificially distorted, animalistic voices causing pleasurable moments, which may referring to the earliest, pure grindcore times. Strong death metal riffs having the main lead, but sometimes short melodic themes appearing too, which are like reminders to the sickest moments of the band's idols. These appearences are unexpected and first may sound weird, like if they would be uncertain and wouldn't be able to fit to the main insanity, but gave an exciting new tone with their '80s-like sound. "Pathological Performances" is a nice reference album in the seek of the most putrid and the filthiest perfection in musical disharmony.

Blood - O Agios Pethane (1993)

   The early grindcore wave wasn't so huge at all like the thrash/death metal wave was, and similar bands were not so supported either. The darkest depths of underground stayed as their most common location to be found.
   By following the path of Napalm Death and Carcass, Blood created their own imaginations of extreme musickness. They sounded like taking a bit from both direction. At lyrics they were the same way into gore and political, societal topics, and musically both into classical short grinding performances, and death metal influenced complete themes. It's really like on the borderline of grindcore and death metal, includes the intense and dadaist temper of the first, and the heaviness and rough sound of the second. While ordinary grindcore bands were not famous diverse themes, and the effectiveness of their music usually based on unexpected and unpredictable events, often with morbid humor, Blood's music was more serious at all ways. Not the endeavor for effect was in their focus but to grind in high quality.

Multiplex - World (1992)

    Extreme metal only slowly oozed into Japan without any significant wider attention. Most of the earliest bands stayed in the depths of underground and reached only the most obsessed metal fanatics.
   Similar to most Japanese bands, Multiplex was pretty good in practising abstraction. Even if they were determined to play in an exact style, the direct musical influences of other bands would be hard to mention. It's clear that their music is the mix of death metal and grindcore, but the features that referring to others are missing. They created an own possible approach of the genre, which gave them (and to Japanese bands in general) a lot of credit in genuineness. "World" is a quite raw and experimenting album, with a wide range of themes. It sounds like the band tried all possibilites how to play death/grind, but not at the ordinary way, because their music lacks completely the simple, punk influenced features of grindcore. This weird, very raw heaviness represents a less known, but interesting experiment the style of death/grind.

Carcass - Necroticism - Descanting the Insalubrious (1991)

    As the main inspiring band of the style goregrind, Carcass debuted as one of the first grindcore bands, and very soon they sparked the attention of extreme music fans. Their exaggerated music showed a new way in musical sickness.
   After two completely compromise-less goregrind albums with "Necroticism" they arrived on the top of their musical creativity. The arrival of Mike Amott (Carnage) sat on a few changes. On the side of the grinding parts, their music turned more melodic by involving heavy metal themes. A weird balance was created between these twoo points, and the catchy melodies lightened on their massive raw sounding, but the same way turned the main feeling endlessly sick. "Necroticism" is still not a relaxing meditative album compared to the previous ones, but shows the importance of contrast, that may be more effective than rough grinding. Their lyrics' main feature was always that for complete understanding a medical dictionary, or some pathological working practice would be very useful, and that concept made Carcass an icon. "Necroticism" is an everlasting classic of extreme music.