Parfumerie - Transmundane and Unprofessional Delocation of Superfluous Extremities and Rare Tissues (2014)

   Parfumerie was a short lived goregrind project of thrash/death band Besieged guitarist Nolan Smit and Joe Belanger, known from grindcore band Archagathus.
   Weird, but the different background of both musicians could be sensed on Parfumerie's short one and only demo record. Compared to the raw simplicity of Archagathus, the songs seemed a bit more complex (by goregrind standards), and simply having better riffs. This slight difference proved to be enough to provide some diversity for the music, and even if it's about songs that barely reach 1 minute in length, this is mainly responsible for the higher enjoyability compared to Archagathus. Heavy, old school riffs giving perfect ground for the insane grinding that follows, and even the demo sound turned out to be pretty advantageous for the exaggeratedly filthy disharmony of the songs. These are brief moments of course, but endlessly sick and effective moments. The same could be told about Parfumerie in general in the extreme metal scene. However, even if Archagathus switched their style to goregrind later on, their music was never really able to outpeer the sick greatness of this short Parfumerie demo. If it's about musical minimalism in the era of the increased importance of sound, such similarly subtle differences could be quite determining. Parfumerie might be a potential favorite for the fans of grindcore and goregrind!

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. 

Nomenmortis - Forget Arcadia (2011)

   Nomenmortis was formed in the early '90s, and similar to many other old school death metal bands, who didn't have the possibility to release an album back than, they had to wait until the '00s.
   They had a diverse discography after, every album approached the mix of brutal death and grindcore from a slight different perspective. Probably the frequent line-up changes were also responsible for that. The old school influences remained only in quite moderate amount, the band seemed to be inspired mainly by the modern sound of grind/death. The song structures are also reflecting that direction, and sometimes switching to quite simple, basic themes. The intesinty of their music somehow reminds to Skinless sometimes, but their mixed themes are more diverse, and a bit harder to go into. Compared to their previous albums, "Forget Arcadia" might be the most exaggerated if it's about complexity and sound. This heavy and insane tone also fits to the actual extreme tendencies of the scene, but didn't end up too technical. The unusual approach of morbid lyrical topics showing the same analogy. This mixed up style, that tries to be accurate, modern, and diverse by involving various influences is also like a regional feature, that often shows up in the small Eastern European scenes in general. 

Norylsk - Political Pollution (2011)

   Norylsk had a stunning debut that seemed to merge new waved  grindcore with the old school features of the style. 
   In sound and most themes the influences of the modern sound of grindcore are dominant, and that's kind of the same what could be heard from most brutal death bands. The well known punk and groovy themes are frequently returning, however, their role is quite secondary, since the devastating sound and intense brutality makes it impossible for any softer themes to prevail on any level. The lyrical concept based on politial and social criticism refers to the very roots of the genre, though while listening the album the musical background drifts closer to goregrind. Unlike classic grindcore bands, Norylsk doesn't seem to pick an ideologic side, and sending their "blessings" all-round to society from the conservative Catholic church through the neo socialist political heritage to the easily manipulated individuals who keep the corrupted system running. Interestingly the band name came after a Siberian industrial-miner town that's famous about it's difficult living circumstances by intense environment pollution and extreme climate. The metaphore seems quite relevant according to the albums concept too. On the side of having guts to turn against everything, similar seemingly small hints with heavy background meaning used to make old school grind bands authentic. By their insane intensity and fresh rebellious attitude Norylsk might not disappoint the old fans of the genre either.

The Secret - Solve et Coagula (2010)

   The Secret had quite interesting and uncommon musical journey, that introduces various mixed influences and an ongoing development that  drifts the band always further into deeper extremities.

   The band started to play metalcore in an extraordinary way, that could be difficult to compare to anything else in the genre, since it was more complex than what ordinary metalcore bands are playing, and their noisy sound and obscure approach showed more similarities to crust punk or sludgy influences. With time this alternative direction became dominant, and intense grinding exchanged the simple metalcore-like themes. Even though black metal showed up as another possible influence, the main impression still reminded more to a crusty, sludgy direction. The mix of black metal and grindcore is definitely not common to find, and even most of the rare experiments are not really working out well. From this the question might come that is the analogy between the style of band and Anaal Nathrakh is just a coincedence came from the very few succesful ways how the 2 styles could be combined, or the band was building directly from the influence of Anaal Nathrakh? Still, compared to Anaal Nathrakh their music didn't become so heavy, intense and complex, and therefore the black metal features aren't so evident either. It also wouldn't be correct to simply mark "Solve et Coagula" as a grindcore album, since grinding also doesn't count as their most remarkable feature. Even though exact style classification isn't the easiest thing about the band, their music might be enjoyable for the fans of musical experiments on the vein of crusty black and grind related mixed styles. 

Expurgo - Burial Ground (2010)

   The new sound of grindcore - even if it's about an old school oriented direction, just like in the case of Expurgo - just left behind the traditional practice that builds on the contrast of simple punk influenced basic themes and intense grinding.

   This proved to be an advantageous tendency, partly because the music became more unified, and at the other hand because the songs kept their heaviness. That might changed the basic concept of the genre a bit and also turned it closer to grind/death, that meanwhile increased the effectiveness. Not speed was the only factor anymore, some bands wrote better themes and stepped out from the state of musical Dadaism, while those who preferred to stay, tried to sound more exaggerated. Expurgo also had horror and  goregrind as mainly inspirational features, so their style selection was not a coincidence. Their music defititely recalls the early '90s (Terrorizer, Revolting, Napalm Death, early Carcass), but with great sound quality, and that makes it also the part of a new waved movement. So their music is nostalgic and counts modern the same time, compatible with the taste of old school fans, but also could be enjoyable for the lovers of modern sounding brutality. The basic punk influenced themes didn't disappear completely, but because of the heavy, noisy sound they're not serving as contrast anymore. They're more reminding to thrash by this speed and form. Deep growling lead vocal assisting to the intense brutality with second, screaming backing vocal. In total "Burial Ground" is a well made modern masterpiece of the genre. 

Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation - Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation (2008)

   For the Japanese grindcore is a genre that allows them limitless possibilites to express themselves on 2 fields the same time. The first is maximalism based on detailed studies of the exact musical style (it's correct nearly about everything they're starting), and the second is their exageratedly sick tendencies.
  The same happened in this case, and it's a plus interesting thing that Flagitious Idiosyncrasy in the Dilapidation is a female grindcore band, that counts quite extraordinary. Even though their wider show up had good timing because of the new wave of grindcore, their music was closer to the old school style of genre, that also sympathized with death metal on the side of simple, punk influenced themes. Therefore their music doesn't lack heaviness, and even if the switchings from simpler, mid speed themes to grinding cannot create real contrast from this level, they're still taking an important role in making the main view diverse. Similar to newer bands, vocal switchings from deep growling to high toned screamings are common. The intensity of the album seems constant because all sides of their mentioned musical toolbar are represented in every song, it doesn't matter how short are they. Longer term listening might cause irretrievable brain damage. Excellent entertainment for grindcore fans!

Captain Cleanoff - Symphonies of Slackness (2008)

   Like many grind bands, Captain Cleanoff also seems like a fun made project that's not supposed to take too seriously, and they're reflecting their morbid humor and sick imaginations through the most exaggerated form of musical expression.
   Still, this band is kind of outstanding amongst the countless others that have been shown up by the Renaissanse wave of grindcore. Not only because Captain Cleanoff have been around since a bit longer time, but their skills and sound are representing a way higher quality. Even though their full-lenght debut includes an evident Carcass reference (that wasn't even really necessary), their music is definitely not only some Carcass copy goregrind. They're having their own style that's easy to distinguish from others. Musically they're balancing between the old school sound of grindcore that wasn't aware to operate with heavier sound and thrash/death influences between the grinding themes; and the modern direction that's not trying to seem too serious by political/societal or extremely sick/severe concepts. The advantage of the first case is because they're staying heavy all the time and therefore they can't build on attitudinizing solutions by switching suddenly from some 2 chords punk theme into insane grinding, musically they're keep staying on a serious level. The concept gives the contrast by it's more chilling, fun based parodic tendecies. The excellent sound quality is just icing on the cake. Strongly recommended for grind fans!

Insect Warfare - World Extermination (2007)

   If there was a competition about who is the most brutal grindcore band, Insect Warfare would take place in the top 5.
   "World Extermination" is the first and last full-lenght album of their short and and occasional active periods. Like most similar bands, they also preferred to show up on split albums and short EPs, and of course "World Extermination" also had EP lenght. But for this insane intensiveness it's good enough. In their music the references to both the classical directions of the genre (Napalm Death/Extreme Noise Terror and Terrorizer/Repulsion) could be actively sensed, but the very heavy and noisy sound is typically a modern feature. The band didn't bother to play longer melodic punk influenced intros like old school bands did, they preferred to strike into the middle, and to focus on the effectiveness of sudden noisy and intense themes. Newer bands payed more attention on the sound and noise gained more important role than before. The album is full of brutality and could be compared to how is it sounds when buildings are demolished. It offers excellent entartainment for grindcore fans.

Trap Them - Sleepwell Deconstructor (2007)

   Crust influenced grindcore have never been the most popular aspect of the style, though the development of this direction throws back to the very roots of genre. 

   Counting from Extreme Noise Terror the style went through on some changes, or have returned different after a longer idle sleep, being pulled out by the returning wave of grindcore. Compared to the oldest crust/grind bands, in Trap Them's music the punk influences kept the same measure like before if it's about the music or the lyrical concept, but it's somehow different. They built more on the frustration of modern society that ends up in outbreaking anger and mindless aggression. Therefore at one hand it might be easier to relate to on their music, but at the other hand this modern sound approach gives a more raw impression than the old school rehearsal quality Napalm Death influenced British bands. Like 2 decades earlier there was an extremity competition, many things didn't mean to be taken seriously, or were just experiments, and it was easy to involve improvising. That made their music more party-compatible. Trap Them had a more serious and kind of heavy and demoralizing background concept that's well expressed in their music and in their lyrics too. This raw and strict compromise-less sound and concept makes their music harder to go into. It's not about growls, pig squeels, gore or the contrast of simple themes and overwhelming speed, it's the performance of limitless fast, shouting, screaming, noisy aggression and anger that doesn't want to take any break, just keeps going on album-lenght. Trap Them definitely introduced a new possible aspect of musical extremeness. 

Anaal Nathrakh - The Codex Necro (2001)

   Anaal Nathrakh gained wider attention fast by their interesting sound and experiment to give a new tone to musical extremity.
   There were plenty of experiments before to mix industrial with death metal, but in most cases the electronic music influences had to replace some of the features (like the extreme speed or noisy sound) to be able to prevail, and turned the music more melodic. Anaal Nathrakh tried the opposite, to increase the speed and turn everything noisier. A few bands (like The Berzerker for instance) tried this path too, but they didn't really succeed by speeding up the most primitive electronic sound and simply pasting it into death metal. Anaal Nathrakh payed more attention to find some balance for the sound (in the chaos), they tried to industrialize the that time newly spreading black metal. The basic sound of black metal had a fusion with raw industrial noise and the intensity they pulled up to the level of grindcore. In this form it worked and first of all the fortunate the style selection was responsible for their success. The industrial noise they experimented with didn't only fit well to the atmospheric black melodies, but also increased the level of insanity exaggeratedly. However this style also wasn't able to open new perspectives for extreme music, others who also tried this mix were not so lucky.

Gorerotted - Mutilated in Minutes (2000)

    Even if Carcass changed style and disappeared lately, their heritage of goregrind didn't, and always had impassioned followers.
   One of them was Gorerotted, and even since the first moments of listening the influence of Carcass is impossible not to notice. "Mutilated in Minutes" had more death metal features than ordinary goregrind have, and the band tried to experiment with melodies too a bit. So not the noise and complete insanity was in main focus, it's kind of an old school album for that, but still a very intense one. Their concept and lyrics are way more simpler (maybe they didn't read much pathological literature), only piling up various splatter and gory topics. So even though probably "Necroticism" was their favorite by Carcass, they still sympathized with old school grindcore and embedded into their style, only replaced the punk influenced simple parts with death metal riffings. But still enough classical references left there to cause enjoyanle moments for the oldest fans of the style. In the age of newly uprising mainstream metal styles Gorerotted sounded quite extraordinary and reminded to the sickest period of metal music.

Last Days of Humanity - The Sound of Rancid Juices Sloshing Around Your Coffin (1998)

   All extreme genres tried to push their boundaries, to go further always, but there is an end of the line in all cases. If there is a possible ending border for grindcore, Last Days of Humanity certainly found it.
   While the pioneers of gore- and porngrind appeared on the late '80s and early '90s, the other exaggerated point, the completely noise-based animalistic insanity arrived a bit later. So nothing really left for the followers of the grindcore renaissance about a decade later, than to mix these basics. Still, probably it would be impossible to surpass what Last Days of Humanity did and still doing. This insane noise that went so far from musicality as it's possible, but still tried to keep the basic features of grindcore. The animalistic vocals are probably artificially distorted and they are mainly responsible for the extremely brutal effect of their music. The concept stayed on the line of goregrind, and they performed it's most exaggerated aspect. Later the band went even further of course and became even noisier. Their debut was only like a warm-up, so the lovers of extreme gore couldn't be disappointed.

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.

Extreme Noise Terror - A Holocaust in Your Head (1989)

   Even though punk music is strongly related to old school grindcore, not many bands could be named who introduced this musical development like Extreme Noise Terror did.
   It was at the birth of two styles at the same time. Grindcore just apperaed not so long ago led by bands like Napalm Death and Carcass, and crust punk was kind of quite new too. On the side of Doom and Hellbastard, Extreme Noise Terror is in first in line to mention if it's about the most influental crust punk bands. So they were definitely updated about the new developments of the actual music scene that time. They kept more punk features than old grindcore bands, but didn't even try to build on the musical contrast of simple, primitive punk melodies and insane grinding. Just like their name told, they made only some extreme noise. Animalistic and intense noisemaking without any breaks, to annoy and instigate to crush your furnitures at home, but better to do in public. Another exaggerated aspect of musical minimalism. The musical and lyrical concept of crust punk and old school grindcore was almost the same, so "A Holocaust in Your Head" could count as an important classic for the fans of both styles.

Terrorizer - World Downfall (1989)

   The extreme genres and their scenes just barely started to develop, but others were looking already for some even more brutal musical approach. Grindcore was formed by mixing HC punk and thrash, so that means short and very simple, more melodic basic themes which are ending up in the most insane grinding as it's possible.
   Terrorizer used to be a short existing side project or power group of some members from Morbid Angel and Napalm Death. With this line-up they recorded "World Downfall", which became one of the very classics of grindcore. By involving death metal influences too, this style replaced the usual HC punk influence, and made the music more rough than old school grindcore is in general. So the catchy melodic parts are missing, no chance for calm down, there is wild thrashing instead. The songs are more complex and brutal, but the usual political and societal topics remained as a main characteristic. "World Downfal" had an important influence on the grindcore genre.

Repulsion - Horrified (1989)

   Not the UK was the only birthplace of grindcore, even though the genre was the most productive in that area and became known worldwide. The music (or noise) that Repulsion played counted as a milestone in extreme metal.
   The band created the basics of grindcore in the '80s already, parallelly with bands like Carcass, Napalm Death and Terrorizer, but their name became less known probably because of their lower productiveness, short active period and common name changes. Even the current material, their one and only full-lenght record that was basicly a demo tape, came out under the name Genocide first titled as "The Stench of Burning Death". Later as Repulsion - "Slaughter of The Innocent". But thanks to Necrosis Records founded by Carcass members (Mr. Jeff Walker and Mr. Bill Steer) the record wasn't completely lost and forgotten, but had a release under the name of Horrified. While most grindcore bands were into political and societal topics, a few others (like Carcass) were more interested in gore. Repulsion also could be sorted to the second group, and they were inspirational for late goregrind bands, but their lyrics showed more similarities to ordinary death metal lyrics. The early elements of the genre such as punk, death and thrash metal could be sensed well from their primitive themes, and introduced a new level of musical extremeity by their intesiveness.