Metal Connoisseur

Alright, I was fortunate enough to find a youtube video containing the whole Amber Grey album and wow, consider me won over. The sound Gridlink has accomplished on the album is so dynamic and so concise it's unbelievable. One thing that I've noticed when listening to grindcore is that some bands focus so much on speed and assaulting the listener that I soon become bored and want to move on. I never had this feeling while listening to Amber Grey; throughout the whole of the album I was actively engaged. The way the mid-tempo grooves or melodies of the guitars mirrored the more typical grind passages were highlights for me as were the vox.

Behold the Failure is good, but Amber Grey is just that much better.

Gridlink - 3
Mumakil - 1

Unknown Soldier

Hahaha when I first put the albums up I typed in Gridlock and not Gridlink, I had to go back and edit it. Even now I automatically type Gridlock and not Gridlink but usually remember and correct it, seems like I forgot on one post.

Metal Connoisseur

It's all good, who's queued up to choose the next battle?

Unknown Soldier

This war totalled 18 votes in total and Gridlink's Amber Grey is voted as the best Grindcore album of the 21st century on MB, yep all 12 mins of it, who says good things don't come in small packages

Final order is:
Gridlink- Amber Grey
Mumakil- Behold the Failure
Leng Tch'e- Process of Elimination
Nasum- Helvete
Regurgitate- Sickening Bliss

Unknown Soldier

The next lucky dip draw had drawn a name from the list of 16 who hasn't been on the site since December, so I decided to move on and draw another name and out came Jackhammer.

Genre Splicing Metal (Jackhammer)

Jackhammer says: There have been many instances of Metal bands incorporating different genres into their music but somehow it was still safe but bands come along and truly meld different genres and are adept at all the genres they present and that is the key. It's easy to throw in a saxophone solo or have an ambient 3 minute breakdown but to really stretch yourself musically and thematically is a very intriguing process to me

Unknown Soldier says: Metal bands mixng in new ideas whether they be prog metal bands, technical death metal or Nu-metal bands are nothing new, but I agree with Jack, a lot of the bands seemed to do it without really mastering the concept. Here are 4 albums that a lot of you won't be familiar with and based on Jack's taste should be worth the listen. Jack has also included a brief summary of each album which I'll put up when the albums come up.

The Albums Selected
Mordred - In This Life 1991
Naked City - S.T 1989
Maudlin Of The Well - Leaving Your Body Map 2001
Celtic Frost - Into The Pandemonium 1987

What Jack says about these two albums:

Mordred's sound is a lot more traditional in a sense but their use of a sixth member on turntables was revolutionary at the time and they just don't get any credit for expanding their sound. This was 1991 and before 'Nu Metal' and whether it's liked or not, I applauded them as I do now for creating a sound not for a gimmick or commercial appeal but because they loved Hip Hop and Turntabilism.

Naked City were obviously not a Metal band per se that decided to throw in free Jazz but I feel their inclusion is merited because again; they are all extremely proficient musicians and their love of many genres is melded together so well that they were embraced by Metal bands and fans alike and they certainly introduced a lot of new music for fans to delve into.

Now do the decent thing and place your votes! (By the way I'm saying that)

hip hop bunny hop

I don't know if you're familiar with Discordance Axis, but one of things that truly almost ruins that band is the "hardcore" influence; I use scary quotes because I reference the genre of Converge, not classics like Negative Approach. Gridlink manage to restrain the "hardcore" influence, but it's still pops up, like an alien bursting through the chest of an otherwise good song....

__________________
Have mercy on the poor.

Metal Connoisseur

Yeah I'm not as chubby on Converge as most, don't get me wrong, they're alright but I don't think they're god's gift to hardcore metal. If not from hardcore, where does grindcore (in its purest form--not deathgrind, pornogrind, etc.) draw it's influence from?

hip hop bunny hop

The liner notes in Horrified state that Repulsion's influences were, most regularly, Celtic Frost, Slayer, & Discharge.

Early Napalm Death is a bit more difficult to nail down, what with the constantly shifting members, but in an interview I read with (then quite, quite young) Justin Broadrick he mentioned Throbbing Gristle as an influence, which isn't too surprising considering where that led. However, this shouldn't be discounted as an aberration, considering that Mick Harris also seems to have had similar interests and influences.

There's also a bit of death metal influence in the early bands that became more evident as time went on, and it's a bit hard to delineate considering the confluence of Repulsion/Death (which were the same band at one point), as well as that of Terrorizer/Morbid Angel, Terrorizer/Napalm Death, etc.

So, yeah, there's a hardcore influence, but it's hardcore sans scary quotes. It's the hardcore of Negative Approach, Discharge, etc.. Not the "hardcore" of Converge, Fall of Troy, and that kind.

Really, what mystifies me is why what appears to be two very distinct genres are both labelled hardcore.

__________________
Have mercy on the poor.

The Batlord

Cause calling it metalcore isn't cool anymore?

__________________