Groinchurn - Biography
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Biography
Groinchurn initially started of as a grind side project of Mark Chapman (guitar) and Sergio Christina (drummer) who at the time played in a brutal death metal band called Sepsis.
The plan was that they would do the vocals themselves, but they realised that they needed a vocalist on the day of recording their first demo "Human Filth" in March 1994.
They decided to ask Christo Bester (bass/vox), who at the time played in another local death metal band called Desecrator, to help them out.
The first demo was recorded in a days time at a small local 8-track "studio"; and the release showed a lot of influences of other grind bands at that stage like Terrorizer , Napalm Death, Brutal Truth , etc.
Things seemed to work between the members and they decided to play one show - as a promo for the demo tape in a local club in the Vaal Triangle. It was clear that they had something special when they played live and they decided to do it again and again and again...
Late 1994 the second demo "every dog has it's decay" was released and the band started to distro it in the underground." Every Dog " continued where the band left off in with Human Filth, but they started to incorporate some more deathmetal and hardcore influences.
In mid 1995 the band received an opportunity to appear on a 4 way split CD & "Four Ways to Misery "released by MMI in Germany. This was the first material to be available in CD format.
Late 1995 saw the band competing in the South African battle of the bands (hard rock/metal category) where they came second last.
In 1996 the band continued to promote themselves in the underground , and appeared on various compilations and some split seven inches and in the second half of the year - being suckers for punishment - they entered the battle of the bands again , this time they won, making it possible to afford some decent equipment with the prize money.
In December 1997 the band entered B# Studios (where the band has always recorded before and after) to record their first (self financed) album called "sixtimesnine".
The first album is characterised by the heaviness and the good production, as well as some guitar melodies, various types of vocals, etc.
The band received very good feedback from this release (released in feb 1997) and probably on the strength of this Morbid Records (Germany) asked the band to support Krabathor (Czech - the way of true deathmetal) and the goregrind legends Sanitysdawn in September/October 1997.
This was the first time for the band on foreign shores (up to that stage only one other South African band - VOD - had managed to play in Europe). The tour went very well, after the tour Morbid Records offered to release the next Groinchurn album - "fink" Early 1998 new friends Krabathor came to play a few shows in South Africa and being the first brutal band here in ages (the only bands that has ever played in South Africa up until today are Napalm Death and Carcass and Smokey.
The album "Fink" came out in mid 1998 and it showed a wide spectrum of influences and good production. The band was then preparing for a European tour at the end of 1998 with Brutal Truth , but plans for this fell through. The band returned to Europe in September 1999, where they played some festivals and a few one of shows which proved to be very successful.
In feb/march 2000 the band entered the studio to record their 3'rd album titled "whoami", the strongest album to date, the band start moving away from the tried and tested grind formula to songs that include much more hardcore influences as well as a variety of other styles.
After the recording of whoami the band headed for Europe again in April 2000 where they played another short tour with Krabathor (now with Paul Speckman - master - fronting the band). From Europe they moved over to America (which included a one off show in London), where, with the kind help of Rich Hoak - deaf American/tfd, to play a few shows in the Philedelphia / New York area.
Upon their return the band played South Africa's two major rock festivals , landing good playing slots in both. Due to the fact that the extreme music community in South Africa is relatively small, the band started plans to relocate to Europe in 2001 for six months, initially their then label Morbid Records was going to going to help them with the relocation to Germany but for various reasons this did not happen.
Not deterred by this the band decided to go ahead with their plans anyway, but settling on the Czech Republic as a home base due to the fact that it's cheap and also the great Petr Hejtmanek - ex Krabathor manager - who offered to help them out with getting a place to live.
The band arrived in Europe in April 2001 and played three tours with Germany's Yiu Drakh , the legendary Macarbe , and the truly evil Totalfuckingdestruction as well as a bunch of small to medium festivals in between. This period in Europe also seemed to be the point where interpersonal relationships were stretched to the limit, 'Mark announced his departure from the band.
The band returned to South Africa in October 2001 and split up.
The band reunited briefly to open for Sepultura on their South African tour in 2014. Groinchurn has a 25 year reunion show happening 30 November 2019 in Johannesburg and is considering a northern hemisphere tour in 2020 after interest from European promoters.
The plan was that they would do the vocals themselves, but they realised that they needed a vocalist on the day of recording their first demo "Human Filth" in March 1994.
They decided to ask Christo Bester (bass/vox), who at the time played in another local death metal band called Desecrator, to help them out.
The first demo was recorded in a days time at a small local 8-track "studio"; and the release showed a lot of influences of other grind bands at that stage like Terrorizer , Napalm Death, Brutal Truth , etc.
Things seemed to work between the members and they decided to play one show - as a promo for the demo tape in a local club in the Vaal Triangle. It was clear that they had something special when they played live and they decided to do it again and again and again...
Late 1994 the second demo "every dog has it's decay" was released and the band started to distro it in the underground." Every Dog " continued where the band left off in with Human Filth, but they started to incorporate some more deathmetal and hardcore influences.
In mid 1995 the band received an opportunity to appear on a 4 way split CD & "Four Ways to Misery "released by MMI in Germany. This was the first material to be available in CD format.
Late 1995 saw the band competing in the South African battle of the bands (hard rock/metal category) where they came second last.
In 1996 the band continued to promote themselves in the underground , and appeared on various compilations and some split seven inches and in the second half of the year - being suckers for punishment - they entered the battle of the bands again , this time they won, making it possible to afford some decent equipment with the prize money.
In December 1997 the band entered B# Studios (where the band has always recorded before and after) to record their first (self financed) album called "sixtimesnine".
The first album is characterised by the heaviness and the good production, as well as some guitar melodies, various types of vocals, etc.
The band received very good feedback from this release (released in feb 1997) and probably on the strength of this Morbid Records (Germany) asked the band to support Krabathor (Czech - the way of true deathmetal) and the goregrind legends Sanitysdawn in September/October 1997.
This was the first time for the band on foreign shores (up to that stage only one other South African band - VOD - had managed to play in Europe). The tour went very well, after the tour Morbid Records offered to release the next Groinchurn album - "fink" Early 1998 new friends Krabathor came to play a few shows in South Africa and being the first brutal band here in ages (the only bands that has ever played in South Africa up until today are Napalm Death and Carcass and Smokey.
The album "Fink" came out in mid 1998 and it showed a wide spectrum of influences and good production. The band was then preparing for a European tour at the end of 1998 with Brutal Truth , but plans for this fell through. The band returned to Europe in September 1999, where they played some festivals and a few one of shows which proved to be very successful.
In feb/march 2000 the band entered the studio to record their 3'rd album titled "whoami", the strongest album to date, the band start moving away from the tried and tested grind formula to songs that include much more hardcore influences as well as a variety of other styles.
After the recording of whoami the band headed for Europe again in April 2000 where they played another short tour with Krabathor (now with Paul Speckman - master - fronting the band). From Europe they moved over to America (which included a one off show in London), where, with the kind help of Rich Hoak - deaf American/tfd, to play a few shows in the Philedelphia / New York area.
Upon their return the band played South Africa's two major rock festivals , landing good playing slots in both. Due to the fact that the extreme music community in South Africa is relatively small, the band started plans to relocate to Europe in 2001 for six months, initially their then label Morbid Records was going to going to help them with the relocation to Germany but for various reasons this did not happen.
Not deterred by this the band decided to go ahead with their plans anyway, but settling on the Czech Republic as a home base due to the fact that it's cheap and also the great Petr Hejtmanek - ex Krabathor manager - who offered to help them out with getting a place to live.
The band arrived in Europe in April 2001 and played three tours with Germany's Yiu Drakh , the legendary Macarbe , and the truly evil Totalfuckingdestruction as well as a bunch of small to medium festivals in between. This period in Europe also seemed to be the point where interpersonal relationships were stretched to the limit, 'Mark announced his departure from the band.
The band returned to South Africa in October 2001 and split up.
The band reunited briefly to open for Sepultura on their South African tour in 2014. Groinchurn has a 25 year reunion show happening 30 November 2019 in Johannesburg and is considering a northern hemisphere tour in 2020 after interest from European promoters.