Metal Storm logo
This List Really Grinds My Gears
Album index | Top albums | Bottom albums | Album charts | Top lists | Staff picks


Thumbs up: +4
Grindcore is not one of my favorite subgenres, but I like it well enough on the whole. My experience with it has not been particularly broad, as I don't listen to it with much regularity, and so I have a lot of empty spaces. Of all my genre lists, this is possibly the most practical, because I do need help remembering what grindcore I like and how much I've heard.

Like my other genre lists, this is not meant to dictate for all time and all purposes what is and is not grindcore; there may be bands that are borderline or adjacent or individual albums by grindcore bands that are not in themselves grindcore. This is just for my own organization and reference.

I originally included Anaal Nathrakh and Melt-Banana on the grounds that grindcore forms part of the basis for their styles (and, more critically, because it was getting lonely at the top of the list), but considering either of them a grindcore act without heavy qualification would be quite a stretch. I already know that I like them anyway, so their inclusion on this list was not helpful to me in terms of making this a resource; on revision, I decided to nix them (and also the non-grind Carcass albums).

The first portion of the list contains albums that I count among my favorite grindcore releases. From then on, the list is broken into tiers of ratings 9/10 down to 6/10. If it isn't on the list, I haven't heard it or I didn't like it.

Last updated December 28, 2023.

Created by: ScreamingSteelUS | 17.12.2021


1. Gridlink - Longhena
2. Gridlink - Coronet Juniper
3. Contrastic - Contrastic
4. Contrastic - Mamun
5. Takafumi Matsubara - Strange, Beautiful And Fast
6. Nails - You Will Never Be One Of Us
7. Japanische Kampfhรถrspiele - Verk Ferever
9/10 from here on down.
8. Love Lost But Not Forgotten - Love Lost But Not Forgotten
9. Takafumi Matsubara - Mortalized (Poison EP)
10. Agathocles - If This Is Gore, What's Meat Then?
8/10 from here on down.
11. Anal Cunt - Fuckin' A
12. Antigama - Depressant
13. Antigama - The Insolent
14. Antigama - Whiteout
15. Assรผck - Misery Index
16. Besta - Eterno Rancor
17. Birdflesh - The Farmers' Wrath
18. Brujeria - Brujerizmo
19. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
20. Bufihimat - I
21. Captain Cleanoff - Rising Terror
22. Carbonized - No Canonization
23. Carcass - Symphonies Of Sickness
24. Chepang - Chatta
25. Cloud Rat - Qliphoth
26. Dephosphorus - Sublimation
27. Endon - Through The Mirror
28. Ernia - How To Deal With Life And Fail
29. Exhumed - To The Dead
30. Extreme Noise Terror - A Holocaust In Your Head
31. Full Of Hell - Garden Of Burning Apparitions
32. Genghis Tron - Board Up The House
33. Gridlink - Amber Gray
34. Gridlink - Orphan
35. Helpless - Caged In Gold
36. Houkago Grind Time - Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore)
37. Houkago Grind Time - Houkago Grind Time 2: The Second Raid
38. Implore - Depopulation
39. Implore - Subjugate
40. Japanische Kampfhรถrspiele - Neues Aus Dem Halluzinogenozinozรคn
41. The Kill - Kill Them... All
42. Lock Up - The Dregs Of Hades
43. Lymphatic Phlegm - Roughly Excised - Putrefindings, Morbidescriptions And Necrognoses
44. Nails - Unsilent Death
45. Naked City - Torture Garden
46. Napalm Death - The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code
47. Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption
48. Napalm Death - Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
49. No One Knows What The Dead Think - No One Knows What The Dead Think
50. Owdwyr - Receptor
51. Pharmacist - Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds
52. Pound - โ€ขโ€ข
53. Psudoku - Deep Space Psudokument
54. Psudoku - Planetarisk Sudoku
55. Sugar Wounds - Calico Dreams
56. Sugar Wounds - Mechanical Friends
57. Terrorizer - Caustic Attack
58. Terrorizer - World Downfall
59. Tithe - Penance
60. Tulip - Derangement, Exquisite Tendencies
61. Wormrot - Hiss
62. Wormrot - Voices
63. Agathocles - Grind Is Protest
7/10 from here on down.
64. Agathocles - Razor Sharp Daggers
65. All Pigs Must Die - Nothing Violates This Nature
66. Anal Cunt - 40 More Reasons To Hate Us
67. Anal Cunt - 5643 Song EP
68. Birdflesh - All The Miseries
69. Birdflesh - Extreme Graveyard Tornado
70. Brutal Blues - BB
71. Brutal Blues - Brutal Blues
72. Carbonized - Disharmonization
73. Caustic Wound - Death Posture
74. Cloud Rat - Pollinator
75. Cloud Rat - Threshold
76. Crisis Sigil - God Cum Poltergeist
77. Cult Leader - A Patient Man
78. Death Toll 80k - Step Down
79. Deathrite - Revelation Of Chaos
80. Dephosphorus - Impossible Orbits
81. Desecration - Gore And Perversion
82. Desecration - Murder In Mind
83. Endon - MAMA
84. Exhumed - Horror
85. Exhumed - Necrocracy
86. Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror
87. Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror / Driller Killer
88. Fawn Limbs - Darwin Falls
89. Fawn Limbs - Sleeper Vessels
90. Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation - Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation
91. Fuck The Facts - Desire Will Rot
92. Full Of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
93. Full Of Hell - Weeping Choir
94. Gaza - I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die
95. Gigantic Brain - Gigantic Brain
96. Gigantic Brain - They Did This To Me
97. Gravesend - Gowanus Death Stomp
98. The HIRS Collective - We're Still Here
99. Implore - Black Knell
100. Japanische Kampfhรถrspiele - Blaskapelle Bรผrgermeister Bratwurst Bier Geschenkekorb Bibelstelle Bumskabine Bienensterben Vรถlkermord
101. Knoll - Interstice
102. Last Days Of Humanity - Horrific Compositions Of Decomposition
103. Lifetaker - Der Letzte Raum
104. Lock Up - Demonization
105. Looking For An Answer - Dios Carne
106. Meth Leppard - Woke
107. Morgue Supplier - Inevitability
108. Mortician - Hacked Up For Barbecue
109. Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
110. Napalm Death - Diatribes
111. Napalm Death - Greed Killing
112. P.L.F. - Jackhammering Deathblow Of Nightmarish Trepidation
113. Parlamentarisk Sodomi - Har Du Sagt "A" Fรฅr Du Si "Nal"
114. Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
115. The Plasmarifle - While You Were Sleeping The World Changed In An Instant
116. Rotten Sound - Apocalypse
117. A Scanner Darkly - A Scanner Darkly
118. Septic Tank - Rotting Civilisation
119. Stillbirth - Annihilation Of Mankind
120. Suffering Quota - Suffering Quota
121. Teethgrinder - Dystopia
122. Teethgrinder - Misanthropy
123. Teethgrinder - Nihilism
124. Trap Them - Blissfucker
125. Trap Them - Crown Feral
126. Ultra Vomit - Panzer Surprise
127. Unrest - Grindcore
128. Vermin Womb - Decline
129. Vermin Womb - Permanence
130. Wadge - Grindcore Lu'au
131. Wake - Devouring Ruin
132. Wake - Misery Rites
133. Wake - Sowing The Seeds Of A Worthless Tomorrow
134. Weak Flesh - A Bird In Hand
135. WVRM - Can You Hear The Wind Howl
136. WVRM - Colony Collapse
137. ACxDC - Satan Is King
6/10 from here on down.
138. Afgrund - The Dystopian
139. Agathocles - Mincer
140. All Pigs Must Die - Hostage Animal
141. Anal Cunt - 88 Songs
142. Anal Cunt - Another E.P.!
143. Anal Cunt - The Old Testament 1988-1991
144. Ass To Mouth - Degenerate
145. Axis Of Despair - Contempt For Man
146. Brujeria - Esto Es Brujeria
147. Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction
148. Corrupt Moral Altar - Mechanical Tides
149. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity
150. The Drip - The Haunting Fear Of Inevitability
151. Exhumed - Death Revenge
152. Internal Rot - Grieving Birth
153. Keitzer - Ascension
154. Keitzer - The Last Defence
155. Knelt Rote - Alterity
156. Knoll - Metempiric
157. Leng Tch'e - Razorgrind
158. Maruta - Remain Dystopian
159. Melt-Banana - Scratch Or Stitch
160. Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak
161. Milking The Goatmachine - Milking In Blasphemy
162. No/Mรกs - Consume / Deny / Repent
163. Raised By Owls - Dreadful
164. Theories - Vessel
165. Weekend Nachos - Apology


Disclaimer: All top lists are unofficial and do not represent the point of view of the MS Staff.
[ More lists by ScreamingSteelUS ]



Comments

‹‹ Back to Lists
Comments: 7   Visited by: 46 users
17.12.2021 - 13:55
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
staff
I hear the call of reccs, and I must say the lack of Pig Destroyer is... terrifying. And Discordance Axis ought to be pretty inalienable. And really no Napalm Death? No goddamn Full Of Hell?

So without namedropping too much, I'd suggest reconsidering Nasum, Nails, the OGs in Repulsion and Terrorizer and Carcass and Brutal Truth, the grind but not really of Naked City's Torture Garden and Painkiller's Guts Of A Virgin, the rot in Wormrot and Internal Rot, Fuck The Facts, and last but not least, Gridlink's Takafumi Matsubara.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
17.12.2021 - 14:18
ScreamingSteelUS
Editor-in-Chief
admin
Written by RaduP on 17.12.2021 at 13:55

I hear the call of reccs, and I must say the lack of Pig Destroyer is... terrifying. And Discordance Axis ought to be pretty inalienable. And really no Napalm Death? No goddamn Full Of Hell?

So without namedropping too much, I'd suggest reconsidering Nasum, Nails, the OGs in Repulsion and Terrorizer and Carcass and Brutal Truth, the grind but not really of Naked City's Torture Garden and Painkiller's Guts Of A Virgin, the rot in Wormrot and Internal Rot, Fuck The Facts, and last but not least, Gridlink's Takafumi Matsubara.

"(Work In Progress)" applies to the list itself, not my listening experience. Although I guess both are true.

I haven't made it all the way through my ratings yet (just down to the letter "F," in fact), although I do admit that I'm missing several of those bands anyway (and I forgot to add Carcass). One of the reasons I started this list is that my grindcore knowledge is lacking compared to the other genre lists I have, so this is to help bolster it.
----
"Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader

I'm the Agent of Steel.
Loading...
17.12.2021 - 14:21
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
staff
Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 17.12.2021 at 14:18

I haven't made it all the way through my ratings yet (just down to the letter "F," in fact)

I don't know how I somehow didn't realize that you only added bands starting with A-E so far.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
17.12.2021 - 21:23
ScreamingSteelUS
Editor-in-Chief
admin
Written by RaduP on 17.12.2021 at 14:21

Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 17.12.2021 at 14:18

I haven't made it all the way through my ratings yet (just down to the letter "F," in fact)

I don't know how I somehow didn't realize that you only added bands starting with A-E so far.

Now that I've finished making my way through my ratings, the list is looking a little more complete, although there are still some pretty big gaps; grindcore isn't one of my favorite genres, so this is mostly contemporary releases I've listened to for the MSAs, with not much in the way of background.

I do own Discordance Axis's The Inalienable Dreamless, but I haven't listened to it in full yet; I bought Brutal Truth's Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses six or seven years ago and I wasn't that impressed by it, though I'm willing to believe that I just didn't have as well-developed an ear for grind at that point and I would benefit from revisiting it. I thought for sure I had already heard Painkiller's Guts Of A Virgin, but I apparently did not rate it and I remember nothing about it, so maybe not.

There is a lack of Pig Destroyer aside from the not-super-grindcore Head Cage and a total absence of Nasum and Repulsion. The rest of the bands you mentioned are represented, though not in a very spectacular fashion. I will take these as recommendations (that will have to wait until after the MSAs).
----
"Earth is small and I hate it" - Lum Invader

I'm the Agent of Steel.
Loading...
18.12.2021 - 11:41
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
staff
Written by ScreamingSteelUS on 17.12.2021 at 21:23

Now that I've finished making my way through my ratings, the list is looking a little more complete, although there are still some pretty big gaps; grindcore isn't one of my favorite genres, so this is mostly contemporary releases I've listened to for the MSAs, with not much in the way of background.

I do own Discordance Axis's The Inalienable Dreamless, but I haven't listened to it in full yet; I bought Brutal Truth's Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses six or seven years ago and I wasn't that impressed by it, though I'm willing to believe that I just didn't have as well-developed an ear for grind at that point and I would benefit from revisiting it. I thought for sure I had already heard Painkiller's Guts Of A Virgin, but I apparently did not rate it and I remember nothing about it, so maybe not.

There is a lack of Pig Destroyer aside from the not-super-grindcore Head Cage and a total absence of Nasum and Repulsion. The rest of the bands you mentioned are represented, though not in a very spectacular fashion. I will take these as recommendations (that will have to wait until after the MSAs).

I don't think there's any Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Repulsion or Discordance Axis album I wouldn't recommend. Same goes for Painkiller and Naked City, though not all of their stuff is grind-adjacent.

Now that you actually populated the list I can come at you with some more specific recommendations. But first, I'm a tad disappointed by some of your 6/10 picks, especially Weekend Nachos and Internal Rot. So, some reccs:

Insect Warfare's World Extermination, Death Toll 80k's Harsh Realities, Magrudergrind's self-titled, Atka's Untitled Album 1, the first three !T.O.O.H.! albums, Assรผck's Anticapital, Yacรธpsรฆ's Tanz, Grosny, Tanz..., Wormrot's first two albums, Full Of Hell's album with Merzbow, Dead In The Dirt's The Blind Hole, Agoraphobic Nosebleed's Agorapocalypse and Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope. And for the really early stuff: Infest's Slave and Siege's Drop Dead.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
18.12.2021 - 11:46
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
staff
Also not sure where you would categorize the entire genre of screamo, but Orchid (USA-MA)'s discography takes less than an hour to listen to. Funeral Diner's The Underdark, City Of Caterpillar's self-titled, Pageninetynine's Document #8, and Saetia's self-titled are all classics.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...
18.12.2021 - 11:47
RaduP
CertifiedHipster
staff
Also noticed that a bunch of the bands that I wanted to recommend are not on MS. I got some work to do.
----
Do you think if the heart keeps on shrinking
One day there will be no heart at all?
Loading...

Hits total: 551 | This month: 9