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This List Really Grinds My Gears
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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. Agoraphobic Nosebleed - Frozen Corpse Stuffed With Dope
9/10 from here on down.
8. Beaten To Death - Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis
9. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Verk Ferever
10. Liberteer - Better To Die On Your Feet Than Live On Your Knees
11. Love Lost But Not Forgotten - Love Lost But Not Forgotten
12. Takafumi Matsubara - Mortalized (Poison EP)
13. Agathocles - If This Is Gore, What's Meat Then?
8/10 from here on down.
14. Anal Cunt - Fuckin' A
15. Antigama - Depressant
16. Antigama - The Insolent
17. Antigama - Whiteout
18. Assück - Misery Index
19. Besta - Eterno Rancor
20. Birdflesh - The Farmers' Wrath
21. Brujeria - Brujerizmo
22. Brutal Truth - Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses
23. Bufihimat - I
24. Captain Cleanoff - Rising Terror
25. Carbonized - No Canonization
26. Carcass - Symphonies Of Sickness
27. Chepang - Chatta
28. Cloud Rat - Qliphoth
29. Dephosphorus - Sublimation
30. Endon - Through The Mirror
31. Ernia - How To Deal With Life And Fail
32. Exhumed - To The Dead
33. Extreme Noise Terror - A Holocaust In Your Head
34. Full Of Hell - Garden Of Burning Apparitions
35. Genghis Tron - Board Up The House
36. Gridlink - Amber Gray
37. Gridlink - Orphan
38. Helpless - Caged In Gold
39. Hereisaropegoodluck - Nothing To Write Home About
40. Houkago Grind Time - Bakyunsified (Moe To The Gore)
41. Houkago Grind Time - Houkago Grind Time 2: The Second Raid
42. Implore - Depopulation
43. Implore - Subjugate
44. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Neues Aus Dem Halluzinogenozinozän
45. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Welt Ohne Werbung
46. The Kill - Kill Them... All
47. Lock Up - The Dregs Of Hades
48. Lymphatic Phlegm - Roughly Excised - Putrefindings, Morbidescriptions And Necrognoses
49. Nails - Unsilent Death
50. Naked City - Torture Garden
51. Napalm Death - The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code
52. Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption
53. Napalm Death - Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
54. No One Knows What The Dead Think - No One Knows What The Dead Think
55. Owdwyr - Receptor
56. Pharmacist - Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds
57. Pig Destroyer - Prowler In The Yard
58. Pig Destroyer - Terrifyer
59. Pound - ••
60. Psudoku - Deep Space Psudokument
61. Psudoku - Planetarisk Sudoku
62. Repulsion - Horrified
63. Repulsion - Violent Death
64. Sugar Wounds - Calico Dreams
65. Sugar Wounds - Mechanical Friends
66. Terrorizer - Caustic Attack
67. Terrorizer - World Downfall
68. Tithe - Penance
69. Tulip - Derangement, Exquisite Tenderness
70. Wormrot - Hiss
71. Wormrot - Voices
72. Yersin - The Scythe Is Remorseless
73. Agathocles - Grind Is Protest
7/10 from here on down.
74. Agathocles - Razor Sharp Daggers
75. All Pigs Must Die - Nothing Violates This Nature
76. Anal Cunt - 40 More Reasons To Hate Us
77. Anal Cunt - 5643 Song EP
78. Birdflesh - All The Miseries
79. Birdflesh - Extreme Graveyard Tornado
80. Brat - Social Grace
81. Brutal Blues - BB
82. Brutal Blues - Brutal Blues
83. Carbonized - Disharmonization
84. Caustic Wound - Death Posture
85. Cloud Rat - Pollinator
86. Cloud Rat - Threshold
87. Crisis Sigil - God Cum Poltergeist
88. Cult Leader - A Patient Man
89. Death Toll 80k - Step Down
90. Deathrite - Revelation Of Chaos
91. Dephosphorus - Impossible Orbits
92. Desecration - Gore And Perversion
93. Desecration - Murder In Mind
94. Endon - MAMA
95. Exhumed - Horror
96. Exhumed - Necrocracy
97. Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror
98. Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror / Driller Killer
99. Fawn Limbs - Darwin Falls
100. Fawn Limbs - Sleeper Vessels
101. Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation - Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation
102. Fuck The Facts - Desire Will Rot
103. Full Of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
104. Full Of Hell - Weeping Choir
105. Gaza - I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die
106. Gigantic Brain - Gigantic Brain
107. Gigantic Brain - They Did This To Me
108. Gravesend - Gowanus Death Stomp
109. The HIRS Collective - We're Still Here
110. Houkago Grind Time - Koncertos Of Kawaiiness: Stealing Jon Chang's Ideas, A Book By Andrew Lee
111. Implore - Black Knell
112. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Blaskapelle Bürgermeister Bratwurst Bier Geschenkekorb Bibelstelle Bumskabine Bienensterben Völkermord
113. Knoll - Interstice
114. Last Days Of Humanity - Horrific Compositions Of Decomposition
115. Lifetaker - Der Letzte Raum
116. Lock Up - Demonization
117. Looking For An Answer - Dios Carne
118. Meth Leppard - Woke
119. Morgue Supplier - Inevitability
120. Mortician - Hacked Up For Barbecue
121. Nails - Every Bridge Burning
122. Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
123. Napalm Death - Diatribes
124. Napalm Death - Greed Killing
125. P.L.F. - Jackhammering Deathblow Of Nightmarish Trepidation
126. Parlamentarisk Sodomi - Har Du Sagt "A" Får Du Si "Nal"
127. Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
128. The Plasmarifle - While You Were Sleeping The World Changed In An Instant
129. Rotten Sound - Apocalypse
130. A Scanner Darkly - A Scanner Darkly
131. Septic Tank - Rotting Civilisation
132. Stillbirth - Annihilation Of Mankind
133. Suffering Quota - Suffering Quota
134. Teethgrinder - Dystopia
135. Teethgrinder - Misanthropy
136. Teethgrinder - Nihilism
137. Trap Them - Blissfucker
138. Trap Them - Crown Feral
139. Ultra Vomit - Panzer Surprise
140. Unrest - Grindcore
141. Vermin Womb - Decline
142. Vermin Womb - Permanence
143. Wadge - Grindcore Lu'au
144. Wake - Devouring Ruin
145. Wake - Misery Rites
146. Wake - Sowing The Seeds Of A Worthless Tomorrow
147. Weak Flesh - A Bird In Hand
148. WVRM - Can You Hear The Wind Howl
149. WVRM - Colony Collapse
150. ACxDC - Satan Is King
6/10 from here on down.
151. Afgrund - The Dystopian
152. Agathocles - Mincer
153. All Pigs Must Die - Hostage Animal
154. Anal Cunt - 88 Songs
155. Anal Cunt - Another E.P.!
156. Anal Cunt - The Old Testament 1988-1991
157. Ass To Mouth - Degenerate
158. Axis Of Despair - Contempt For Man
159. Brujeria - Esto Es Brujeria
160. Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction
161. Corrupt Moral Altar - Mechanical Tides
162. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity
163. The Drip - The Haunting Fear Of Inevitability
164. Exhumed - Death Revenge
165. Fluids - Exploitative Practices
166. Internal Rot - Grieving Birth
167. Keitzer - Ascension
168. Keitzer - The Last Defence
169. Knelt Rote - Alterity
170. Knoll - Metempiric
171. Leng Tch'e - Razorgrind
172. Maruta - Remain Dystopian
173. Melt-Banana - Scratch Or Stitch
174. Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak
175. Milking The Goatmachine - Milking In Blasphemy
176. No/Más - Consume / Deny / Repent
177. Raised By Owls - Dreadful
178. Theories - Vessel
179. 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

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Comments: 7   Visited by: 50 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?
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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.
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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.
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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, Assück's Anticapital, Yacøpsæ'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?
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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?
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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?
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