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This List Really Grinds My Gears


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 Kampfhörspiele - 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. Assück - 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 Kampfhörspiele - Neues Aus Dem Halluzinogenozinozän
41. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Welt Ohne Werbung
42. The Kill - Kill Them... All
43. Lock Up - The Dregs Of Hades
44. Lymphatic Phlegm - Roughly Excised - Putrefindings, Morbidescriptions And Necrognoses
45. Nails - Unsilent Death
46. Naked City - Torture Garden
47. Napalm Death - The Code Is Red... Long Live The Code
48. Napalm Death - Harmony Corruption
49. Napalm Death - Throes Of Joy In The Jaws Of Defeatism
50. No One Knows What The Dead Think - No One Knows What The Dead Think
51. Owdwyr - Receptor
52. Pharmacist - Flourishing Extremities On Unspoiled Mental Grounds
53. Pig Destroyer - Prowler In The Yard
54. Pound - ••
55. Psudoku - Deep Space Psudokument
56. Psudoku - Planetarisk Sudoku
57. Sugar Wounds - Calico Dreams
58. Sugar Wounds - Mechanical Friends
59. Terrorizer - Caustic Attack
60. Terrorizer - World Downfall
61. Tithe - Penance
62. Tulip - Derangement, Exquisite Tenderness
63. Wormrot - Hiss
64. Wormrot - Voices
65. Agathocles - Grind Is Protest
7/10 from here on down.
66. Agathocles - Razor Sharp Daggers
67. All Pigs Must Die - Nothing Violates This Nature
68. Anal Cunt - 40 More Reasons To Hate Us
69. Anal Cunt - 5643 Song EP
70. Birdflesh - All The Miseries
71. Birdflesh - Extreme Graveyard Tornado
72. Brutal Blues - BB
73. Brutal Blues - Brutal Blues
74. Carbonized - Disharmonization
75. Caustic Wound - Death Posture
76. Cloud Rat - Pollinator
77. Cloud Rat - Threshold
78. Crisis Sigil - God Cum Poltergeist
79. Cult Leader - A Patient Man
80. Death Toll 80k - Step Down
81. Deathrite - Revelation Of Chaos
82. Dephosphorus - Impossible Orbits
83. Desecration - Gore And Perversion
84. Desecration - Murder In Mind
85. Endon - MAMA
86. Exhumed - Horror
87. Exhumed - Necrocracy
88. Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror
89. Extreme Noise Terror - Extreme Noise Terror / Driller Killer
90. Fawn Limbs - Darwin Falls
91. Fawn Limbs - Sleeper Vessels
92. Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation - Flagitious Idiosyncrasy In The Dilapidation
93. Fuck The Facts - Desire Will Rot
94. Full Of Hell - Trumpeting Ecstasy
95. Full Of Hell - Weeping Choir
96. Gaza - I Don't Care Where I Go When I Die
97. Gigantic Brain - Gigantic Brain
98. Gigantic Brain - They Did This To Me
99. Gravesend - Gowanus Death Stomp
100. The HIRS Collective - We're Still Here
101. Implore - Black Knell
102. Japanische Kampfhörspiele - Blaskapelle Bürgermeister Bratwurst Bier Geschenkekorb Bibelstelle Bumskabine Bienensterben Völkermord
103. Knoll - Interstice
104. Last Days Of Humanity - Horrific Compositions Of Decomposition
105. Lifetaker - Der Letzte Raum
106. Lock Up - Demonization
107. Looking For An Answer - Dios Carne
108. Meth Leppard - Woke
109. Morgue Supplier - Inevitability
110. Mortician - Hacked Up For Barbecue
111. Napalm Death - Apex Predator - Easy Meat
112. Napalm Death - Diatribes
113. Napalm Death - Greed Killing
114. P.L.F. - Jackhammering Deathblow Of Nightmarish Trepidation
115. Parlamentarisk Sodomi - Har Du Sagt "A" Får Du Si "Nal"
116. Pig Destroyer - Head Cage
117. The Plasmarifle - While You Were Sleeping The World Changed In An Instant
118. Rotten Sound - Apocalypse
119. A Scanner Darkly - A Scanner Darkly
120. Septic Tank - Rotting Civilisation
121. Stillbirth - Annihilation Of Mankind
122. Suffering Quota - Suffering Quota
123. Teethgrinder - Dystopia
124. Teethgrinder - Misanthropy
125. Teethgrinder - Nihilism
126. Trap Them - Blissfucker
127. Trap Them - Crown Feral
128. Ultra Vomit - Panzer Surprise
129. Unrest - Grindcore
130. Vermin Womb - Decline
131. Vermin Womb - Permanence
132. Wadge - Grindcore Lu'au
133. Wake - Devouring Ruin
134. Wake - Misery Rites
135. Wake - Sowing The Seeds Of A Worthless Tomorrow
136. Weak Flesh - A Bird In Hand
137. WVRM - Can You Hear The Wind Howl
138. WVRM - Colony Collapse
139. ACxDC - Satan Is King
6/10 from here on down.
140. Afgrund - The Dystopian
141. Agathocles - Mincer
142. All Pigs Must Die - Hostage Animal
143. Anal Cunt - 88 Songs
144. Anal Cunt - Another E.P.!
145. Anal Cunt - The Old Testament 1988-1991
146. Ass To Mouth - Degenerate
147. Axis Of Despair - Contempt For Man
148. Brujeria - Esto Es Brujeria
149. Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction
150. Corrupt Moral Altar - Mechanical Tides
151. Dephosphorus - Ravenous Solemnity
152. The Drip - The Haunting Fear Of Inevitability
153. Exhumed - Death Revenge
154. Internal Rot - Grieving Birth
155. Keitzer - Ascension
156. Keitzer - The Last Defence
157. Knelt Rote - Alterity
158. Knoll - Metempiric
159. Leng Tch'e - Razorgrind
160. Maruta - Remain Dystopian
161. Melt-Banana - Scratch Or Stitch
162. Melt-Banana - Speak Squeak Creak
163. Milking The Goatmachine - Milking In Blasphemy
164. No/Más - Consume / Deny / Repent
165. Raised By Owls - Dreadful
166. Theories - Vessel
167. 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: 47 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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