What is Grindcore?

[Hammer of Might]

I know I probably sound stupid, but what exactly is the definition of grindcore music?

 

[Life Sucks]

That's a good question. I sometimes don't know what distinguished death metal from some grindcore. Grindcore songs are often short and very fast.

 

[ffanatic]

Grindcore came about from the merging of punk and death metal. Napalam Death are often credited as being the world's first grindcore band. Carcass began as an off-shoot of Napalm Death and they are often credited in pioneering goregrind, a style of grindcore with lyrical content being riddled with all the perservse sexuality and unthinkable violent imagery that would make a mother cringe.

Modern grindcore bands:
Dying Fetus
Pig Destroyer
Origin
Discordance Axis

Modern Goregrind bands:
Cannibal Corpse
Lord Gore
Exhumed
Mortician

 

[no country for old wainds]

Shit.

 

[Phrozenspite]

That's a good question. I sometimes don't know what distinguished death metal from some grindcore. Grindcore songs are often short and very fast.

uhh now grindcore and death metal are interchangable(thanks to goregrind among other bastard subgenres).... the gutteral and shriek vocals that are commonplace in death metal came from grindcore(as opposed to the more thrash style vocal of death, obituary and entombed)... also grindcore was heavily influenced by the hardcore punk scene of the 80s... it was basically concentrated blasts... Early Carcass and Napalm Death along with Repulsion should give you an idea.

 

[genocide roach]

hmm, interesting. ive always thought of origin and dying fetus as death metal. i definatly hear no punk!
~gR~

 

[Phrozenspite]

Death metal usually has a "groove" or some degree of melody to a riff or something... Grindcore forgoes all melody completely. with dying fetus i think if I remember right it has more to do with their lyrics making them Grindcore(not sure if i'm thinking of the right band i'm not a fan of them)

 

[Naggamanteh]

I agree, Dying Fetus isn't grindcore, it is brutal death metal. Just listen to the technical guitars, grindcore songs are much, much simpler. More often than not they sound like mess and require very little skill to play. Brutal death metal, however, is another story.

 

[no country for old wainds]

It doesn't matter whether Dying Fetus are grindcore or pop-punk, they suck even more than Six Feet Under.

 

[blakmetalemp]

Shit.

True.

 

[Spirit In Black]

Actually I think Deathgrind is a better descritption of Dying Fetus. They have characteristics of both genres. Breakdowns and extremely fast riffs like grindcore and medium paced riffs and longer song structures like Death metal.

 

[Life Sucks]

I agree, Dying Fetus isn't grindcore, it is brutal death metal. Just listen to the technical guitars, grindcore songs are much, much simpler. More often than not they sound like mess and require very little skill to play. Brutal death metal, however, is another story.

Hmm. I consider Cryptopsy grindcore, but I guess the guitars are too complex then.

 

[Demiurge]

Grindcore is derived of hardcore. It's often atonal, and almost always the riffing is composed of chromatic power cords. Drumming is fast with plenty of blasting and the songs are very short, often absurdly so. It's easily distinguished from death metal.

CC is NYDM, Dying Fetus is brutal death tinged with metalcore. Lyrics cannot qualify a group as grindcore.

 

[Life Sucks]

Pig Destroyer, early Carcass & Napalm Death, Nasum, Abaddon Incarnate, The Berzerker, etc. are grindcore I believe. People always label Cephalic Carnage grindcore, but I don't really think they are myself, and not only because most of their songs are much longer than a typical grindcore song.

 

[SculptedCold]

Cryptopsy and The Berzerker are definately not grindcore. hmmmm, given demiurge's quite specific and correct description, I still think it can be difficult to distinguish one from the other. Pig Destroyer??? I've never seen anyone who didn't say they were grindcore....and yet by your description demiurge, they're not. Also, Foetopsy, Enmity......I can't distinguish whether they're more grind or death.

 

[LuminousAether]

I wouldn't call Cephalic Carnage grindcore either. What do they call themselves, hydrogrind? Something silly like that.

The guys above got it right, grindcore is a mixture of death metal and hardcore. The terms death metal and grindcore are not interchangable, but brutal death and grindcore are very similar subgenres.

But...

The Locust are a grind band and they don't have much in common with death metal.

Nasum are a grind band and they have a huge amount in common with death metal.

So basically, you can run both ways. The Locust has a lot more in common with the spastic style of hardcore played by Daughters and The Blood Brothers, and Daughters can be called grind to some extent as well... but this just illustrates that grindcore is more varied than you would initially think. The Locust could never be called death metal with a straight face, yet I could see someone calling Nasum death metal... so the interchangability of the terms grindcore and death metal are limited at best.

 

[FailingAcension]

I think of grindcore as bands with really fast songs that are really short, and brutal. With not much melody, very indistinguashable vocals, and sometimes played sloppily. Archophobic Nosebleed (thats not even close) and Pig Destroyer are what I consider grindcore.

Think of Dying Fetus as Deathgrind. Maybe I made it up, but I think it fits. They rule, none the less.

 

[genocide roach]

since when has death metal had a groove? all my favorite DM bands are the exact opposite of that. odd times, choppy riffs, sort of spastic feel to it. ya know, stuff like cryptopsy, cephalic carnage and psypheria. but even take the DM that plays standard 4/4 and put them up to linkin park. linkin park has groove. suffocation and death are on a whole different planet. ive always described that sort of thing as a grind. because you cant bounce to it, you cant dance to it, you cant groove to it. its just sort of a pushing tempo that just keeps goin and goin, grinding along. sort of like a piece of metal hangin off the bottom of your car. its goin at a steady pace, but you arent gonna find a way to dance to it!
~gR~

 

[SculptedCold]

I find most every metal band I listen to (brutal death and deathgrind included) to be groovy. =) that's what the drums are there for man!!! =P

 

[ffanatic]

Grindcore is derived of hardcore. It's often atonal, and almost always the riffing is composed of chromatic power cords. Drumming is fast with plenty of blasting and the songs are very short, often absurdly so. It's easily distinguished from death metal.

CC is NYDM, Dying Fetus is brutal death tinged with metalcore. Lyrics cannot qualify a group as grindcore.

The original defintion of grindcore was the mixture of punk idealogy lyrically, and death metal musically. It has since expanded to the point where death/grind are, as someone said, virtually interchangeable.