Beaten To Death - Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis (2024)

Well, after what I've called their "emoviolence grind" album, Norwegian grinders Beaten To Death are back to their usual "technical and melodic" grind. Sunrise Over Rigor Mortis is unsurprisingly surprising, with bits from nearly every kind of metal thrown in the mix, but as usual with BTD the result is surprisingly cohesive and mostly sound like Beaten To Death. Another enjoyable album from our favourite "melotech" grinders!

The BC page.

 

Chepang - Swatta (2023)

Chepang fourth album, Swatta, see them going even further the innovative and technical grind road (reminding a bit Discordance axis / Gridlink) and it's an awesome album, and probably will be the most memorable (possibly also best) grind album of the year. They kept the chaotic sax element on some songs, but also wrote some more melodic and longer ones, invited plenty of guests on some others, and there's also a part experimenting AI songwriting. Fifty minutes of crazy and full of surprises grind. Would take me pages to properly review this album... I'll just sum it up in one word : WOW! 

The BC page.

 

Gridlink - Coronet Juniper (2023)

A new Gridlink album has always been a pleasure, but this time, with Coronet Juniper, it's extra special. Indeed, previous album Longhena was supposed to be their last one after guitarist Matsubara Takafumi get injured and thought he wouldn't be able to play guitar again. But they're back (Matsubara Takafumi, Bryan Fajardo on drums, Jon Chang on vocals and Mauro Cordoba  on bass), and, as it used to be, their grind is faster, more technical, and more melodic (even emo) at the same time. It's clearly not a nostalgic return, they can easily reclaim their place among the very best, most interesting and special, grind bands. 

The BC page.

 

My favourite grind releases in 2022

Been doing it for more than ten years now, and have no intention to stop any soon : here's a list of my favourite grind releases from 2022. Many "usual suspects", but also new bands.

Alphabetical order. Click to read my review.

 

 

Antigama - Whiteout 

Beaten to death - Laat maar, ik verhuis naar het bos

Bifid Corpse - REAL RAW DEATH

 

Blame God - Blame God

 

Bowelfuck - Appetite Comes With Killing

 

Gets Worse - Teen Wolf

 

Incinerated - Portraits of Serial Killers

 

Kill Division - Peace Through Tyranny

 

Sachtu/Syntax -  split EP

 

Shock withdrawal - Shock Withdrawal EP

 

Skullshitter - Goat Claw

 

Trauma Bond - Winter's Light

 

Triac - Pure Joy - Numb Grief​-​stricken Animals

 

Vermin Womb - Retaliation

 

Whoresnation - Dearth

 

Wormrot - Hiss 

 

Beaten to Death - Laat maar, ik verhuis naar het bos (2022)

There ain't a lot of bands that could be described as technical and progressive grindcore. Beaten is Death is among them, and likely the best active one. They use to toy (with talent and mastery) with a lot of different styles in their albums, but their new one Laat maar, ik verhuis naar het bos is more cohesive and would kinda be their "emoviolence album", and like anything they tried they do it sucessfully and it is a very solid and enjoyable album. Clearly one of the recent grind albums you need to listen to.

The BC page.

 

Antigama - Witheout (2022)

Witheout, the eight album from Antigama delivers another excellent piece of forward-thinking math-grind. Feeling a bit more straightforward and slower than The Insolent was, with a less catchy songwriting it will maybe stay as less memorable, even if I also like how they managed to develop this time a different atmosphere, less frenetic, more deliberate (but still super fast and angry!), dark and dystopic. Without confirms their place as the best technical and modern grind band. A strong contender for best grind album of 2022 !

The BC page.

 

Sachtu / Syntax - split EP (2022)

Nerve Altar, teamed this time with 7 degrees and Grindfathers Records, are always good to find new exciting grind bands, and this time we get two of them in a split EP. Sachtu from Madrid deliver some good ol' grindpunk while Syntax from LA are more in a tech/math grind vein, reminding bands like Discordance Axis or Antigama. We get two really different kinds of grind by two bands excellent at what they do. Nice!

The BC page.

Cognizant - Cognizant (2020)

Eight year and a half after its beginning, this is the 1 001th post on this blog. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoy doing it.

Ok, le'ts go back to reviewing...

Another innovative release from Nerve Altar. Cognizant is a technical death/grind (or maybe "math grind") band with Bryan Fajardo on the drums. Their first, self-titled album is more about crafting a weird, dissonant and futuristic atmosphere than about relentless blast beatings. The result is interesting and really well done. Quality stuff.

The BC page.

Bea$ters - Intrinsically Worthless (2018)

Bea$ters is a band from the US East coast, playing what we can call technical grind, Intrinsically Worthless, released last year is their second album (first one was good as well) and it's 10 minutes of high intensity technical grind but it's surpsisingly catchy. Really good stuff.

The BC page.