The Batlord

Yeah, like it says on the tin (British slang > American slang), I just got an actual pair of headphones for the first time in years a few days ago. They only cost $30, which makes them better than those POS earbuds you get with an iPod, but still nothing special. Since they're headphones, they immerse your ears with sound in a way that speakers don't, but since mine are still kind of cheap not every sound is equal. So, I've been listening to stuff that I didn't used to and avoiding bands that I wouldn't have before, just because they don't quite sound as good on these babies.

Biggest thing is that music with heavier/fuzzier/more distorted/more full productions is ruling my ears ATM. I used to hate modern grindcore, and only had time for a few older bands, but now all of a sudden I'm hearing bands like Nasum, Gridlink, and Phobia in an entirely new way -- and older bands that I dug, like early Napalm Death and Repulsion, just don't quite have the punch I'm looking for anymore. Much of the last two or three days have pretty much been spent listening to and discovering grindcore almost every hour I haven't been asleep.


Nasum sound kind of like the poster boys for modern grind: lightning fast everything, highly distorted, and almost mechanical precision. They're the band I turned to first, and their sheer intensity pretty much ruined me for anything "lighter". I can't say I have favorite songs, as they all sound the same and I'm not used to this kind of music enough to really be able to notice anything but a blur of noise. I just love them as a thirty minute hail of ear rape.





Gridlink are likewise fantastic. They actually have a relatively clean production for grind. They rely on the sheer unmatched intensity of their playing and the insane complexity of their music to hit you with the surgical precision of a scalpel. They only have three albums, and as they go on you can actually hear them develop and oddball musicality that is at odds with and yet somehow complements the aural assault. It's like melody without the melody.





Phobia are pretty fantastic too. They're kind of meatheads though. They have songs like "Death to False Punks" and "Loud, Proud, and Punk as Fuck" that just make me think of the Exploited. SMH. But they're like the perfect deathgrind band, and just kick so much ass.





And as far as insane production goes, I tip my Bat-hat to Rotten Sound. It's just so dense and abrasive. Like that buzzsaw, Swedish death metal production on steroids. **** me they sound good.





Major props to Fuck the Facts too. They're grind with an obtuse, experimental mathcore edge to them that really separates them from the kind of 1:30 generic grind you expect even from the best bands.





On the other side you've got Magrudergrind, who are scuzzy and punk as ****. Kind of like a less death metal Terrorizer with that raw groove they got going on -- but played at double-speed.





When I'm all grinded (ground?) out, I got time for my new fav hardcore band, Cursed. They've got a heavy sludge metal influence that just makes them sound massive, while still having that punk energy. They go anywhere from sludged-out hardcore, to crust punk that's almost grind, and even bring it down to Eyehategod levels of sludge doom slowness at times.





Then of course there's also going back to ol' and relatively new favs, like Converge, Arkangel, Electric Wizard, and Today Is the Day.






I've probably listened to more music and more new bands than I have in months, all because of just a slight change in how I'm listening to it/them. I love how even the smallest change in musical perspective can make everything seem fresh. Makes listening to music a tad fun every now and again.

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