Grindcore is one of those fence-sitter genres. It wants to be punk, but it also wants to be metal.

Like crossover, a lot of bands from the movement draw on influence from both punk and metal genres, but both of those movements have their own overall goals.

Grindcore also shares themes and imagery with both punk and metal, from the horror and the occult (BLOOD, Carcass, Repulsion) to the political and social (Napalm Death, Brutal Truth, Terrorizer).

So, my question is: Is grindcore more metal than punk, or more punk than metal?

Qualities of punk music:

• Composition follows lyrics; often verse-chorus, some narrative
• Rhythmic, mechanical, blocky riffs guided by percussion

Qualities of metal music:

• Narrative, repeating, motif-based composition
• Speedy, organic, fluid riffs, esp. on lead instrument

Just tell us what you think in the comments.

Grindcore is violent, murderous music by people who care about the world. One could say it is anti-human, or non-anthrocentric, since it tends to veer away from human perspectives, like its brothers in death metal and black metal.

So, after we’ve covered the usual political topics, we have one left to consider, and it’s a tricky one:

Overpopulation.

Why is it tricky? Because in order to depopulate, people need to die. (So it goes). In order to have zero population growth, people will need their “freedom to reproduce” taken away. And not everyone will agree with this — a lot of people have the idea in the back of their head that humanity can continue on reproducing and growing, because science will find a way to allow us to go beyond our 7 billion people.

Anyone who speaks out against overpopulation and unchecked growth will be going against the herd, and outcasted.  But if anyone knows the history of grindcore musicians, they’re not afraid of being outcasted for what they truly believe in.

Something tells me this would be the perfect lyrical theme for a good song, too.

Overpopulation is the world’s top environmental issue, followed closely by climate change and the need to develop renewable energy resources to replace fossil fuels, according to a survey of the faculty at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF).

>ScienceDaily

The reality is that our Earth has a limited amount of resources to offer to humans, without destroying herself. For one, there needs to be enough land and fertilizer to go around to feed billions of mouths, and enough fresh water to grow those crops

But while that happens, millions of others starve. And because of unchecked population growth, those millions grow into billions of starving people. The land that those crops were growing on eventually loses the ability to produce its own nutrients, and becomes barren and desertified. So in essence, we’re digging deeper into a dry well.

Once that gut-reaction has kicked in, I then think of the horrible history of overpopulation predictions. Most famous, the 18th century demographer Thomas Malthus said mass starvation was inevitable because population increases geometrically while food production grows arithmetically. He didn’t anticipate the coming of the Industrial Revolution. His successors in the 1960s, such as Paul Ehrich and the Club of Rome, similarly didn’t see the Green Revolution that was galloping around the corner of history.

So it is tempting to say now that the overpopulation argument will smack into some new technological development. It’s not quite true to say there is a diminishing amount of resources, because the genius of human beings is to find new ways to use what is there. Two centuries ago, nobody could have conceived that the sun’s rays or the waves in the ocean were a resource to be used — but solar and tidal power make it so.

And yet, and yet … why do my own arguments leave me echoing with doubt? A dark voice in my head says: You would accept that, to pluck an absurd number, 100 billion people would be too many. You don’t think human genius is infinitely expansive; there is a limit to what it can solve. So isn’t the question just where you draw the line? If 100 billion is too much, why not 9 billion?

>Seattle Pi

The blissfully ignorant point at graphs and say “Oh look, there’s millions of people who aren’t in poverty and starving anymore,” neglecting to see that we’re still walking up the escalator that’s going down: the population of the people in above-poverty is staying proportionately the same to the people in poverty. But the total population still grows. It seems like we’re going somewhere, but we’re still stuck in the same rut, walking up the same steps.

Think of the earth’s resources as a pie, and that we live in a perfect world where everyone gets an equal slice without fighting. There’s four people, there’s four equally-large slices for them. There’s 12 people, there’s 12 modest slices for them. If there’s 800 people, there will be a ridiculous sliver for each of them.

Overpopulation is the elephant in the room, because when you bring it up, you’re essentially saying “there’s not enough room for everyone on this lifeboat.” But for the sake of everyone on it, do we let it sink and everyone on it die, or let a couple drown and continue to float on? This is a problem that genuinely concerns everyone!

The usual argument against population control is “UR A ELITIST EVERYONE IS EQUAL AND DESERVES A CHANCE. CONTROLLING POPULATION IS INHUMANE!!!”

Consider this: does anyone deserve the “chance” to be equally born into a crowded hellhole? Do we really want to do this to our children, leave them a burned out, dried-up Earth to our future generations? An Earth with a hazy atmosphere which burns your eyes, water and artificial food that is poisoned with industrial byproducts and hormones, and wars fought over dwindling precious resources?

Now tell us which direction is more inhumane.

Here’s a few more resources and articles on overpopulation:

Overpopulation Myths

Negative Population Growth

Next on the Environment Agenda: Population Control!

7 Environmental Problems That are Worse Than We Thought

I found this today on the Internet, and it made me think about the one unifying theme that grindcore tries to get through our thick ape-skulls: WE ARE SCREWED IF WE DON’T DO SOMETHING ABOUT OURSELVES!

It’s probably no coincidence that grindcore was born in this time. Even though it’s no easier than it is harder to live in these tumultuous times as in the past. The problems seem different than in the past, but the only thing that changed is context.

It’s the same problem humanity has had since life became easy: We lack self-control. Control over our thoughts, feelings and actions. We do what we think we want instead of what we really want, deep down, and we ignore the worst problems that are growing right beneath our noses, because instant gratification isn’t hard to come by these days.

Grindcore music exemplifies the chaos that comes out of this lack of self-control, the lack of self-control and responsibility of the individual, which is, quite possibly, the root of all of our problems. Look at most lyrical themes of grindcore bands (esp. Napalm Death) and you’ll see they are of a political mindset, but they are driven by the horrors we see in this day and age, and how they wish it could be changed.

There was an interesting video posted at deathmetal.org about the era Kali Yuga — the age of strife and instability, as described in ancient Hindu texts.

Considering the parallels between the description of Kali Yuga and the state of humanity in modern days, it’s difficult to say that it was just a myth.

So what is the solution? Realize life is short. Life is a rare thing in the universe, and we have to do something with our own lives, and take the reins over our superficial desires. Humanity needs to find its purpose, but we’re standing on each others’ feet if we keep using our technology for consumption and pointless hedonism, and believing “our purpose in life is our pleasure” instead of using it to discover our purpose and place in the universe! We’ll go extinct by then!

Humanity is more important than an individuals’ short term desires, because an individual is part of humanity! We’re all part of it. And if life means something to you, you need to do something instead of sitting around and sighing about all the problems.

If you want to help humanity, you must start with yourself, have some inner strength and self-discipline, and subconsciously, you’ll encourage others to do the same. Look at where you fit in with the world, and whether or not you can do something to make a difference.

…I’m probably preaching to the choir here. A lot of grindcore fans, crusties, and even metalheads can be very level-headed and active and helpful in their local communities, and there’s more of them out there getting into this mindset. But I’m just the messenger spreading the message here.

Napalm Death – Rise Above

[...]

Inner strength must detect
The love we each possess
Before we may reach
Appreciating it in anyone else

After all, grindcore is almost directly a derivative of crust punk, hardcore punk and thrash in the 1980’s — both of which were heavily politically-motivated genres as well. Many will point to Napalm Death, one of the main innovators in grindcore and see their use of political themes in their lyrics across nearly all of their albums. Some will even go so far as to tell you “grindcore is politics.”

But why is it that other innovators in grind, such as Repulsion, opted to maintain the “dark” themes that pervaded death metal (and would influence later “goregrind” creators Carcass)? After all, death metal and grindcore are so closely related, that not even lyrical themes can be the only criteria that set the two apart.

Perhaps the later grindcore artists saw the use of their music as political propaganda — and its clear intent to manipulate — as a detractor to their music as an artform and the overall experience they wished to express.

In theory, fans would become attracted to the music solely because of its political motivations, and not due to the music itself. It’s easy to nod your head to rhythmic music, even if it’s very noisy and unappealing, if it means instant inclusion into a social group. A leftist vegan grind band probably would’ve been considered “original” and “unique” decades ago, if the punks hadn’t done it before, and if the hippies hadn’t done it even further back.

While it would be great to get more people together to be politically active through music thing for an activist cause, political representation is highly unbalanced; grindcore bands tend only to support staunch modern leftist/democratic ideas, as remnants of the political motivations of the bands that influenced them before. And as I said before, it can potentially detract from the music itself — propaganda is not often seen as art. Bands that can be seen as overly preachy can be a huge turnoff to many.

Perhaps subtlety is the best recipe — a special recipe laced with politics that goes down unnoticed with the music, even with music that is as attention-grabbing and imposing as grind, it can’t hurt to be a little more subtle in approach.

In truth, politics lose their value because they are discussed so much on television, in schools, at work, and anywhere else. Ask anyone who once considered themselves a part of the punk/crust subculture. It helps to be politically aware, but both politics and music (or any artform, for that matter) lose any other value they had to begin with when they are deliberately mixed together, unless they are used sparingly or expressed in an indirect fashion, the latter being difficult to do successfully.

What is often seen as art is a truthful re-interpretation of reality. “Goregrind,” as crafted by the masterminds behind Carcass during the band’s early years, was not as politically-motivated, even though the musicians in particular were alumni of some highly politically-motivated bands — Bill Steer, once a guitarist of Napalm Death, and Jeffrey Walker, a former bassist of UK underground crust punk band Electro Hippies.

The idea behind Carcass’ music was to pair repulsive themes with repulsive sounds. Looking at that formula, it becomes easy to understand why you wouldn’t want to pair repulsive sounds with politics. With something as important as politics, you don’t want to associate it with theatrical horror.

But, perhaps Carcass’ music was still socially or politically motivated, but reinterpreted as allegory. One could view Carcass’ lyrics as a social critique, past or present, about the sickest things that latch onto society’s underbelly, where we can hardly see their horrors:

Grimly I dig up the turfs
To remove the corrupted stiffs
Trying to contain my excitement
As I desecrate graveolent crypts…
Fingers claw at coffin lids
Eager festal exhumation
Hugging your wry, festered remains
With posthumous joy and elation…
Body snatched, freshly interred
Whatever takes my fancy
To satisfy my gratuitous pica
My culinary necromancy…
Scrutinised then brutalized
My forensic inquisition is fulfilled
My recipe is now your epitaph
Be it fried, boiled or grilled…
I devour the pediculous corpse
Whetting my palate as I exhume
The festering stench of rotting flesh
Makes me drool as I consume…
Caskets I grate
My larder’s a grave
I’m sickly obsessed (with the badly decomposed)
Rotten remains I eat
Purulent meat
What a funeral feast (putrid reek)
Weeping tissue is stripped
Pus dribbles from my lips
Pulverising this pustular chaff
Butchering up morgues makes me laugh…
Ulcerated flesh I munch
Rotting corpses are my lunch
On bones I love to crunch (on the badly decomposed)
Shrivelled innards I lick
The corpse’s head I kick
Crumbling shreds I pick (eat the stiffs)
(Solo: morbid melody for the deceased with salt to taste)
Rancid flesh, slaughter the dead
- Caskets exhumed…
Corpses disenterred, graves disturbed
- To consume…
Bereaved relatives are not amused
As on their dear departed I feverishly consume…
Slavering worms, decomposure burns
Corrosion born, as bacteria gnaw
Desecrate…
Precipiate…(from the muddy grave)
Macerate…
Eviscerate…
Caskets I grate
My larder’s a grave
I’m sickly obsessed (with the badly decomposed)
Rotten remains I eat
Purulent meat
What a funeral feast (putrid reek)
Saponified fats, nibbled by rats
-Freshly exhumed…
Deep down six feet is where I like to eat
-Human flesh to consume…

The lyrics for their song Exhume to Consume were basically a very articulated, poetic description of a psychopath with a penchant for necrophagia: A subtle call to the audience to support vegan/vegetarianism (at least according to the band). There isn’t any inherent political themes here, but it is just one gross-out of a song for the sake of showing the listener that things like this aren’t outside the realm of reality.

Carcass injected this style with a grotesque, ironic sense of humor which, like the Misfits before them, turned 1950s style rock music into a parodic horror suggesting a society of pleasant illusions hiding a corrupt and more literal reality.

~Reek of Putrefaction review at Dark Legions Archive

The lyrics are almost laughable in a sense, until the dreadful soundtrack that accompanies the evocative lyrics reminds you that it isn’t. Carcass contrasted the absurd with the imminent.