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.

Electro Hippies are an oft-overlooked group that was very underground and short-lived, lasting only 4 years since their inception in 1985, and are usually only noted for having Jeff Walker of later Carcass fame as their bassist.

The Hippies’ music was no-nonsense crust punk: the exposed, fleshless bones of grindcore. Protesting with sonic power the evils of groups such as McDonald’s and embracing your typical, wholesome DIY values.

The Only Good Punk gives us a look at the influences surrounding the Hippies at the time. They released a split 7″ with Napalm Death, both tracks being jokish 1-second micro-songs.

© Peaceville, 1987

Track Listing:

1. Faith (0:39)
2. Acid Rain (2:53)
3. Run Ronald (0:40)
4. Scum (1:05)
5. B.P. (0:47)
6. Unity (1:59)
7. Terror Eyes (2:40)
8. So Wicked (0:46)
9. Profit (0:54)
10. Freddy’s Revenge (1:47)
11. Mistake (0:43)
12. Things Of Beauty (4:05)
13. Protest (0:30)
14. Gas Joe Pearce (0:54)
15. Lies (1:55)
16. Tortured Tears (1:31)
17. Turkeys (0:56)
18. D.I.Y. (1:01)
19. Suck (0:42)
20. Deception (2:53)
21. Could You Look Me In The Eyes (1:42)
22. Sometimes I’m So Glad (2:03)
23. At The Edge (1:02)
24. Reject (1:26)
25. Escape (0:58)
26. Mega Armageddon Death (0:05)
27. Mother (Live) (2:16)
28. Faith (Live) (0:22)
29. Unity (Live) (1:58)
30. Sheep (Live) (1:22)
31. City (Live) (0:55)
32. Acid Rain (Live) (2:52)
33. Run Ronald (Live) (0:32)
34. Chickens (Live) (0:41)
35. So Wicked (Live) (1:02)
36. Profit (Live) (1:06)
37. Meltdown (Live) (1:51)
38. Mega Armageddon Death (Live) (0:07)
39. Mega Armageddon Death Extended (Live) (0:24)
40. Silver Machine (Live) (3:49)

Most of the tracks themselves are punky, simple, but show a semblance of riff organization to be found in later grindcore bands and songs by the masters of crust-metal, Amebix. Not just that, but the tracks bleed into one another (especially Acid Rain/Run Ronald/Scum), with the dying gasp of one track’s end seeding the life of the next, which could be unintentional, but is notable anyway.

It’s difficult to sit through the entire album, but this compilation has the best of the Electro Hippies, so you’re free to skip around some of the slower tracks.

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.