It’s Monday and Mondays suck, so let’s grind it out with my top five favorite grind-related albums of 2017.
2017 has been something else. I did a brief wrap up of my thoughts on it that can be summarized as: everything around me is insane. So, yeah, I’ve been yucking it up. And in the meantime, The Monday Grind turned a year old sometime in September.
The purpose of the column has always been, and will always be, to post something grinding and frothing that can get you through the (Mon)day. Additionally, I’ve covered some fastcore and plenty of powerviolence this year. The genres are married in a way though not necessarily interchangeable. Regardless, I’m lumping those in to my favorite releases of the year.
I’m not much for lengthy introductions (much like grind), so without further ado….
5. Terminal Nation – Absolute Control
I admit it, I have a weakness for old Spazz/Infest/Siege sounding stuff. And Terminal Nation hit the nail on the head at every turn. From the vocals to the arrangements, Absolute Control is a jarring, hardcore/punk/powerviolence banger with a dash of grind here and there. It’s an EP that’s truly rooted in the punk ebb and flow. It’s brief and so old-school you’d swear it was ripped straight from the 80s.
4. The Heads Are Zeros – The Heads Are Zeros
Here’s a band I didn’t have the time to feature and that’s my fault. These Baltimore, MD grinders are noisy as hell. Almost like if Cloud Rat were way more technical. This album is incredibly well composed, merging plenty of meter changes, and chugging sections into progressive builds and hyper blasts. To a degree, it’s the Fuck the Facts album that wasn’t released this year, but it’s still its own thing. There are no song titles, just a flow that reminds me of the best written novels: you wanna stick with it because you wanna know what happens next.
- Seminary – Automnymous
“[I]magine a marriage of Gridlink and Idylls. Take the chaos of the later but discard the post-punk aspects and replace all those with the tech-grind of Gridlink. With that, you’d get something like Seminary’s Automnymous. The album is ultimately unique, but probably not the kind of grind you’re used to. But maybe right now, it’s the kind of grind you need on a Monday.”
-The Monday Grind 7/3/17
2. Stimulant – Stimulant
If you read my top albums of the year list, you’ll know Stimulant landed on the list. I’ve written about this album a few times now and I can never get enough of it. Noisy, grinding powerviolence from members of Water Torture. This album is a monster start to finish. It never dwells on anything for too long and knows exactly when to switch things up. Violently twisted.
1. Hummingbird of Death – Forbidden Techniques
I gushed about this album savagely. Hummingbird of Death has almost always been a band of speed. Alongside Xbrainiax (RIP), they’ve written one of fastcore’s best records. It’s been turning heads as it deserves to. The album a bonanza of speed, slower sections and maniac instrumentation. It’s an album that grabs you listen after listen after listen and never lets go. It is one of the most exciting things I’ve heard all year. A shame I had already submitted my top 15 before this dropped.
