Grindcore, from the outside in. Each step is a genre and the single record this encyclopedia would put on first. Play them in this order and the last one should sound like a next step rather than a wall.
- 1 The way in
Heavy metal 1970
It split off from hard rock and blues rock when Black Sabbath tuned down and wrote riffs on the tritone. Volume, riff and a code of its own - every branch below starts here.
Sung. Melodic singing throughout.
Put on
Black Sabbath - the song Black Sabbath. The first thirty seconds are the genre's birth certificate.
Black Sabbath, Black Sabbath (1970) - 2 What you asked about
Grindcore 1985
Hardcore and death metal compressed into songs under a minute, with continuous blast beats. Napalm Death have a song that lasts one second.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Napalm Death - Scum. Side B, with Bill Steer on guitar, is the essential half.
Napalm Death, Scum (1987) - 3 Where to go next
Mincecore 1990
Deliberately primitive grindcore with blunt political messages and thousands of appearances on split releases.
Growled or shrieked. Unintelligible without a lyric sheet. The thing most newcomers bounce off.
Put on
Agathocles - Theatric Symbolisation of Life. The most accessible way in.
Agathocles, Theatric Symbolisation of Life (1992)
Assembled from the tree: every genre Grindcore descends from, in order. The last step is the gentlest of Grindcore's 3 subgenres - least harsh vocals first, then least heavy.