Grief – “Come to Grief”

Sludge OGs reinvent miserable

The rumbling started slowly. It rose from the east as a mighty tornado came to a stop. In the tornado’s silence the earth shook with a massive, slow-moving vibration. Finally, thunder: The beast had arisen.

The tornado was legendary crust punks Disrupt, who broke up in November 1993 following a European tour. The rumbling was Boston’s Grief, made up of a bunch of ex-members of Disrupt, taking things in a decidedly different direction: While that band pummeled fast and short, Grief were going slow and long. Very slow, and very long. And very heavy.

Grief put out a few EPs and splits and then, in August of 1994, took a break from playing shows to 15 people in Boston to hit the studio to record their monster of a debut full-length, Come to Grief, eight intense, slug-paced sludge/doom songs unleashed before sludge/doom had really taken off. The band found themselves a home within the punk/hardcore/power violence scenes more than in the metal scene, most likely due to the Disrupt connection. However, the album was, somewhat oddly, released on Century Media, who indeed were bankrolling albums by sludge mavens Eyehategod at the time, but were mainly focusing on much slicker forms of metal. The alliance didn’t last long, but it left behind this behemoth of an album.

Got to get more Grief? To read the entire seven-page story, featuring interviews with all members on Come to Grief, purchase the print issue from our store, or digitally via our app for iPhone/iPad or Android.