Blast Worship: Suffering Quota

Where they from? Gronigen, Netherlands. According to a quick Wikipedia search, Gronigen is both the name of a municipality as well as the capital city of said principality in the northern part of the Netherlands. During WWII, Gronigen was the site of a battle between German and Belgian SS troops and the 2nd Canadien Infantry division in April of 1945, a surprising fact given how far the western allies had advanced into central Europe during that late stage of the war.

What do they sound like? A proto-typical European-sounding grindcore band who are pushing themselves to venture outside of the box. Think a less spastic Warfuck with more disharmonious moments.

Why the hype? I was thinking recently about the difference between American and European grindcore. American grindcore bands are usually made of people who cut their teeth in the hardcore scene and are playing grind because they are trying to push the sonic envelope, oftentimes wearing their influences on their sleeve with copious breakdowns and feedback. European grindcore definitely leans more towards the metallic side of the spectrum and is in many ways more adhering to the genre’s orthodoxies; you’ll never really hear of a “mosh-friendly” grind band from Scandinavia.

Both approaches have their pros and cons, with my main issue with Euro grind being that it is often limited in scope and not willing to take certain risks. Which is where Suffering Quota come in. Though I was somewhat familiar with their earlier work, I was pleasantly surprised to find that on their latest album they were trying to experiment with the European sound and at times taking certain influence from their American counterparts, most notably bands like Gridlink and Discordance Axis (fap fap fap).

Latest Release: Life In Disgust. I’m not gonna sit here and act like this is the most groundbreaking album in the world, but there are definitely a lot of moments here that stand out, especially when the band slows down and just sort of rides out some of the disharmonious melodies it conjures up. Also, it’s refreshing to hear a vocalist just screaming naturally rather than trying to sound tough or like he’s the fucking cookie monster.

Favorite Track: “Fear (Of History Repeating)” Remember that D Axis influence I mentioned earlier? Well it is perfectly executed right here and it is just absolutely fapworthy. This is like an automatic top 10 of my favorite songs of 2018: