Where they from?
Umeå, Sweden. I just looked up Umeå on Wikipedia and since they don’t have an NFL team, I think I’ll just point out how many high-level bands there are from this little Scandanavian burg: Meshuggah, Refused, Final Exit and Cult of Luna just to name a few. Goddamn, what a list of heavy hitters.
Why the hype?
Swedish grindcore, let’s talk about it. Sweden has long been famous for having an enormously influential death metal tradition (you know, where the one city uses melody and that other city uses the HM2 or whatever) but Sweden also has a just as storied legacy for grindcore, and that legacy can be described in one word: NASUM.
Yes, every Swedish grind band for the most part as been the progeny of the legendary Nasum, with most bands sort of celebrating their Nasum-ness by producing albums that though high in quality and precision, rarely pull of a lot of daring in terms of creativity or originality.
Enter GRID, who though still well-steeped in the Nasum tradition, have found a lot of ways to push the Swedish grindcore sound into new territory. Where as most Swedish grind utilizes dark melodies to minimal effect, Grid embrace it and by doing so often find themselves venturing into anthemic crust punk territory which just happens to hit’s this reviewer’s ear in just the right way during this otherwise dismal year of ours.
Latest release?
Livsleda. It’s really rare for me that I can say I’ll have a part of a grindcore song stuck in my head (let’s be honest, most of the shit coming out these days sucks) but last week I found myself in the middle of a work meeting with the ending riff of “Doomed” stuck in my head with all it’s dark majesty. This album has a few of those kind of moments on songs like “Disinformation=facts” and the absolutely stunning title track. I really have not felt like a grind album has had this sort of emotional impact since the last Gridlink record, and that was five years ago! Yeah, you definitely need to familiarize yourself with this band.
