Grind Your Mind - Mind Ripper Collective

After starting out as a show promoter, bringing fast and heavy music to Edinburgh (as well as featuring the artist behind my digital download comp "Reverberations Vol 1" in 2013, Mind Ripper Collective started spitting out disgustingly noisy powerviolence at the end of last year. This feature gathers together the label's first releases, as well as taking a look at the soon to be released Spazz tribute comp and even a new song from one of the bands on their roster. I've also elected to include a couple of releases that are linked, but weren't released by MRC. So, sit back and try not to move (I dare ya!). 

Wolfe/Fifteen Dead - Split 7"

Tracklist:

1. Wolfe - XIV

2. Wolfe - VII

3. Fifteen Dead - AntiTheist

This split was originally released in 2013 and features Fifteen Dead (Scottish crusty noise makers that featured members of current MRC bands) and Wolfe (whom I can't really find any info on). The reason for this 7"s inclusion in this feature is that it forms part of the "collective" jigsaw that makes up Mind Ripper Collective.

Wolfe spread their contribution over two tracks and opener XIV is as primitive as you’d like! Stop/start instruments, high-pitched shrieks and buzzsaw guitars make their blackened-grind sound pretty terrifying. They flail even faster on VII, which lasts just over ninety-seconds and harks back to grind’s early days and bands like Electro Hippies and of course Spazz. In fact, this very feature took it’s name from a CD compilation I picked up about eight year ago featuring those bands and many more of the genre’s early protagonists. Fifteen Dead are a different prospect on AntiTheist. Starting with an acoustic intro that morphs into noise. Soon after, they settle into a mid-paced groove that’s almost goth-like. That doesn’t last long though and things soon head back into more familiar territory. Fifteen Dead are less chaotic but no less noisy. Their anthemic crust containing layers of hardcore. It’s over pretty quickly but both bands present stark atmospheres and provide an insight into what to expect from MRC in the future.

Fifteen Dead Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/fifteendead

Wolfe - M.I.A

Endless Swarm - Lobotomy Tape

Tracklist:

1. Transorbital

2. Lobotomy

3. Drone Control

4. Distorted Reality

5. Jonestown Delirium

6. Force Fed

7. Japanese Buzzsaw

8. Master Cleanser

9. No Hope

10. Benoit

11. Borehole

I recently saw Endless Swarm alongside fellow scots Boak in Leeds, supporting the mighty Magrudergrind as part of an all-day grind gig. I was a bit pissed and they were awesome! They're part of a new wave of powerviolence bands to come out of Scotland recently and they're certainly putting it on the map. Heck, they're gonna be sharing the stage with Cloud Rat in Edinburgh this July! Chances are, some of you who read this will have caught them on their recent tour with Brainshit, so will aleady know about them. Their EP, Lobotomy, was released right at the end of last year and there's even been a second run pressed. Again, this wasn't actually released by MRC but is related.

You know what you’re getting with powerviolence by now, but that doesn’t make it any less fun. Endless Swarm fill their's with all kinds of weird noise and electronics, in a kind of Full Of Hell crossed with Sloth Hammer kind of way. EP opener Transorbital perfectly sums that opening gambit up with the addition of a pretty stark sample explaining how to do perform a violent full-frontal lobotomy. They follow with thirty seconds of bass-heavy, dual vocalised mayhem on their title-track. Their sound is raw and infectious, with longer songs like Drone Control filled with a mix of changing time-signatures and riffs. They throw death-metal growls into the stupidly catchy Distorted Reality. Jonestown Delirium features a haunting sample from the massacre itself and something tells me that the song is anti-religious in it’s angry message. Endless Swarm don’t just play brief blasts of grind though, they also do slow sludge well. Force Fed is full of it and gives Lobotomy an evil edge, especially when it descends into mayhemic white noise. It ends with another portion of that graphic sample, before Endless Swarm spit out their own three-second fit of noise in the form of Japanese Buzzsaw before blasting you into submission on Master Cleanser. They sum up the feelings of the majority on No Hope, which has one of the best breakdowns this side of Magrudergrind themselves! All metal and grind fans enjoy a bit of Wrestling and Endless Swarm recognise this with the inclusion of penultimate song Benoit. They conclude Lobotomy with the pensive, noise-laden Borehole. It’s always interesting (at least to me anyway) to hear the beginnings of bands like Endless Swarm. They are really good live and equally on tape. You can have your beatdown and your crowd-killing. I’m happy right here with powerviolence.

Endless Swarm Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EndlessSwarm

Godhole - S/T Double EP

Tracklist: 

Side A - 

1. Glorious Rotten

2. Emerald Youngster

3. Atrocious Forgotten

4. Diamond Scar

5. Eternal Poisonous

6. Ruby Bizarre

7. Never Healing Gold

Side B - 

8. Glorious Rotten

9. Emerald Youngster

10. Atrocious Forgotten

11. Diamond Scar

12. Eternal Poisonous

13. Ruby Bizarre

14. Never Healing Gold

This double EP marked the first release proper from MRC. It features ex-members of Fifteen Dead and is a bit of a unique release. On side A, Godhole presents powerviolence and on side B noise, but as you've probably already noticed, the songs titles are the same on both. Godhole's double EP was released on both 7" and tape late last year. 

Godhole take noisy powerviolence to a whole new level. Their double debut EP is a massive sign of intent. They’re an inventive bunch too. Side A’s openers Glorious Rotten and Emerald Youngster come and go as quickly as you can say them, yet the twenty-eight seconds of Atrocious Forgotten seem to last an age, such is the breathtaking amount of blasts and riffs that they infuse it with. The bass that rumbles at the start of Diamond Scar heralds something altogether different. A sombre and sometimes mournful slab of low-slung sludge mixed with mid-paced blackened hardcore. That sombre atmosphere is soon banished as Godhole retreats back into the rage-fuelled grind they begun with. Eternal Poisonous is just absolutely crazed, as is Ruby Bizarre, with it’s off-kilter delivery. Side A closes with Never Healing Gold, which sounds like the bastard offspring of old-school death metal and fastcore. The sound and overall production of the EP is really engaging and strangely addictive too. Side B takes Godhole in a different direction. The same songs are reworked in pure noise form. Glorious Rotten seems to take on a sci-fi persona, with screams that are swallowed up by white noise and menacing melody. Emerald Youngster is more ambient and spacey. The alternate version of Atrocious Forgotten sounds like an industrial machine going into meltdown. Diamond Scar swirls to the sound of echoing acoustic guitar and sounds starkly beautiful because of it. As you’d expect, the songs on Side B are longer for the most part. Godhole work strange progression and oriental vibes into Eternal Poisonous, before you’re pretty much frightened to death by the deafening sub thirty-seconds of feedback on Ruby Bizarre. The powerful soundclash on Never Healing Gold goes straight for the synapse. It’s genuinely terrifying, but at the same time cathartic. Godhole is definitely a band to look out for if you’re into extreme noise and with new songs already on the way. things are looking good.

Godhole Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/godholepv

Endless Swarm/Brainshit - Split

Tracklist:

1. Endless Swarm - Isolation Process

2. Endless Swarm - Tin Foil Hat

3. Endless Swarm - Hollow Victory

4. Endless Swarm - P.V.S

5. Endless Swarm - Blistered

6. Endless Swarm - Stench

7. Brainshit - Clones

8. Brainshit - Nothing

9. Brainshit - Waste

10. Brainshit - Poser-Caust

11. Brainshit - Scourge

To coincide with the recent jaunt around the UK, Endless Swarm and their noisy comrades Brainshit put this split out via MRC. The split was released on tape in March. Brainshit have played on some solid line-ups recently, alongside the likes of Corrupt Moral Altar, Pyrrhon and Despise You to name a few. Brainshit are another band that's new to me just like Godhole were, so a quick shout out to MRC for bringing them to my attention.

Endless Swarm sound a lot more on the raw side here. I mean, they sounded bloody heavy on Lobotomy, but I think the sludgy guitar and the vocals used on Isolation Process sound a lot dirtier. Tin Foil Hat is a genius song title and I can’t quite tell what the lyrics are, but I think it’s about the obtrusiveness of the Government. This split gets my seal approval due to the use of The Simpsons sample on Hollow Victory. The blasts that fill P.V.S are utterly mental and they follow on through Blistered, making both tracks essential listening. Stench seems murkier somehow, but the energy it contains is no less intense. The screams sound like rabid chainsaws and the riffs behind the vocals are massive! Endless Swarm are one of the most addictive PV bands I’ve heard in ages; however, if you thought they were fast ad loud then you haven’t heard Brainshit. They blast through Clones and Nothing with absurd pace, yet they manage to fit a lot into them. Likewise on Waste, which sounds like somebody pressed fast-forward during a Pyrrhon song. Poser-Caust starts with an expletive filled sample (probably featuring some Brit Pop band member that I should know of) slagging off heavy music, before Brainshit pour scorn over the dude by doing what they do best. Scourge arrives far too quickly yet is their longest addition to the split. It’s also the craziest song they play, with the mix of high-pitched vox and low death growls set to a backdrop of rumbling guitar and blindingly fast drums. This split provide a compelling reason to get behind UK grind and powerviolence. While it might be fashionable in the face of the efforts being made by our US cousins, both Endless Swarm and Brainshit are bands to make noise about (excuse the pun). 

Endless Swarm Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/EndlessSwarm
Brainshit Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/brainshitgrind

Now as if all of that wasn't enough fast for you, pre-orders have recently gone up for a 12" tribute to Spazz, which features 26 grind/PV bands from around the world. It's available to stream and pre-order here -

And before I run out of breath, there's also this incredible preview track for the up-coming collab 7" between Godhole and noise/power-electronics artist Crozier (also of Vile Noise Records).

Everything I've reviewed above is available for streaming and digital/physical purchase from the Mind Ripper Collective Bandcamp page above.

Mind Ripper Collective Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/mindrippercollective