Albert Mudrian
Choosing Death

Upon finishing the reading, I can't help but notice how fitting the subtitle is: "The Unlikely Story of Death Metal and Grindcore".

Unlikely is indeed the right adjective. Since 1987, the year of release of "Scum" by Napalm Death and "Scream Bloody Gore" by Death, to the present day, there have been so many bands involved in death and grind that it would have been impossible to tell the exhaustive story and discography of all those who truly deserved it.

The foreword by John Peel (R.I.P.) is delightful. Being a great music enthusiast at 360° (in his radio broadcasts, he hosted Atari Teenage Riot, Mira Calix, Pink Floyd, Beatles, Autechre, Joy Division, Nirvana, Bong-Ra, Doors, Napalm Death, Richie Hawtin, Carcass.....), he immediately understood that those bands, with their hyper-fast, distorted, and confused sound were turning small London pubs into little infernal circles, leaving an indelible mark on the history of music, and not just that.

The first chapters tell the genesis of those sounds, how in the hardcore and metal scene in the UK and the US, increasingly more young people found an album like "Reign In Blood" by Slayer "soft" and decided to go beyond, play faster, sing at the limits, and beyond, the intelligible, declare and live against Thatcherism and various Catholic-bourgeois conformisms. Thus, the birth and growth of bands like Napalm Death, Carcass, Extreme Noise Terror, Death, Morbid Angel, Terrorizer are examined under a microscope, also giving some space to those "minor" groups like Deep Wound, Siege, Heresy, Repulsion that significantly contributed to the evolution of those extreme sounds. The chapter dedicated to the Swedish school is also good, recounting the deeds of Unleashed, Carnage, Dismember, and Nihilist. Naturally, more attention is given to Entombed, which seems fair and just.

Continuing with the reading, however, I noticed a certain Earache dependency. Without wanting to detract from the importance of this label that up to a certain point in its history was entirely devoted to promoting extreme music, I think there was, and is, much more out there.

Indeed, there is also discussion of Relapse, Roadrunner, Nuclear Blast...but very little space is devoted to smaller bands and labels that are nonetheless important. Assuck isn't even mentioned, same with Rotten Sound, Brutal Truth, Nasum, Pig Destroyer, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Fear Factory appear fleetingly. Brujeria might not be to everyone's taste, hard to understand how, but it could be; still, don't you dedicate even a small paragraph to them?

Not to mention bands from the empire's periphery like the Astigian Cripple Bastards, the Spanish Machetazo, the Greek Rotten Christ (before the black turn).

In summary, everything revolves around Napalm, Carcass, Morbid, and Death (all groups I consider fundamental) and the rest is a bit of a sideline; a good sideline, but still a sideline, and I would have preferred a menu with less abundant main courses but more variety.

What seems to me the most serious omission is not bringing out what the spirit of Grind should be. The social context that generated it. To better explain what I think is missing in this book, I'll copy and paste, without any permission, an excerpt of what could be a Grind manifesto from the Myspace of the Romans Frank Drebin:

"Il grind rappresenta l'ultimo barlume dell'irrefrenabile gioia della DISTRUZIONE. Si tratta di un anti-musica coordinata a scavalcare tutto ciò che l'uomo, con sforzi millenari, si è prodigato a costruire in favore dell'armonia. E' l'ultima tappa, l'ultima battaglia, una TRINCEA sovraffollata, da soldati rinnegati che hanno perso le ultime sembianze di esseri umani. A rantoli esprimono la loro sofferenza d i loro disagi. Con grida mostruose ed incomprensibili attaccano ch li vuole vedere morti. Una MOSTRUOSA MUTAZIONE inarrestabile di quella che fu l'inimitabile iconoclastia del punk. Una vera e propria disciplina metodica. Un'arte marziale praticata a colpi di riff e doppia cassa. Un mortal kombat dove la mossa segreta è riuscire a dilatare al massimo l'esasperazione. Estetica del TORMENTO corrosiva. Una terapia unica, inbarattabile. Uno specchio capace di riflettere l'estetica di una passione e di un divertimento così insani da generare un piacere corporeo simile solo a quello che proviamo nel praticare la ginnastica più salutare. Uno yoga di matrice occidentale pronto a risvegliare mediante una ironia dissacratoria, l'esaltazione binaria del corpo e della mente. AGITARSI, SUONARE, SALTARE, il grind non va suonato ma EVOCATO come nel caso di una divinità misteriosa che non appartiene a questo mondo.....Il GRIND è l'improbabile colonna sonora di uno spettacolo teatrale post-moderno di ANTONIN ARTAUD....."

Nonetheless, the book is a pleasurable read. It doesn’t lack amusing anecdotes. It contains several photos and posters from the late ‘80s, early ‘90s. There is a well-done index of the most relevant figures. A good discography and, as mentioned earlier, it was probably impossible to be more exhaustive.

However....