METAL RULES

Various Artists
Grind Madness at the BBC

February 2010
Released: 2009, Earache Records
Rating: 4.5/5
Reviewer: Aaron Yurkiewicz

John Peel was rare presence within the music industry. A champion for original and unconventional music, Peel introduced the world to countless up and coming artists from all genres through his groundbreaking BBC Radio 1 program (Black Sabbath, Thin Lizzy, Queen, Budgie, just to name a few). Peel would often invite these artists into his studio to record live performances for broadcast on his show, dubbed “Peel Sessions.” These recording sessions captured the raw essence of some truly remarkable bands, and in the process, gave them some tremendous national exposure.

Between 1987 and 1990, Peel would cement a legacy with fans of extreme music by recording sessions with some of Earache Records’ preeminent roster. During their formative years, Napalm Death, Carcass, Heresy, Godflesh, Intense Degree, Bolt Thrower, and Extreme Noise Terror would all go on to record with Peel, with some even releasing these sessions through Peel’s own Strange Fruit label. These recordings captured the unbridled energy and angst of these bands in their infancy, but most have been long out of print. Thankfully, Earache Records has secured the rights to these sessions and have released them again in one phenomenal 3-CD package, GRIND MADNESS AT THE BBC. With 118 tracks of unrelenting grind in its purest and most primeval form, there’s a ton of great material here that any self respecting fan of the genre should own.

Did I mention that there’s a ton of great material here? Disc 1 contains all three Napalm Death Peel Sessions recorded between 1987 and 1990 (featuring both the Lee Dorrian and Barney Greenway versions of the band) as well as both Extreme Noise Terror sessions from ’87 and ’90. Disc 2 features SYMPHONIES OF SICKNESS-era Carcass, and is a great reminder for anyone who may have forgotten just how brutal this band could be. Even before Michael Amott joined the ranks, this young three-piece version of Carcass was combining speed, gore, and melody like no one else in the scene. Those who may actually remember the Carcass PEEL SESSIONS will remember that it was a four song EP, so kudos to Earache for digging up the additional four songs from that session for inclusion here. Disc 2 closes out with two sessions from Bolt Thrower, one with original vocalist Allen West and one with Karl Willets.

Disc 3 is a lesson in Earache history. Godflesh opens the disc with four punishing tracks from the STREETCLEANER album, which are even more intense than their studio counterparts, and wraps up with Unseen Terror, Heresy, and Intense Degree. Who are they you ask? These three bands were responsible for some of Earache’s earliest releases (#’s 4, 2, and 9 respectively) and were a huge influence on the later bands that would join the label’s roster. These bands in particular have more of a crust-punk edge than one would associate with modern grind, but that was exactly where the genre evolved from – crusty, punk music that eventually got faster and angrier.

I can’t say enough good things about GRIND MADNESS AT THE BBC. This is an amazing retrospective piece that’s absolutely worth the purchase. Even if you’ve owned these before or still have the cassette versions lying around somewhere, the sound quality and packaging (complete with liner notes from Napalm Death’s Mick Harris) make it worthwhile to revisit. Older fans will dig it for the nostalgia factor and new fans will dig it because these songs still destroy 20 years after the fact.

Track Listing

Tracklisting CD 1:

01 Napalm Death - The Kill
02 Napalm Death - Prison Without Walls
03 Napalm Death - Dead
04 Napalm Death - Deceiver
05 Napalm Death - Lucid Fairytale
06 Napalm Death - In Extremis
07 Napalm Death - Blind To The Truth
08 Napalm Death - Negative Approach
09 Napalm Death - Common Enemy
(Above recorded 13/08/87, broadcast 22/08/07)

10 Napalm Death - Obstinate Direction
11 Napalm Death - Life?
12 Napalm Death - You Suffer Pt.2
13 Napalm Death - Multi National Corporations
14 Napalm Death - Instinct Of Survival
15 Napalm Death - Stigmatized
16 Napalm Death - Parasites
17 Napalm Death - Moral Crusade
18 Napalm Death - Worlds Apart
19 Napalm Death – M.A.D.
20 Napalm Death - Divine Death
21 Napalm Death – C.S.
22 Napalm Death - Control
23 Napalm Death - Walls
24 Napalm Death - Raging In Hell
25 Napalm Death - Conform Or Die
26 Napalm Death – S.O.B.
(Above recorded 08/03/88, broadcast 20/04/88)

27 Napalm Death - Unchallenged Hate
28 Napalm Death - Mentally Murdered
29 Napalm Death - From Enslavement To Obliteration
30 Napalm Death - Suffer The Children
31 Napalm Death - Retreat To Nowhere
32 Napalm Death - Scum
33 Napalm Death - Deceiver
34 Napalm Death - Social Sterility
(Above recorded 12/08/90, broadcast 10/09/90)

35 Extreme Noise Terror - False Profit
36 Extreme Noise Terror - Another Nail In The Coffin
37 Extreme Noise Terror - Use Your Mind
38 Extreme Noise Terror - Carry On Screaming
39 Extreme Noise Terror - Human Error
40 Extreme Noise Terror - Conned Through Life
41 Extreme Noise Terror - Only In It For The Music Part 2
42 Extreme Noise Terror - Take The Strain
(Above recorded 10/11/87, broadcast 17/11/87)

43 Extreme Noise Terror - Murder
44 Extreme Noise Terror - No Threat
45 Extreme Noise Terror - Show Us You Care
46 Extreme Noise Terror - Propaganda
47 Extreme Noise Terror - System Enslavement
48 Extreme Noise Terror - Only In It For The Music Part 3
(Above recorded 01/05/88, broadcast 11/05/88)

49 Extreme Noise Terror - Work For Never
50 Extreme Noise Terror - Subliminal Music (Mind Control)
51 Extreme Noise Terror - People Not Profit
52 Extreme Noise Terror - Punk Fact Or Faction
53 Extreme Noise Terror - I Am A Bloody Fool
54 Extreme Noise Terror - In It For Life
55 Extreme Noise Terror - Deceived
56 Extreme Noise Terror - Shock Treatment
(Above recorded 06/02/90, broadcast 08/03/90)

Tracklisting CD 2:

01 Carcass - Crepitating Bowel Erosion
02 Carcass - Slash Dementia
03 Carcass - Cadaveric Incubator Of Endo Parasites
04 Carcass - Reek Of Putrefaction
(Above recorded 13/12/88, broadcast 02/01/89)

05 Carcass - Empathological Necroticism
06 Carcass - Foeticide
07 Carcass - Fermenting Innards
08 Carcass - Exhume To Consume
(Above recorded 02/12/90, broadcast 16/12/90)

09 Bolt Thrower - Forgotten Existence
10 Bolt Thrower - Attack In The Aftermath
11 Bolt Thrower - Psychological Warfare
12 Bolt Thrower - In Battle There Is No Law
(Above recorded 03/01/88, broadcast 13/01/88)

13 Bolt Thrower - Drowned In Torment
14 Bolt Thrower - Eternal War
15 Bolt Thrower - Realm Of Chaos
16 Bolt Thrower - Domination
(Above recorded 06/11/88, broadcast 16/11/88)

17 Bolt Thrower - Destructive Infinity
18 Bolt Thrower - Warmaster
19 Bolt Thrower - After Life
20 Bolt Thrower - Lost Souls Domain
(Above recorded 22/07/90, broadcast 04/09/90)

Tracklisting CD 3:

01 Godflesh - Tiny Tears
02 Godflesh - Wound (Not Wound)
03 Godflesh - Pulp
04 Godflesh - Like Rats
(Above recorded 27/08/89, broadcast 27/09/89)

05 Unseen Terror - Incompatible
06 Unseen Terror - Burned Beyond Recognition
07 Unseen Terror - Oblivion Descends
08 Unseen Terror - Divisions
09 Unseen Terror - Voice Your Opinion
10 Unseen Terror - Strong Enough To Change
11 Unseen Terror - Odie’s Revenge
12 Unseen Terror - It's My Life
(Above recorded 22/03/88, broadcast 11/04/88)

13 Heresy - Flowers (In Concrete)
14 Heresy - Belief
15 Heresy - Network Of Friends
16 Heresy - Sick Of Stupidity
17 Heresy - Too Slow To Judge
18 Heresy - A Sense Of Freedom
(Above recorded 26/07/87, broadcast 03/08/87)

19 Heresy - Consume
20 Heresy - Face Up To It
21 Heresy - Into The Grey
22 Heresy - When Unity Becomes Solidarity
23 Heresy - The Street Enters The House
24 Heresy - Cornered Rat
25 Heresy - Open Up
(Above recorded 01/03/88, broadcast 09/03/88)

26 Heresy - Everyday Madness Everyday
27 Heresy - Break The Connection
28 Heresy - Ghettoised
29 Heresy - Network Ends
30 Heresy - Release
31 Heresy - Genocide
(Above recorded 10/01/89, broadcast 18/01/89)

32 Intense Degree - Hangin' On
33 Intense Degree - Vagrants
34 Intense Degree - Skate-Bored
35 Intense Degree - Intense Degree
36 Intense Degree - All The Guys
37 Intense Degree - Daydreams
38 Intense Degree - Take No Chances
39 Intense Degree - Future Shock
40 Intense Degree - Politician
41 Intense Degree - Allegiance
42 Intense Degree - Bursting
(Above recorded 28/02/88, broadcast 15/03/88)