Gripe - "In His Image" Review

Operation Grindcore has had a long, mutually supportive and overall great relationship with Athen, GA's Gripe. One of the first bands I remember Andrew hyping me up on were these guys, and the support that we've maintained for each other over the last few years has been solid. So it's with a bit of sentimental proudness that I am happy to be finally reviewing their first (and sadly last) full length LP, "In His Image". A team-release effort from Hygiene and Witch Bukkake Records. With the return of their original singer DJ back on the mic. And this really does feel like a really excellent throwback to their first release, "The Future Doesn't Need You". Gripe's attack and message are clear, right from the Dystopia influenced opener "7 Billion Reasons Not To Reproduce". These guys got a bone to pick with quite a few people and corporate entities. Chances are they don't like you, and their gonna yell about it, a lot. A great return from DJ's shredded vocals!! I hope he didn't spit out a couple throat chunks after some of these takes. Lot's of varied vocals from high screams, growls, crusty barks and throaty wretches. All pissed, all in your ears. This is some excellent blast beaten hatred, by far their best and fullest recording too. It's a powerful recording, but they've maintained every bit of their raw, crusty sound. I guess a modern comparison would be the last few Sick/Tired EP's, that should give you some idea. Gripe always had this great collection of influences in their music, "In His Image" is no different. The strong Pig Destroyer and Assück sounds are still their, a few more dissonant riffs for some extra flavor. With some very good use's of slower tracks, particularly the closing track, "Snowden". I really appreciate when a grind band takes some time and tries to make the obligatory "slow closing track" a little more different. This track has a great dissolve from beastly dissonant grind into an excellent, layered slow dirge that end's on a seemingly unfinished note. A possible wishful sign that the band will maybe someday get back for a second and give us some new tunes. More grindcore psalms of anger as we get deeper and deeper down the rabbit hole of this confusing world please! Excellent album, and a great finale for a great band. Listen to the record here. And you can pick up the limited edition "dead cop" splatter vinyl here as well as kick as records from Lifes, Short Walk, Beg, Abuse. and more!

Rating: 8.5/10

~VII

Six New Gripe Songs That Will Grind Your Head In!

Athens, GA grindcore titans, and long time Operation Grindcore homies, Gripe, have just unleashed 6 brand spanking new songs for their upcoming split tape with Malaysian grinders Diseksa. These new tracks are probably my favorite that the band has recorded yet; definitely their best sounding recording, very beefy and balanced mix, with killer riffs and their trademark uber-pissed off delivery. The split will be released on a pro-cassette by Fast Die, Green Peace, Tombs From The Valley, and Opaques Records, limited to 350 copies. Definitely keep your eyes peeled for that! Listen to the new songs here.

~VII 

Gripe-Pig Servant EP Review

Tommy Johnson: From the dark side of LA: gritty and shady, not some glamorized movie studio shit. 
Likes: Blast Beats, D-beats, Mince, and Powerviolence: Motorhead, Discharge and beer! Classic era The Simpsons, Star Wars (Pre -Prequels) Dr. Who, Slap-A-Ham 625, Pre RCA era Earache, Noise core, Japanese fast core, Metal that doesn’t rely on Pinch Harmonics, circle pits, stage dives and high fives, Bands that still write lyrics, Doom Metal, Black metal (Raw not epic), Death Metal (Autopsy not Black Dahlia Murder), crust punk and tons of other shit.
Dislikes: Slam Dancing, Ninja pits, Porno Grind (No you don’t understand, I really dislike porno Grind!), Emo violence, Tough Guy core, Death core, most types of core that are not Hardcore.

I will be contributing to Operation Grindcore with my column Deep Wounds. I’ll be focusing primarily on Mince, Crust, Fastcore, and foreign Grind/ Powerviolence bands, as well as digging up records that have seemingly been forgotten alongside obscure bands that are not given the coverage they deserve. In addition, I’ll also be checking out more modern acts that I am currently digging with an emphasis on bands on the more dirty and raw side of the Grind spectrum. That being said, here’s my first review!

When Gripe came out with their debut demo "The Future Doesn't Need You", it made serious waves in the underground. So much so that it managed to reach the far corners of the blogosphere, even catching the attention of Invisible Oranges. The scrappy, lo-fi, seriously pissed sounding grind violence fusion had an odd, captivating magic to it. Like a train wreck that you simply can’t look away from. It was far from perfect but was way more entertaining than most of the sterile, over-produced garbage that passes for modern grind now a days. It was spastic, frantic, at times off timed, under-produced, disorienting and overall had a weird claustrophobic quality to it. Going into this one I -like many- was expecting more of the same, but "Pig Servant" makes their demo sound like well... a demo. Gripe have stepped their game up, building on "The Future..." while retaining its fundamental essence. The surprisingly catchy song craft is still present, but more refined. Gripe set themselves apart from most DIY Grind bands today in this department in the sense that they actually make memorable songs while still preserving the all important (in my opinion) rough around the edges fuck you rawness that is and should be a staple of this genre. And I’m happy to report that the basketball dribbling, tin-can-snare drum production that I enjoyed from the demo is still there and still obnoxiously high in the mix. I think it gives an authentic live quality and just sounds so god damned aggressive. But you can actually hear the entire drum kit this time as well –this being a good thing, as I am a fucking drum geek, and there are plenty of BOSS ASS drum fills on this one. The guitar riffs are huge and frantic, mixing equal parts Sabbath and Jesse Pintado -"World Downfall"-era thrash style riffs and transitioning tempos with increasing ease. As for the vocals they are raw, pissed and slightly reminiscent of Dystopia or Decrepit. They fall more on the hardcore punk side than the traditional grind vocalist but judging by the lyrics I don’t think their new vocalist would be offended by that comment.

Now, their lyrics I should give praise to, because while the production and musicianship have both been stepped up significantly, so have the lyrics. While the riff is king in modern grind and lyrics are really just an afterthought, I still bother to read what bands are saying and commend those who actually have something to say. While typical punk/grind/hardcore lyric ethos are present (i.e. hatred of cops, capitalism, etc.), they give us their own fresh perspective on them. The song "Plea for Death" centers on the idea that a human being consumed by pain, on the edge of death has the right to end their own suffering and Gripe manage to convey the misery and pain of this situation perfectly.The darkness, and crustiness of this EP overall makes me think of 90's era grind/ powerviolence, which to me, is a nice return to form. Bringing to mind everything I love about that era of music without sounding too much like a rehash or throwback. It sounds at times like No comment in a street fight with Assuck! To me it’s what I want, and expect from a grind record: a balance between chaos and precision, a record that sounds like its barely holding itself together. (Spoiler Alert!) The Mickey Rourke sound bite at the beginning is the perfect way to kick off this beast of an EP. Plus the fake out ending sound clip on "False Prophet" was a bitching surprise. I honestly think "Pig Servant" could easily make it into any grind heads best of 2011 releases, landing in your top 5 if you’re more into the punk/hardcore side of grind, and busting into your top 10 if you’re more of a metal head type. Offering a little something for everybody without being a pander monkey, "Pig Servant" is another stellar fucking release for Gripe and so they will be ending this year 2 for 2.

 ~Tommy Johnson 

Listen/download here

Exclusive Debut of the New Gripe Song "Greed Thought"

Wow, another great track premier in less than a week! Gripe are one of the best bands going right now. Their EP The Future Doesn't Need You is currently my favorite release of the year, so when I found out that they were going to be releasing a new 7" EP called Pig Servant, I thought it would be great if they premiered a new track here on OG, and they thought so too. So now enjoy an unmastered version of "Greed Thought", fifty three seconds of pure grind madness and also keep a look out for their new EP Pig Servant!

~Andrew Lipscomb

Gripe-Greed Thought(Unmastered)

Gripe: Facebook

Interview:Gripe

Here is my interview I did with Gripe over email. Listen to/download their awesome debut The Future Doesn't Need You here.

~Andrew Lipscomb

First off, introduce yourself and explain what your role is in Gripe.

DJ: I'm DJ. and I do vocals or whatever.

Brandon: I'm Brandon and I'm the axegrinder.

Tom: I'm Tom and I play drums.

How did Gripe form?

DJ: Me and Brandon's shitty d-beat project fell through, because I never wrote any lyrics, then Tom moved to town and we forced him to play drums for us.

B: Me and DJ were struggling for years to make a decent hardcore band. Alcoholism, incompetence, and lack of Tom kept holding us back.

T: I moved to Athens and was bored.

What was the recording/writing process like for The Future Doesn’t Need You?

B: We did that shit in one fucking day. It was grueling 12 hour session of grind. We worked with the amazing duo of Joel Hatstat and Mike Albanse. They were very pro and cheap which was very important to us.


What are the lyrical themes on The Future Doesn’t Need You?

DJ: Dark, human-hating, apocalyptic, dystopian visions. Basically, I write about robots rising up and killing off humans cause they're idiots and then nature battles the robots. It fucking rules.

How would you describe Gripe’s sound?

B: In a word: hateful.

DJ: Fuckin awesome!

T: A misanthropic ejaculation of blast beat laden grinding beatdowns with down tuned guitars and throat shredding vo"kills".


Who did the cover art for The Future Doesn’t Need You?

DJ: I did it on a pirated version of photoshop.

T: The actual release also comes with a hand-drawn poster by yours truly. The Robo-Reaper.

DJ: That shit's tight.

B: I came up with the art concept. The robo-reaper haunts my nightmares.

What is the Georgia grind/metal scene like?

DJ: Weak sauce, besides Grinchfinger.

B: Mostly pathetic. Either jock-ish 15 year-olds doing sweep arpeggios, or methed-out rednecks playing too slow. Which can be cool but it can also be boring. the methed out doom that is not the suburban guitar center kids, they can get fucked.

Who are some of your biggest personal musical influences?

DJ: Filth, Dropdead, Insect Warfare, Wormrot, Iskra, Descendents, Magrudergrind.

T: 70's rock, Grimy 90's powerviolence, grindcore, and stuff that people make fun of me for liking like Nirvana, Lemuria, etc.

DJ: I hate Nirvana.

B: DRI, dealin' with helped change my life, fuckin Siege, the greatest grind band of all time, Discordance Axis, good-era Napalm Death, Negative Approach c'mon, fuckin Void,all that early fastcore shit, Black Sabbath, Tony Iommi is the reason I picked up guitar, Despise You, I also fuckin love black metal and all negative forms of music, Slap-a-Ham Records.

How did you get into grindcore/powerviolence?

DJ: I rode freight trains for 10 years and grindcore is really big in that scene.

T: I grew up in a super small town and me and like two other friends jumped straight from listening to NOFX to listening to Fuck on the Beach somehow.

B: I was listening to a lot of thrash metal and early hardcore and I was always looking for something harder and faster. I thought Reign in Blood was the end-all be-all of extremity, and then I stumbled onto a Grindcrusher compilation through my friend Tommy and was like "Holy Fuck!" We got way to into it because we grew up in a hick town and we were the only kids who liked this type of music. The alienation of it all made it that much more special to us.

What are some albums that you are currently enjoying?

T: Mainly my old grind/pv records. Besides that, the new Gridlink, Noisear, Rotten Sound and Lemuria records. We are all constantly listening to Wormrot and Insect Warfare. Like every time we get drunk together...

DJ: I can't fucking stop listening to Zoe Muth and the Lost Highrollers. Besides that Del-Tron 3030, and Descendents "Liveage", and my friends' band Hump Yard.

B: Discordance Axis "Jouhou" is still a beautiful slab of grind genius, Siege "Dropdead" is the best grind record of all time, Thin Lizzy, the guitar work gives me chills, Black Sabbath everyday for the rest of my life, Negative Approach gets me through the hard times, Black Flag, Minor Threat, "Scum" and "FETO", the Fiesta Grande comps when I'm feeling saucy, only the most depressing old school country and delta blues, the R. Crumb "Heroes of Jazz, Blues, and Country" is amazing, Insect Warfare's noise records [Ed: By this point in the interview I got sick of transcribing Brandon's record collection]

Are any of you guys involved with any other bands?

DJ: Me and Tom are starting an alcohol-fueled thrash band called Blackout, and Brandon is jealous.

B: While DJ and Tom are busy making a Municipal Waste clone, I'm "planning" on starting the fastest fastcore band of all time called No Applause.

What are Gripe’s plans for the future?

DJ: Keep drinking as soon as I wake up and live off of unemployment until we get a van and start touring.

B: We all struggle financially, but I would love to see us do a regional tour and press vinyl.

T: We're currently in the process of writing our next record.

Any other comments?

We'd like to thank American Cheeseburger/Shaved Christ for keeping the Athens punk scene alive, The Fuzzlers for playing a bunch of shows with us and letting us book shows at their house whenever we demand, A. Lipscomb/Operation Grindcore for supporting grind bands outside of Relapse Records, J. Randall/Grindcore Karaoke for all he does for the underground grind scene and alcohol. Grind or die, motherfuckers!

Album of The Week:Gripe-The Future Doesn't Need You

Gripe are a three-piece powerviolence band from Athens, Georgia. Their sound is a good mixture of grindcore and powerviolence. I really love the high-pitched vocal style, which is one of the things I love about most powerviolence bands. "The Future Doesn't Need You" is Gripe's first e.p. and it is insanely good. It's so good that I can see these guys being on a label like To Live A Lie, Give Praise, or even Grindcore Karaoke. I know that it is clichéd to say this but this e.p. just sounds violent. I feel like this would be a perfect soundtrack for a killing spree , and the song titles reflect Gripe's violent sound with titles like "Go For Throat" and "History of Violence". "The Future Doesn't Need You" comes in at around 10 minutes, but all the songs are memorable and because of that this e.p. feels a lot longer. My favorite songs of of "The Future Doesn't Need You" are "Prison Tycoon", "Eatr Bot", and "Go For The Throat". The cover art is also really cool and you can download this e.p. for free here on their Bandcamp.

~Andrew Lipscomb