The European metal music scene vibrates on a different frequency to the UK. Not only are festivals cheaper, but they have festivals that we’d only get a cursory nod to here. With such charming names as the Obscene Festival. Or the Hammerslag Festival. And no, I haven’t made those up

Grindcore isn’t about tunes. It’s not about verse-verse-chorus-verse-chorus song structure. It’s about a pure purging of aggression through sound. Whether it’s the machine-gun blast drumming, the sludging, bowel-loosening bass, the furious, maddeningly heavy guitar lines, or the inhuman sounding vocals, grindcore is primal scream therapy meets a particularly vicious case of GBH.

Overcome Records are a French label, releasing some great, under-the-radar stuff. And by under-the-radar, I mean stealth-bomber levels of undetectablity.

Mumakil are a Swiss-based band that are almost intellectual in their choice of track names – the 32 tracks (clocking in a few seconds under 37 minutes) get the luxury of roman numerals. On the two occasions they allow themselves to run over two minutes on a single track. However, they throw in a…er…nice….line in samples, with such cheery excerpts as the “Nuke ‘Em!” board game sequence from RoboCop. It breaks up the barrage of noise and gives it a progressive feel. For grindcore, at least.

Blockheads on the other hand, are on the punkier edge of grindcore. By which I mean they sound like Dead Kennedys playing at the bottom of a pit of wet cement. The nihilistic edge to their sound – you suspect that the band would actually take offence if  you dared to call them output music – as this isn’t meant to make you feel comfortable. is tempered by their alleged political awareness – or so they claim. Even the most ardent grindcore fan would be pushed to argue that a meaning can be inferred from the gutteral growls of vocalist Xavier.

Grindcore isn’t meant to be pleasurable to listen to though. It’s not supposed to be progressive – if anything, it is a regressive, chest-beating anger. These bands – and the genre as a whole – aren’t going to get new fans from these releases. Those of a grindcore bent will have already gravitated towards it – if you haven’t already then you probably never will, and will have a hard time appreciating what it is that people get from what can seem like a bloody racket to those not accustomed to it.