Pop Music Reviews : Grindcore Pioneers Take It to Extremes

The new British metal movement called grindcore is rock ‘n’ roll pushed to its logical extreme: faster than speed-metal, angrier than hard core, more morbid than death bands.

Local headbangers had been looking forward to Birmingham grindcore pioneers Napalm Death’s first show in Los Angeles, Saturday at the Country Club, the way punk-rockers looked forward to the first Sex Pistols dates 13 years ago. And though the show was marred by several problems--singer Mark Greenway had pneumonia, drummer Mick Harris played with an injured foot and at least one person in the slam pit was stabbed--the band ground through with Altamont intensity, even when the stage was occupied by 100 stage divers.

The hourlong set, equally thick with heavy riff-songs and with white-noise blasts of volume, included several songs that clocked in under 10 seconds, and the trademark grindcore vocals that sound like a combination of the way death speaks in horror movies and the sound that dad makes when he hits his thumb with a hammer.

Neither Black Flag nor the Clash was ever quite this powerful live.