4 out of 5

Label: Hydra Head

Produced by: ?

A super fun compilation of various groups covering Discordance Axis, plus a couple new DA tracks and a Gridlink one.

I’m a big fan of anything that helps to “break” a genre for less attuned ears, and while you obviously have to have a tolerance for grind in the first place to be wading in to Discordance territory – bloody fast drums; thrash screaming; non-stop riffage – the mix of approaches here presents some different sides of the sound, and helps to point out what might make one band more appealing over another. That said, I’m not going to claim to be able to identify any given DA track, meaning these “covers” could be anything, but still, let’s continue on the basis that the band’s tight songwriting is what gives this comp extra cohesion.

After a couple new DA songs (including a cover of Sega Bass Fishing I can’t say I can really identify, but still, points for that), we go to “Cide Project” – punny – which is my favorite set of tracks here, and a perfect way to mix up the sound from the get-go, replacing the guitars with chip-tune esque bloops and going more breakbeat / electronic with the sound. These are fun, and quite accessible – not Atari Teenage Riot-type bluster; poppy, actually, despite the fast pace and aggressiveness.

Gate is up next, who’re of the growly grind variety, and they play a pretty loose, bass-heavy style that’s got the same kind of organic wiggle room as DA.

Mortalized – my favorite of the “true” grind stuff on here – have a dual, high / low vocal shtick, and arguably play tighter than Discordance Axis.

Then we start to play around: Melt Banana slink right in, noising it up, and turning grind into their brew of outsider art rock. Noiseear bring it back to a more “traditional” style, but either choose a song that feels a bit more hardcore or added that bit themselves, mixing grind vocals with breakdowns and riffage that could be something off of Deathwish. Merzbow rather hilariously cover all of The Inalienable Dreamless in a 16-minute track; this is the only song I kind of skip most of the time, because it leans more into utter noise than anything else, and has stretches of just complete non-music.

Lastly, if you’re sort of losing track of why you’re here, we close out with a Gridlink tune, the tightest thing on this comp, and a reminder of how influential and effective the DA crew was – though admittedly I prefer Gridlink.

Packaged in Discordance Axis’ preferred DVD packaging, I do wish there was a bit more info on each band in the liner notes. I realize that could be preference of the bands – and it was the early 00s, so it’s not like everyone had a website – but it’s disappointing that only a few have website or emails listed. Like, just a blurb on who the band is would be cool; but maybe that’s the grind thing, being all DIY and fuck the audience.

Anyhow, a great set for the grind curious, and definitely a good way to start poking around at some other approaches to the scene, while getting a baseline for DA.