Put Some Grind In Your Mind
- hiyapeterfoxmusic
- Jan 10, 2023
- 2 min read
Band: Escuela Grind
Album: Memory Theater
Release Date: September 30, 2022
Genre: Death Metal/Hardcore/Grindcore
Emerging from the east-coast, a powerful energy has been cradled within the snarling Massachusetts woods. Within the past year, this heavy entity has spellbound its audiences captive with a relentless variant on classic death metal. Escuela Grind has dispatched their most formidable project yet: Memory Theater. Only clocking in at twenty-two minutes, this album submits one to a thrashing to be remembered. Not only is the music potently concise, the concept behind it all is something of a cosmic horror commonly related to. Memory Theater revolves around each song pertaining to the different hypothetical rooms one holds deep in their mind; forever-expanding spaces consisting of the murk and faults of human life. This imaginative twist is depicted in the album’s artwork of a woman behind encompassed by creatures and various viscera confined as a theatrical performance.
The production of this record formats the well-known death metal tropes of the nineties into a refreshingly brutal context. While the music may be influenced from bands like Death or Deicide, the production is inspired by newer hardcore acts like Knocked Loose or Converge. Speaking of Converge (legendary hardcore punk-influenced band that peaked in 2000), guitarist and producer Kurt Ballou was responsible for crafting Escuela’s horrific creation from the wicked depths of Salem at his own GodCity Studios. Ballou is known for harnessing the analog techniques of old while rejuvenating the sound to hit the ceiling harder and with even greater clarity. If one seeks surgically clear music that can remain ravenous, this is the place to do it. Cali wave-makers Nails and their You Will Never Be One of Us (2016) was also stitched together in GodCity and has an immensely similar death metal crossed with hardcore aesthetic. This auditory assistance from Ballou seems to be what Escuela needed to take their intensity to the next commercial level.
Now, Escuela Grind has been elevated to the ranks of touring with bands from their lexicon of influence, like nineties trailblazers Exhumed. Joining them is fellow rising act Vitriol, representing black metal in this line-up. The closest venues to Tiffin they are obliterating is The Sanctuary in Detroit on November 20th or No Class in Cleveland on November 22nd. This being said, if you are in search of a night filled with extreme music with killer energy, this your best bet. Perhaps you’ll see me there. From watching their performances online, I am personally curious to witness frontwoman Katerina Economou’s vicious stage presence live. Even if live music is not your pleasure of choice, Escuela Grind’s Memory Theater blasting from headphones is an apt way to get psyched to workout, or do that run you have been putting off, or to demolish that essay that has been pestering you. This album definitively is for appreciators of any heavy music, so get on that grind!
~Written by Peter Fox~
Their Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/escuelagrind/?hl=en
*Art extracted from Escuela Grind's Bandcamp page, I don't own it, just a fan!
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