Agathocles: awesome grindcore from Belgium!

[NapalmKid]

I'm huge on top-notch grindcore, and Agathocles has been a particular hot favourite grind act of mine, for several years now. They are from Belgium (Aborted fans should adopt another ace act from that country , call themselves 'mincecore' and have always had a hard political edge to their lyrics and attitude. Formed as early as the mid-'80s, Agathocles began putting out a ridiculous amount of (decent-to-great) demos, splits and EPs, before finally debuting with a live album, Culture of Degradation and a full-length, Theatric Symolisation of Life, both in 1992. Both are quite impressive albums, and Agathocles then resumed releasing another series of splits, Best Ofs, and EPs. I have checked out most (not all) of them, and felt they were all quite cool and fun to listen to. I soon realised that Agathocles were a pretty unique band in more ways than one, i.e their peculiar, though successful, decision to punctuate their studio releases with a litany of varyingly enjoyable splits and EPs, in between. That's what they have been doing for the past ten years. Fans got another 6-7 fantastic full-length albums, and dozens of splits, EPs---and another remarkable feat--4-5 'live' album releases, as well. This year alone, they have released a pretty good live album, Reds at the Mountain of Death , and guess what? another handful of splits. So, you could say Agathocles has been an astonishingly busy band and a prolific producer of new material, for the past almost twenty years. And the massive irony of all this is that I've known a few genuine grindheads that haven't yet heard (of) them. Check them out anyway:

http://www.agathocles.com/

[mntwinsfan]

I'm not a huge fan of pure grind (I much prefer death metal/grindcore hybrids, or just early grind like Terrorizer), but I've been meaning to check this band out for a while. What do you think I should start out with?

[NapalmKid]

^ oh ok...I'm huge on out and out 'pure' grindcore. ...

Now, with a band like Agathocles that has so very many good-to-great releases out there, I'm zapped as to what to readily recommend to you as a 'starting' point. Gosh, you could start about anywhere in the Agathocles discography. ...I'm tempted to tell you to check out their '09 live album, [i[ Reds at the Mountains of Death [/i]...But no, I reckon an ideal intro to this band would be Thanks for Your Hostility ('96) or the classic To Serve....To Protect ('99) albums.

twins, for an outstanding grindcore band that also has other extreme metal (especially death metal) flavours to their style, I'd always want you to give a seriously listen to Pig Destroyer . The vocals might not sound uber-cool to your ears (I like them, though) but PD's musicianship is innovative and original....and frighteningly thrilling.

And Discordance Axis is a classic grind act that you might just find you simply can't get enough of, once you listen to the discs that grindfreaks like myself have always sworn by.

[mntwinsfan]

Cool, thanks. I know my brother owns at least one of those albums, so I'll try to borrow them from him.

I do know Pig Destroyer, and yeah, they're quite good. One of my favorite grind bands. I have not heard Discordance Axis yet, though. I'll have to check 'em out.