Slave to the Grind: a film about Grindcore
Featuring: Deche-Charge, Siege, P.L.F., Gas Chamber, Die Choking, Soil of Ignorance, Ground, Beggin' for Oxys, T.O.A.D., Not Down
Date: Saturday January 7th, 2017
Venue: Velvet Underground in Toronto, Ontario
T-shirt worn: Nucleus "Sin"

If there was ever a night when I needed to get out and go to a grindcore show tonight was the night. Two days until Christmas break is over and my kids were bonkers. Until you have kids of your own you'll never understand why you had a "countdown to summer" posted on your wall but then your mom had a "countdown to summers over" one on the first day of summer holidays.

I'm not sure what the sub header "a film about grindcore" was all about. I think I read on the door coming in that the show was being filmed or something.

I missed Not Down and showed up when T.O.A.D. (Truth of all Death) literally hit their last note. Beggin For Oxys actually came on when advertised at 7:30. They weren't entirely bad at all. They played ten minutes of grindcore mixed with some cowpunk and noise elements. Their singer looked like Ric Moranis. They may have had a song called Don't Forget Your Thermals.

Ground weren't entirely bad either but they weren't what I expected at this show. Hardcore punk mixed with brutal slam death metal. A lot of their death vocals sounded just like Exhumed. But that made me glad because if this show was just ten bands that sounded like Anal Cunt it would get really old after an hour. I caught a few songs titles: Minimal Effort, and Bored to Death. They also played a song about how much they loved Mortician. They were missing their bass player tonight.

Soil of Ignorance went on almost ten minutes early(!) and basically played side 2 of Napalm Deaths 'Scum' album. They weren't bad either. They may or may not have been down a member. They were joking about someone being stuck on the highway. Not sure if it was a bandmate or a friend.

Things were moving really well then it took Die Choking forty-five minutes to get on stage. They were ready after twenty-five minutes but decided to waste the rest of the time. Things were way ahead of schedule so I guess the promoter didn't want to disappoint people who may have shown up later. I would complain anytime that happened (obviously) but they only played for twenty minutes. Thankfully they were really cool. They were very different. Kinda like a space death metal band but with one minute songs. I liked them.

The next band was called Gas Chamber. They took way to fucking long to get going too. But again they ended up being really cool. They were art-grind with a lot of "post" and "prog" moments and while I thought they were awesome the blank stares on the faces of most of the crowd said otherwise. Too bad, I really liked them.

The eighth band of the show P.L.F (Pulverizing Lethal Force) finally got the crowd moving. Musically they were really good but their vocals were terrible. The highs were fine but the lows sounded like someone mocking death growls. Too bad because they sounded like they should have been awesome. I actually even got a few song titles: Wicked Strains of Primeval Virus and Ultimate Whirlwind of Consideration.

I wanted to come to this show to see Siege. Truth be told I barely know them. I know them from Napalm Death covering Conform and Anal Cunt doing a few of their songs on Morbid Florist. But I did stream their album once and liked it. I think it’s just the original drummer and guitarist at this point but they were still really awesome. The slower songs dragged but the faster ones made up for them. For a bunch of older guys they really brought it.

Siege
1. Drop Dead
2. Sad But True
3. ? [new song]
4. Life of Hate
5. Starvation
6. Armageddon
7. New World Order
8. Cameras
9. ? (possibly Disregard)
10.
11. Conform
12. Cold War
13. Grim Reaper
14. Walls

I'd been there way too long to stick around for Deche-Charge so I bought a Gas Chamber shirt and CD and bailed.