Escuela Grind DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL

Brought to you by Big Homo™ in paid partnership with Lambgoat© comes our second review for Massachusetts-based band, Escuela Grind, a foursome who meld genres like death metal, hardcore, grindcore, and more into a twerkable concoction that’s strangely alluring. This time though, we’re focusing more on the death metal part as this EP continues their “An Ode to Tradition” series of projects that distills a specific genre’s sound through their unique strainer.

Following up their PPOOWWEERRVVIIOOLLEENNCCEE and GGRRIINNDDCCOORREE EPs, both from 2020, DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL is the natural evolution of where Escuela Grind have been and where they could go. It’s hard to tell exactly where the growth of skill and artistry over the years ends, and where their comfort with playing more straightforward-ish metal kicks in, suffice it to say this is the best of the three genre EPs so far and has some of their best material bookending some less impressive, but still remarkably solid stuff. It also has the longest average song runtime with each firmly in the three-minute zone, something they pull off well without getting too stagnant or aimless.

Let’s just go in order - there’s only four songs, it won’t take long. To start, “Ball and Chain” is one of the best singles that dropped last year without a doubt. It’s got a great bounce to it, the riffs from Krissy Morash are criminally menacing, and the whole song has a wonderful progression about it. This is the best song Escuela Grind have produced yet on all levels.

I’ve seen some videos of them play it live and everyone just goes the fuck off, as they should, and as such it should be a tour staple for years to come. “Punishment Ritual” is probably the most straightforward of the four tracks, the verses culminating in a Cannibal Corpse-like heft and melody, but the rhythms are a bit slower which I prefer in this instance. Bass from Tom Sifuentes is felt the best here, really reinforcing that low-end and making eardrums vibrate.

“Abyssal Plane” sounds like a goddamn Gatecreeper song with how driving and heavy it is. The drums from Jesse Fuentes are relentless and you can feel each strike. The guitars are caustic as fuck and I love the tone more than ever on this EP. “Meat Magnet” is the outlier of the EP being the only track with a feature (the great Barney Greenway of Napalm Death fame).

Greenway and Katerina Economou really play off each other vocally with diaphragm-caving screams. I genuinely don’t know how Economou maintains such a vitriolic sting to their voice so consistently, especially with how much they play live. Drums again take up a lot of the spotlight with shifting rhythms and fills that really hammer home the power of the track. This is my other favorite off DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL without a doubt.

I have to say, one thing that does Escuela Grind some great favors is the cleaner production. Whether a general deliberate decision to elevate the sonics of their work, or more of a nod to how a lot of death metal is produced and mixed nowadays, it makes the instrumentation shine brighter. Not everyone will be a fan, but I like it - gone are the frequent feedback screams that flank songs that provide a certain vibe for sure, but are ultimately not the kind of rawness I enjoy. 

Even when compared to their last LP, Memory Theater, everything just sounds better here by a couple notches. I only wish there was a bit more of it, but it’s been clear from the start that these little EPs are meant as stylistic, subtly experimental asides from their greater approach to heavy music that’s won them countless fans and, somehow, even more tour dates than your decades-old workhorses or bands ten years their junior brimming with piss and vinegar.

Bottom Line: Death metal is very much a sweet spot for this band and it’s something I hope they lean into more in the future. Escuela Grind really came for heads with this project and it’s encouraging that they are likely bringing this sort of energy into the recording sessions for their next project. There will also apparently be a fourth entry to “An Ode to Tradition” at some point so unless it’s gonna be titled BBUUTTTTRROOCCKK or something, consider me excited for what’s to come.