FESTIVAL PREVIEW: Grind After Death Fest 2025
Words: Dan Barnes
Billing itself as “A smelly, junky, sausage fest with shit music” the 2025 iteration of Bolton’s semi-legendary Grind After Death festival is almost upon us. With the beer garden of the Alma Inn turned into an outdoor venue and a roll call of bands that represent some of the filthiest sickness the extreme underground scene has to offer, what better way could you imagine to spend the beginning of your Whitsuntide Bank Holiday weekend?
Germany’s brutally technical quartet, Cytotoxin, take the top slot mere weeks after the release of their latest bout of musical mayhem: Biographyte. Album number five continues the post-Chernobyl fascination from the band and, although featuring sharper and cleaner sound, Cytotoxin have surrendered none of their unbridled destructive power.
UK death-thrashers, The Bleeding, combine dripping riffs with a thrashing approach, to bring some levity to the day’s proceedings. Over from Belgium are Barren, whose devastating approach to pure grind is all about the blast beats and chain saw guitars. Short, raging compositions are bound be the order of the day, with bodies being battered everywhere you look.
London death metal crew, Vaticinal Rites, have a more direct approach to the genre if their Cascading Memories of Immortality debut is anything to go by. Perhaps a little bit Carcass at times, they weave tales of dark fantasy and occult horror amid their raw riffs. Trading Hand’s Clobberknocker record is the kind of old school grinder that those of us of a certain age grew up with. At times fast and frenzied, at others slow and chugging; but always violent and twisting the knife (slowly). Unburier look beyond the stars for their take on technical death thrash. Embracing the sounds of the cosmos, this dual-vocals four-piece show clear Morbid Angel influences in their soloing and their otherworldly subject matter.
Cyber party grind from Leeds comes courtesy of Grindcore Cake Makers, a trio of bakery-centic lads from the other side of the hill. Their most recent release, Cut ‘n’ Pastry sees them experimenting with longer songs (more than a minute) and some slamming vocals. Closing in on twenty-five years as a band, the criminally over-looked Corpsing come to Bolton with the recently released Viewing the Invisible EP, four tracks of black, deathy doom and featuring contributions from members of both Akercocke and Gorguts. Going back to the foundations of the Grindcore genre, Accelerated Mutation bring the crust-punk and dbeats to their rage. Uncompromisingly influenced by the UK82 scene as much as the Grind, they are likely to set the tone for the whole event. Getting the shebang started will be Stockport’s Acid Vat, whose old-school death metal stylings will help to shake off those early cobwebs and get that neck warmed up before the undoubted abuse it’s going to get.
I’ve wanted to do Grind After Death for the past couple of years, but something has always come up that’s stopped me. Not this year, though - my weekend is clear, and my train times are checked. Just need ten grinding death machines to make it a night to remember.
