Grimple is one of those great bands that sadly not too many people have heard. With that in mind I've decided to write a review for their only LP so as to draw some much deserved attention towards them.
Grimple formed in Sante Fe, NM in 1990 and then moved to Berkeley, CA in 1991. They released an EP later that year and then released their only full-length in 1992. The next year they released a split with Logical Nonsense and then broke up some time after that.
So there's a little bit of background. Now let's get to the review. Grimple's sound is pretty intense. They drew influences from early hardcore and metal and fused it with their own brand of punk. The result is an incredibly fast wall of sound that rocks the bejesus out of you. Pat Vigil's vocals are good in the high octaves as well as the low ones. His scream is powerful and its quality doesn't make you think of a wounded animal. His voice also has this strange metallic quality to it that's hard to describe but great to listen to. Mark's bass playing is top notch and blistering fast on a lot of tracks. In fact, the intro to "Blood Gutter" brings visions of Matt Freeman dancing in my head.
As far as the lyrics go, they're not really needed to enjoy the CD, but once you do read the lyrics you'll find that quite a few of the songs are political in nature. Actually, the entire theme of the album is basically assaulting apathy and preaching non-violence. There's even a song about animal rights and one about smoking weed. Yeah, they were big advocates for the legalization of marijuana.
Overall the CD is very good and really fun to listen to. If I had to genre-ize them I'd probably say hardcore punk and as far as comparison bandsâ¦think early A Global Threat.
This was orignally released on M&E records and then re-released on East Bay Menace records. You can now find it on Prank Records.