Grill: LIGHT

Release date: 1994

Label: PDCD

Country: Germany

An overlooked and truly obscure piece of work, Grill’s debut, titled “Light”, may be one of the rarest heavy industrial albums ever made. Grill effectively masters a particular musical domain with a stripped-down industrial and slow grindcore soaked sound akin to early Godflesh, early Pitch-Shifter, Dead World and Cable Regime among others. Consisting of two German grinders, Steph Andre on guitar and Pascal Derek playing additional guitar as well as drum machine programming, Light churns out 8 tracks of propulsive mechanical and bass heavy “Grindustrial” music. This album was there only full length, recorded at Studio XL near Worcester and Rot Germany between January 1992 and June 1993.

The band’s noted influences are diverse, including musicians from the industrial and rock realms as well as early hip-hop acts. Influences ranging from Godflesh, Knox and Grabage Collector to Eric B & Rakim as well as Hiphoprisy have been cited. The last section of the 8th track is repeated 22 times to drill in the album’s repetitious feel.

Militant, desolate and stripped down, the dueling guitars and mechanical rhythms feel like the soundtrack to a war-torn climate. More subdued and sparse at some moments like ceasefire in between active battle, and chaotic at others like being in the midst of a machine and weapon fueled collision of violence. Though it may be too avant-garde for the taste of some various “metal” genre fans, lovers of heavy industrial music owe it to themselves to acquire this rare album.

-A.D. Carter

you can find this release on discogs