Escuela Grind - Support: Still Bitter

Einlass: 20:30 Uhr
Show: 21:30 Uhr
New England extreme metal unit Escuela Grind will release its new LP, 'Memory Theater', on September 30. Produced by Kurt Ballou, the album -- the band's first for MNRK Heavy (High on Fire, Crowbar) -- features 9 tracks of sharp, scorching underground music that rages and rips in equal measure.
'Memory Theater', Escuela Grind's sophomore album, is seven minutes shorter than Slayer’s 'Reign in Blood', but with a few songs running past the three-minute mark, it’s downright epic by grindcore norms. The band’s music might be terrifying, but the overwhelming spirit behind Escuela Grind is a message of empowerment. As it destroys musical boundaries, the quartet attacks the idea of “gatekeeping” with equal ferocity. Anytime Katerina Economou (vocals), Jesse Fuentes (drums), Kris Morash (guitar), and Tom Sifuentes (bass) convene, an aural apocalypse will ensue.
Escuela Grind stitches together a new metallic hardcore monster from the rotten corpses of grindcore and power violence with gleefully unhinged blasts of percussive bombast and chaos. As DIY as the readers of photocopied fanzines and the early outbursts of Terrorizer, Escuela Grind devours the nihilistic anxiety of modern life and vomits back a worldview as challenging as their music. Destructive, yet purposeful, always championing the oppressed, not the oppressor.
Delivering on the promise of several split records, a handful of EPs (including 'GGRRIINNDDCCOORREE' and 'PPOOWWEERRVVIIOOLLEENNCCEE', both released in 2020), and the full-length, 'Indoctrination', the nine songs on 'Memory Theater' offer a near-psychedelic trip to the genre’s soul. The album title references a specific historical concept, constructing a “space” from one’s internal ideas, knowledge, and perception. An architect by trade, Economou explores philosophy, politics, and experiential experimentation, building a kind of structure amidst the band's musical cacophony. The core creative duo of Economou and Fuentes met at a college (“escuela” is Spanish for “school”) and became a trio with the addition of Morash. Hailing from Dallas, Texas, Fuentes is a young veteran drummer with a dozen bands in his discography, including Kill The Client, Humanerror and Creator|Destroyer.
Conversely, Escuela Grind is the first band for vocalist Economou, who spent years dreaming about the opportunity to create a band like this one. It’s the second band for guitarist Morash, formerly of Your Brain On Drugs. The initial goal was to make simple, catchy grind-violence, worshipping at the altars of Crossed Out, Despise You, and Repulsion. With breakneck speed, they filled a void in the Upstate New York/Western Massachusetts scene.
The group’s unique identity owes much to Economou’s voracious consumption of history and philosophy. The singer obsessively amassed piles of research on everything from the Ariel Castro kidnappings to 18th Century poetry on the free market and combined it lyrically with flashes of memory from childhood. No Echo called Indoctrination the “perfect LP for (the) state of the world.”
The foundation of the first album was improvisational drumming, with the rest summoned atop it. Hidden hooks did emerge. The group put further focus on those revelations into Memory Theater. the sophomore set introduces EDM-style buildups, Slipknot-level immersion, and expanded dynamics.
The album title references a specific historical concept, constructing a “space” from one’s internal ideas, knowledge, and perception. An architect by trade, Economou explores philosophy, politics, and experiential experimentation, building a kind of structure amidst the musical cacophony.
Escuela Grind will perform as one of the featured acts at the 2022 Psycho Las Vegas festival. Following the festival performance, Escuela Grind will continue its current run which will lead directly into a U.S. headlining tour. The 23-city "Forced Collective Introspection" tour will launch on September 3 in Salem, MA and include performances at New England's RPM Fest, Illinois' Full Terror Assault Open Air, and Cleveland's Hacked Up for BBQ death fest, as it criss crosses the country. Support on the tour will come from Brazilian band Test.
Let Escuela Grind take you to class. (Class is in session)
Escuela Grind is Katerina Economou – Vocals, Jesse Fuentes – Drums, Kris Morash – Guitar, Tom Sifuentes - Bass
SELECT DISCOGRAPHY: Memory Theater (2022), GGRRIINNDDCCOORREE EP (2020), Indoctrination 2020, PPOOWWEERRVVIIOOLLEENNCCEE EP (2020), Split with Violent Opposition (2018), Split with Reeking Cross (2018), Split with Disparo! (2017), Non Serviam EP (2016)