Review: Escuela Grind ‘Dreams On Algorithms’

I had been on a Cattle Decapitation bender, when the YouTube algorithm brought up a video of a live show that Escuela Grind played at The First Unitarian Church in Philadelphia that place on February 15th, 2024. Anywho, the five individuals that I saw on that stage were a veritable fireball of energy, and their music was brutality defined, instantly making me a fan of their ‘in your face’ style of playing.

Now, on October 18th, they unleashed their newest slab of wax via MNRK Heavy, a crushing ten track beast known as Dreams On Algorithms and although Escuela Grind is commonly put into the grindcore box, but they have a lot more going on than just that one genre, as they have shown on their EPs, DDEEAATTHHMMEETTAALL, GGRRIINNDDCCOORREE, and PPOOWWEERRVVIIOOLLEENNCCEE; though if you look past those you will also find hardcore, punk, a smidgen of sludge, and many others.

Honestly, there’s more hardcore to be heard throughout Dreams On Algorithms than anything else, and after catching Kruelty and Spent Case earlier this year, I’m totally here for it. The new breed of hardcore is different from bands like Earth Crisis and Hatebreed, bringing in a harsher vocal style and an overall more devastating sound, which fits in perfectly with the direction the band takes on this album.

For example, the song Moral Injury is a seething riff filled number, and the tempo aids in driving home the power of said riffs. Katerina Economou supplies a somewhat diverse array of vocal tones, crossing from death and grind inspired sounds, but staying firmly rooted in the current style of hardcore.

passages of grind that will make you dizzy with their pulverizing fluidity…

Then there are tracks like Constant Passenger and Scorpion that incorporate hardcore along with passages of grind that will make you dizzy with their pulverizing fluidity. Animus Multiform which merges the genres we’ve already talked about but tempers them with a bit of thrash in order to show the diverse approach that makes up this album.

Some other tracks that stuck out were DOA, Toothless, Concept Of God, the video for which is embedded below, and Turbulence which features, much to my surprise, some very cool clean vocals alongside Katerina‘s more extreme approach.

In conclusion, I’m into Escuela Grind‘s pulverizing style of extremity now more than ever before, and if you too like the heaviness of hardcore in its most rabid form, then Dreams On Algorithms is gonna be your new favorite album.

Label: MNRK Heavy
Band Links: Facebook | Bandcamp | Spotify | Twitter | Instagram

Scribed by: Tom Hanno