Nine Circles is currently hosting the premiere of “It’s Time To M-M-M-Mince,” the opening song on Houkago Grind Time 2: The Second Raid, the second album by HOUKAGO GRIND TIME.
Commenced as a one-man dynamo of mincecore and goregrind by Andrew Lee (Ripped To Shreds, Andrew Lee’s Heavy Metal Shrapnel, Skullsmasher), HOUKAGO GRIND TIME remains the sole worshipper of wholesome moe anime in the universe of grindcore.
With Andrew Lee handling the performance, recording, and mixing of all primary instrumentation at his at Weeb Dungeon studio, Houkago Grind Time 2: The Second Raid features guest appearances from Tapo (First Days of Humanity), R. Mason (Enemy Soil, Reeking Cross), Larry Wang (Coprocephalic, Gorepot, Fatuous Rump), Pharmacist (Pharmacist), Keijo Niinimaa (Rotten Sound, Goatburner), and Dan Ryckman (Archagathus), and the final product mastered by Colin Marston at Menegroth, The Thousand Caves. With cover photography and design by Lee, the record was complete with logo by Tom Maher/ Skullbastard Art and layout by Shawn Vincent/Obscure Visions. Fans of Agathocles, Dead Infection, Mortician, Nasum, Regurgitate, Enemy Soil, and Last Days Of Humanity should not miss HOUKAGO GRIND TIME.
With the premiere of “It’s Time To M-M-M-Mince,” Lee reveals, “Animation is one of the most grueling industries in Japan, and one of the worst when it comes to exploiting their workers if they aren’t already depressing local labor by outsourcing animation to Korea or the Philippines. It’s time to mince anime to bits.”
With the song’s premiere, Nine Circles writes, “The screeching leads, the guttural vocals, the unrelenting blasts… it’s absolutely beautiful. And the wild thing is, within all of that pummeling chaos, it’s packaged in a way that feels completely organized and logical. The surprising clarity of each note from each layer of sound, and the galloping cadence underneath it all, makes this pretty damn easy to ingest.”
Stream HOUKAGO GRIND TIME’s “It’s Time To M-M-M-Mince” first via Nine Circles now at THIS LOCATION.
Houkago Grind Time 2: The Second Raid will be released on November 4th, digitally by Lee’s Outrageous Weeb Power Productions who will share duties on the LP pressing with To Live A Lie and Grindfather Productions, with Obliteration Records handling the CD release, and Acid Redux Productions issuing the cassette version.
Find current preorder/presave options at Bandcamp where “It’s A Q.U.A.L.I.T.Y. Anime!” is playing HERE, at Acid Redux HERE, and Spotify HERE,
Watch for further links and previews of the record to post in the coming days.
The first HOUKAGO GRIND TIME 2019 demo proclaimed Andrew Lee’s mission to “save the world by overloading it with mincegore,” and in a scant three years he unleashed a flurry of demos, EPs, and splits with underground grind stalwarts such as Deterioration, First Days Of Humanity, and Blue Holocaust, through Andrew’s self-run label Outrageous Weeb Power Productions, as well as the first album, Bakyunsified (Moe to the Gore), released through Grindfather Productions.
Although the initial concept of HOUKAGO GRIND TIME focused only on the power of friendship, the cuteness inherent to moe anime, and the value of one’s waifus, the inevitable descent of the world into greater chaos led Lee to address more pertinent and serious themes in his new album, Houkago Grind Time 2: The Second Raid, as well a heretofore novel element to the band: real lyrics. “It’s Time To M-M-M-Mince” serves as a scathing rejection of the vagaries of capitalism in the animation industry, while “People Die When They Are Killed” extols the virtues of masking up and staying isolated.
The sonics of the album also benefit from a marked increase in quality; no longer content to utilize the screeching, squealing, feedback of typical raw grind recordings, every element of the acoustic drumkit was meticulously recorded with Lee’s experience gained from producing the Relapse debut of Ripped To Shreds. Blastbeats soar by with greater speed than ever before, yet every cymbal or snare hit shines in total clarity. The kick drum throbs and pounds with urgency, supported by a bone-crunching low sludge of drop-Z-tuned guitar and bass. The sewer filth of pitchshifted vocals ties the fetid package together, with Colin Marston’s expert mastering serving as the cherry on top.