Axegrinder

Axegrinder was a band formed in 1986 in London. They played music heavily influenced by Amebix, and other punk rock bands that had been experimenting with metal riffs and sounds.

The members of the band had originally been part of two anarchist punk bands based in London: Stone the Crowz and the Proudhons. After both bands fell apart, the original Axegrinder lineup came together to form Tyrants of Hate. Tyrants played a few, violent gigs but broke up because they felt the anarchist punk scene was dying. Axegrinder came together as a politically motivated band without a defined sound.

The bands' tastes were gradually shifting towards metal bands like Slayer and Celtic Frost. They released a demo in 1987 called "Grind the Enemy." It was packaged with a booklet and a patch (as a nod to Crass) and was self-distributed with a run of only 400 copies. One of these found its way to Peaceville Records and the band was invited to record a song for the label's "A Vile Peace" compilation. The track was called "Where Evil Dwells" and showed the band struggling to find its sound. However, when the grindcore sound became big in the underground, the band finally found its identity. They began playing slow or mid-paced mash-ups of metal and punk riffs, setting them apart from their grindcore contemporaries, and making them a crust archetype.