Of course you’ve heard of grindcore.  Silly me for even thinking about asking the question.  You wouldn’t be here, looking at this site if you hadn’t.  You’ve probably also, then, heard of its myriad of offshoots, the daughter cells formed from the mitosis of any good metal genre: goregrind, deathgrind, cybergrind and maybe even pornogrind (we don’t judge here).  But, have you ever heard of…barbiegrind?  No?  Well, that’s because it wasn’t a thing until quite recently.  Rest assured, though, you’ll be hearing a lot more of it, as NOLA quartet Brat drop their debut full-length Social Grace.

It’s been a whirlwind ride for the New Orleans barbiegrind/bimboviolence foursome of Brat.  Having only begun activity in 2021, they have already put out two EPs in 2021’s Mean is What We Aim For and 2022’s Grime Boss, as well as a bevy of tours alongside seminal acts like Eyehategod, Cro Mags and Escuela Grind (yes, I am officially upgrading Escuela Grind to “seminal” status.  Sue me.) among others.  In fact, all this touring has been both a blessing and a curse in the journey to release Social Grace.  The songs had to be recorded in batches between jaunts on the road, over the course of eighteen months no less.  You would think all this downtime would kill the momentum, but in this case it actually helped strengthen the band’s compositions.  Allowing the music out in condensed bursts afforded them the opportunity to hyperfocus on what was in front of them and make the songs as good as any bimboviolence song can be.  What is barbiecore or bimboviolence, you might be asking?  Well, it’s a lot of the usual suspects like misanthropy and scathing critiques of society and the powers that be, along with a healthy reverence for Stephen King and psychological horror, coupled with a mantra of “jubilant authenticity,” “inclusivity for outsiders” and anti-purism in music.  And I just think that’s neat.

In true grind fashion, the longest song on Social Grace is the closing title track, and that just barely cracks three minutes.  But man, oh man what Brat can do with 90 to 120 seconds of your time.  Despite the short runtimes, every single track feels like a journey through a wide variety of textures and styles, from punky, thrashy death metal to violent grind and beyond.  A significant amount of Social Grace actually reeks of NYC hardcore, which makes no geographic sense but perfect aesthetic sense.  Take, for example, “Blood Diamond,” “Sugar Bastard” or the aforementioned title track, with their stompy breakdowns and charging, anthemic vocals.  Make no mistake about it, though: Social Grace is a grindcore album to its, well, core.  The fact that the band alternately slithers and stampedes from idea to idea never feels forced or jarring though.  The attention to their craft that comes from the way they recorded the album really shines through, and it allows all the tracks to stand out and really say something in the brief flash of their life in your ears.  And mostly, the thing they have to say is riffs.  Guitarist Brenner Moate is a genius at coming up with the nastiest and catchiest riffs this side of the bayou (see: “Rope Drag,” “Hesitation Wound” or just about any track, really), and his playing serves as the perfect foil to Liz Selfish’s wild and in-your-face bark of a vocal delivery.  All of this gets anchored by a rock-solid rhythm section that does the appointed duty of just barely keeping everything from flying off the rails the way a good grindcore rhythm section does.

Does the existence of barbiecore now mean there is a void that needs to be filled with Oppenheimercore?  That would certainly be the double-headlining tour that the world needs, and I ecstatically volunteer for the latter.  I certainly couldn’t do the former any better justice than this.  Social Grace is another significant mark in the timeline of grindcore’s renaissance, and it’s something that should be experienced, especially live.  It looks like it shouldn’t be too long before Brat take another stint on the road, so make sure you catch them if they’re coming to your area.  You want to be able to say you knew them when.

— Ian

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Social Grace will be available March 15 on Prosthetic Records.  For more information on Brat, visit their Facebook page.