Gigantic Brain
United States · last active 2016
Gigantic Brain is a Virginia-based cybergrind project started by John Brown in the early 2000s as one-man, drum-machine-powered electronic grindcore, later expanded into a duo with producer/multi-instrumentalist Mastin Simmons in 2012. Wikipedia credits it as 'one of the original pioneers of the cybergrind subgenre,' with a catalog running from chaotic, densely layered electronic grind (The Invasion Discography, 2004) toward the industrial/doom/ambient-leaning textures of the 2016 self-titled album. Released mostly through Razorback Records and Grindcore Karaoke, with absurdist lyrical themes layered over extremely dense production.
SCORE PROFILE
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WHY THOSE SCORES
- Glitch 7 — Drum-machine-driven electronic grindcore ('cybergrind') with dense industrial textures; the 2016 self-titled LP is Bandcamp-tagged 'industrial, industrial metal' alongside cybergrind (giganticbrain.bandcamp.com/album/gigantic-brain)
- Doom 3 — 2016 self-titled LP is Bandcamp-tagged 'doom metal' alongside cybergrind/grindcore/ambient (giganticbrain.bandcamp.com/album/gigantic-brain)
- Ambient 4 — Wikipedia notes the project's shift 'toward ambient and minimalist electronic influences' after 2012; the 2016 LP also carries an 'ambient' Bandcamp tag (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gigantic_Brain; giganticbrain.bandcamp.com/album/gigantic-brain)
MEMBERS
- John Brownfounder, all instruments/programming (2000s-)
- Mastin Simmonsproducer, multi-instrumentalist (joined 2012)
CONNECTIONS
FURTHER LISTENING
Nearest score profiles in the atlas.
- UnaffiliatedEI 12Intestinal DisgorgeGlitchHardcoreDeath
Intestinal Disgorge is a noisegrind/brutal death metal project from San Antonio, Texas, running since 1996 and centered on member "R" (drums, guitars, bass, electronics, additional vocals). Starting as a straightforward goregrind act, the project shifted in the 2010s toward a self-described "Absurd DeathNoiseGrind"/"GlitchGrind" sound that runs power electronics, cut-up production, harsh noise and cybergrind through brutal death-grind songwriting, with one reviewer likening it to "a Grindcore version of Gnaw Their Tongues." The band's extensive discography of albums, EPs, splits and demos is released through Meat 5000 Records.
- Southern Lord / droneEI 13PhantomsmasherGlitchHardcoreTechnical
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- Post-metalEI 11GodfleshGlitchHardcoreDoom
Godflesh are an English industrial metal band from Birmingham, formed in 1988 by Justin Broadrick and G.C. Green, evolving out of the earlier group Fall of Because. Through their fusion of hip hop-derived drum-machine programming, downtuned metal riffs, and industrial dissonance - heard on their acclaimed debut album Streetcleaner (1989) - they developed a sound widely regarded as foundational to industrial metal and post-metal. Broadrick had earlier drummed in Napalm Death, and the band signed to Earache Records before disbanding in 2002 and reuniting in 2010.
- UnaffiliatedEI 11Zone EaterGlitchHardcoreDeath
Zone Eater is the sample-based 'slug metal / dethwave' solo project of Alex Koenig — better known for his vaporwave-adjacent Nmesh project — active since 2015 and based in Louisville, Kentucky. Its debut EP Triangle Island (2015) chops death metal and grindcore samples into chaotic collages, described by Darkfloor Sound as 'a raucous, intense ride of sonics and slurred samples.' Koenig has since released a two-hour collaborative double album with San Francisco's Sea of Dogs on the CHAMBER 38 cassette label.
- Southern Lord / droneEI 25OLDGlitchHardcoreTechnical
OLD (an acronym for Old Lady Drivers) was a New Jersey band formed in 1986 by James Plotkin and Alan Dubin out of the remains of Plotkin's grindcore act Regurgitation, releasing its self-titled debut of tongue-in-cheek grindcore on Earache Records in 1988. Across subsequent records the group shed its grind roots for avant-garde and industrial metal on Lo Flux Tube (1991) before shifting almost entirely into techno, industrial and electronica on its final album Formula (1995), by which point OLD had contracted to a Plotkin/Dubin duo. This dramatic grind-to-electronic transformation makes OLD an era-split candidate in the atlas. After OLD dissolved, Plotkin and Dubin went on to form the experimental doom band Khanate.
- UnaffiliatedEI 13Zeni GevaHardcoreGlitchTechnical
Zeni Geva are a Japanese noise-rock band formed in Tokyo in 1987 by guitarist-vocalist KK Null (Kazuyuki Kishino), built on brutal, minimalist, detuned riff-machines and Null's harsh electronics. Steve Albini produced their 1991 album Total Castration and performed on the 1993 live document All Right You Little Bastards, and Jello Biafra released them on Alternative Tentacles; their 2001 album 10,000 Light Years appeared on Neurosis's Neurot Recordings. The long-running trio settled around Null, Ruins drummer Tatsuya Yoshida, and (for over two decades) guitarist Mitsuru Tabata.
- Turner-verse / Hydra HeadEI 17Old Man GloomHardcoreGlitchTechnical
Old Man Gloom is an experimental sludge/post-metal supergroup formed in 1999 in Santa Fe, New Mexico by Aaron Turner (Isis) and drummer Santos Montano, later expanding with musicians from the Boston hardcore and metalcore scene. Their music juxtaposes crushing sludge and hardcore with noise, drone, and ambient soundscapes. Bassist/vocalist Caleb Scofield died in a car accident in March 2018; Stephen Brodsky, his Cave In bandmate, subsequently joined the band. Their albums have appeared on labels including Hydra Head Records (and its Tortuga imprint), founded by Aaron Turner, as well as Profound Lore.
- Turner-verse / Hydra HeadEI 20GreymachineGlitchHardcoreTechnical
Greymachine is an experimental industrial noise project formed in 2006, built around Godflesh and Jesu frontman Justin Broadrick and Isis frontman Aaron Turner, with bassists Dave Cochrane (Head of David) and Diarmuid Dalton (Jesu). Broadrick described it as needing "something black to Jesu's white," pairing crushing beats, dissonant guitar, and harsh electronics. Their debut album Disconnected was produced by Broadrick and released on 4 August 2009 via Turner's label Hydra Head Records.
- UnaffiliatedEI 11Fear FactoryGlitchTechnicalHardcore
Fear Factory is an American industrial metal band formed in Los Angeles in 1989, widely credited as pioneers of the style for fusing death-metal growls and machine-gun riffing with clean vocals, synthesizers and electronic sampling. Their sound centers on Raymond Herrera's machine-precise drumming and Dino Cazares' staccato, down-tuned riffing, colored by Rhys Fulber's keyboards; breakthrough album Demanufacture (1995) wrapped this in a Terminator-inspired man-versus-machine concept, and its 1997 companion Remanufacture reworked the record entirely into electronica. Gene Hoglan drummed for the band from 2009 to 2012, appearing on Mechanize (2010).
- UnaffiliatedEI 11Full of HellHardcoreGlitchTechnical
Full of Hell are an American grindcore/powerviolence band from Ocean City, Maryland and central Pennsylvania (formed 2009) whose relentless fast-attack extremity is laced with harsh noise, power electronics and free-skronk saxophone. Vocalist Dylan Walker's electronics push the band well beyond grind, a tendency made explicit through collaborations with Merzbow, The Body, Primitive Man and shoegazers Nothing. They fold sludge and death-metal weight into a prolific, boundary-pushing discography.