History & Biography Groinchurn was a Johannesburg, South Africa grind band and one of the first to obtain a record contract overseas, in this case with Germany's Morbid Records. The name was given to the band by a friend of Groinchurn's drummer Christina. The band was formed as a side-project of the Sepsis guys at first in 1993 with the trio issuing the demos Human Filth and Every Dog Has Its Decay in 1994. Christo had been the last to join as the band needed a singer. This project played a local show and opted to continue as a formation. The band further released a split 7" EP with Captain 3 Leg and a live 7" EP.
For Sixtimesnine, which is a reference to The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy, the band travelled to Europe and toured with Krabathor and Sanity's Dawn. The original label was Happy Hamster Records, which was nothing more than Mark's imprint. Happy Hamster records issued the debut CD when MMI out of Germany, which was to release the debut album, went broke. As mentioned, this was later licensed to another German label, namely Morbid Records. This label also assisted the band's aforementioned tour of Europe. The tour favour was soon returned with Krabathor trekking across South Africa with the Brutal Truth-influenced grinders. The band released an Agathocles tribute CD in 1998 through its own Marbil Entertainment. Whoami was released in April of 2000 in South Africa and, with long delays, in autumn of the same year by Morbid Records elsewhere. The release gave the band the opportunity to tour the USA alongside Total Fucking Destruction. The group travelled to Europe and even stayed in the Czech Republic for several months. Whoami proved to be the last full-length CD for the band although several split releases kept coming. Christo and Mark had become estranged and were not speaking. Moreover, Christo reported being arrested by German police as he was illegally entering that country from the Czech Republic.
Groinchurn reunited to open for Sepultura on a South African tour in 2014. A bigger surprise was that Christo climbed the stage ill and in pain. Rules of the metal scene are no different in South Africa as they are elsewhere in the world and the act returned in 2019 and issued a single called Change Is Change. Sergio was unavailable and a drummer called Emil played live for Groinchurn.
Reviews GROINCHURN - SIXTIMESNINE - MARBIL
It has been several years now since the admission of South Africa to the underground. In this time quite a few bands have crossed the royal desk which more often than not have proven themselves as rudimentary in their approach. It seems that South African bands are not yet at the sophisticated 'northern' levels. Whatever the deeper story I am glad to report that Groinchurn whom I originally heard on the Four Ways To Misery compilation of MMI is a fully competent grindcore band. Unfortunately, the band is a little too close to Brutal Truth for comfort. The band sounds and plays like its NYC idols. The grinding basics are topped with a variety of moods and time changes, while industrial samples seem like regular fare. The vocals though fully kill - again like Brutal Truth. All In all then a 'brutally' heavy grindcore band from South Africa here which is well worth Investigating. Order this from Marbil or Morbid Records. - Ali "The Metallian"
GROINCHURN - FINK - MORBID
The first thing that attracted my attention upon receiving this delayed album of the South African grinders was the biography's assertion that Groinchurn has now discovered groove and rock 'n roll. It did not sound promising. It isn't promising. Groinchurn still are, by and large, a Brutal truth clone band. As if it isn't bad enough that Brutal Truth is largely redundant now, here is a band that copies the Americans to the hilt. Then matters are made worse through the introduction of rock 'n roll riffing. Pardon me while I go kill someone... I am back and I still don't like it. Avoid at all costs unless a mix of unoriginal grindcore, groove and the obligatory two minutes of dissonant noise sounds interesting to you. Thank you sirs for rehashing another pointless cliche. - Ali "The Metallian"
GROINCHURN - WHOAMI - MORBID
Two years following the band's last album, South Africa's perpetuator of all things Brutal Truthish is back with a new album that while leaning slightly less on their American heroes, is nevertheless largely dependent on most of the Americans' formulae. Based on grindcore, Groinchurn incorporates all the standards of the genre - ie multiple samples, a 'hidden track' tagged at the CD's end, intros, silly noises mixed into the music, etc. - en route to high speed head bashing via grinding guitars, shouted vocals and blasting drums. A song like Elude is fully fun with its cool riff, but then again a song like Blown Off Course is rather lame with its silly riff and brings the band down. It might not be revolutionary, but at the very least all notions that a band from a developing country can not sound professional is straight out of the door. - Ali "The Metallian"
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