1. Grief was founded in 1991 … Read Full Bio ↴There are several bands named 'Grief.
1. Grief was founded in 1991 by Terry Savastano and drummer Randy Odierno of crust band Disrupt. Grief's sludgy doom metal brought extremely slow riffs to the metal underground. The band was heavily influenced by Black Sabbath, Eyehategod and doom warriors Saint Vitus. Grief's music was jagged, noisy, harsh and brutally dissonant. Lead singer Jeff Hayward favored the sort of tortured, throat-shredding, screaming vocals that were quite common in death metal/black metal and grindcore, and that risk-taking combination of torturous vocals and slow, Sabbath-influenced riffs made Grief one of the more influential Sludge/Doom metal bands to emerge in the early ‘90s.
They broke up in 2001 mainly due to drummer problems - something that was an ongoing problem for the band from the start. They also cited what they called a "hostile environment for Doom metal bands". They reunited briefly in July 2005 to play a cluster of reunion shows.
The band had several 7"s including one with Dystopia and Corrupted each. A compilation album called Turbulent Times appeared in 2002 through Southern Lord. The group reunited for one show at the first annual New England Grind And Doom Fest on July 17, 2005 at The Middle East Cafe in Cambridge, MA. They were so excited by the response to this show that they began booking others, and they toured intermittently throughout 2005 and 2006.
In 2005, the band played shows through in venues including The Ace of Clubs and The Knitting Factory in New York, The Khyber in Philadelphia, O'Brien's in Allston/Brighton, MA, The Living Room in Providence, RI, and Cherry St. Station in CT.
In 2006 Southern Lord Records released a full length live album called Alive which featured their performance at the Middle East in November 2005. The album features artwork by Eric C. Harrison, who did much of the band's painted cover artwork.
One of Grief's final appearance was at Emissions from the Monolith 8, a sludge/doom festival that took place in Ohio, May 2006.
The band reformed in 2008 and toured the United States and Europe, but they soon disbanded again in March 2009, giving this announcement via their myspace page;
"I'm sorry to announce that Grief is no longer playing. We have dis-banded or whatever. The last show we played was the Wien Arena in Vienna Austria (i think i spelled those things right)
our reasons for disbanding are our reasons. we have chosen not to get into it but it may or may ot include the following reasons.
- Jeff has finally become Rip Van Winkle and will be asleep for the next 50 years.
- Ray has finally eaten so much that he can not fit out of the door to his house and is unable to leave home
- John has become so death metal that we' d have to actually be ghosts to jam with him and none of us feel like it.
- Eric finally became an actual dog and has not learned how to play bass or do artwork with his paws."
http://www.myspace.com/officialgrief
2. The Swedish Grief has crafted a blackened brand of doom metal, and released it's one and only album (after releasing an EP in 2011) named 'Where the Light Doesn't Shine' in january 2015.
http://griefdoommetal.bandcamp.com/
3. Screamo / Post-hardcore / Black metal from Toulouse, France.
https://grief1.bandcamp.com
Rhinoceros
Grief Lyrics
Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴
Living breathing being
I wade in streams all day;
Eat grass; and little else
Then one day my world was shattered
By freakish two-legged beings
Wielding instruments of pain
Hell-bent on striking me down
A super-psyochotic need
To make me and scream and bleed
Brought on solely by greed
I only want to be free
If I had my way, I'd stomp you flat
Under my bulk
Or ram this horn you so crave
Into your fucking throat
I'll topple the noisy creatures
In which you flee
But I'll never understand
Why you want me to die
The lyrics to Grief’s song ‘Rhinoceros’ are a powerful commentary on human greed and disregard for other living creatures. The song starts with the perspective of the rhinoceros who describes itself as a “one-ton, armor plated” being that simply lives to wade in streams and eat grass. However, one day, its peaceful world is shattered by humans who wield instruments of pain and seek to strike the rhinoceros down solely for their own greed. The rhinoceros cannot understand why humans would want to harm it, and the intense pain it experiences causes it to scream and bleed.
The intensity of the pain is described as a “super-psychotic need” of the humans to make the rhinoceros suffer. The rhinoceros expresses a desire for freedom, and if it had its way, it would kill the humans seeking to harm it by either stomping them or using its horn. The song concludes with a sense of confusion as to why humans seek to harm the rhinoceros, or other innocent creatures, for their own benefit. Through this, the song serves as a commentary on human greed and the environmental impact that it has on innocent creatures.
Line by Line Meaning
I am a one-ton, armor plated;
I am a massive, heavily armored animal with impenetrable skin as my body's shield
Living breathing being
I am a living creature that survives by breathing.
I wade in streams all day;
My daily activities include standing in water bodies.
Eat grass; and little else
My diet consists primarily of grass with very few alternate food sources.
Then one day my world was shattered
One day, my serene environment got destroyed severely.
By freakish two-legged beings
By humans, who possess two legs and walk upright.
Wielding instruments of pain
They came with tools meant to cause injury or agony.
Hell-bent on striking me down
Their intention was to inflict harm big enough to end my life.
A super-psyochotic need
An intense and abnormal requirement to injure or create pain.
To make me and scream and bleed
Their primary aim was to hurt me until I scream and bleed.
Brought on solely by greed
Their motivation was to satisfy their selfish and insatiable cravings.
I only want to be free
All I desire is freedom to live in peace.
If I had my way, I'd stomp you flat
I'd crush you under my weight if I could.
Under my bulk
Crushed by the enormous mass of my body.
Or ram this horn you so crave
If you keep looking for trouble, I'll use my horn to inflict damage.
Into your fucking throat
I'll pierce through your throat with my horn.
I'll topple the noisy creatures
I will bring down the humans who are always making noise around me.
In which you flee
Vehicles are your escape route that I'll render useless.
But I'll never understand
I'll never grasp the reason behind your desire to eliminate me.
Why you want me to die
Why do humans feel the need to kill me, a peaceful animal?
Contributed by Violet L. Suggest a correction in the comments below.