Massive Day for Global Grindcore – Pakistani Act MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS Return

As mentioned in a variety of our social media posts this past week, we’ve been eagerly anticipating a brand new 5 track demo by Pakistani grindcore band MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS. The band’s last full-length ‘Jamat al Maut’ released way back in 2014 completely rocked our worlds…until then it was either JUNOON or ATIF ASLAM that we had heard from the shores of Pakistan (our birthplace). Sure, there is also a lot of pretty incredible music that we got to enjoy via Coke Studio as well. And there is a whole bunch of pretty killer rock bands as well. But we’re a hardcore/punk-based website, and what we want to hear from countries like Pakistan, Iran, Iraq, in these lesser-known regions of the world, is the dirt and grime of raw hardcore and punk. So when MULTINATIONAL CORPORATIONS entered the world, we were all about it.

Today – we finally get to hear what the duo, Sheraz and Hassan, have been grinding up by way of brand new demo ‘Cultural Collapse’. Hassan explains, “Basically after MxCx me and Sheraz played and booked a lot of shows, and also got involved with the DEAD BHUTTOS revival by 2016. By the end of 2017, we got a little burnt out. I got involved in Hip Hop with DARANTI GROUP and Sheraz was doing other musical stuff as well. A while after we had both left Pakistan, and ZANJEER was doing decent, we thought of getting MxCx back together again as an online project and an outlet for us to express ourselves and now we’re here!”

With the literal collapse of cultures all over the world, it almost feels like this is the perfect time for their return. “The general state of the world is as fucked up as it ever was. Unfortunately, the tunes that we recorded back in 2014 such as Fuck Your Patriotism, Advertisement Overdose, and Salaab still ring true to this fuckin day. We can tell this one will be no less than that, timeless to say the least!” added Sheraz to provide some more context to how the band got here.

Musically, where Jamat Al Maut was a litte aural barrage of grindcore full of blast beats and insanely fast riffing, this set of tracks sees the band grow so much more in terms of the thought they put into their overall musical stylings. It’s no longer just blast beats, there is some thrash in here, and some even MORE obvious nods to hardcore punk, and Hassan’s vocal range sees him in territories that we haven’t heard him get into in previous releases. Sheraz, the riff master, explained, “We have tried to develop on top of what we did previously, however, this release in our opinion is more sophisticated in terms of musicianship and production values. Basic influences stay the same such as Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Assück and Discordance Axis. This release is definitely more on the technical side as compared to the previous outputs.” Makes sense. And with a 10 year gap, one should expect in growth and change in so many facets of this band and the personalities that make it up. A lot has happened for the fellas on a personal level – including, as mentioned above, leaving their country of origin.

Where the music may have changed, it is still the poignant in your face lyrical content that Hassan is a master at conjuring up. “‘The White Man’s Burden’ discusses the colonial era of the South Asian subcontinent, while “Zero Nation Theory” criticizes the post-colonial era in Pakistan. Similarly “Artificial Epoch” questions the modern world we’ve created that’s run around fake news and how the far-right is rising up. Then you have “Stuttering Teardrops” which was initially a poem I wrote about the Taliban’s attack on school children many years ago and is a commentary on extremist attacks in general. “Corp Studio S78 E6″ is about a certain musical program in Pakistan haha.”

As we draft this post, our friends at TRENDCRUSHER PODCAST have released a massive one hour conversation with Sheraz which is MANDATORY listening (streaming further below).

Now what you all need to do, is go blast these jams below. Don’t sleep on this shit. Share them far and wide.

https://www.instagram.com/multicorp_grind/