Today marks the 12-year anniversary of grindcore hero Jesse Pintado’s death. While he left us away before his time (Pintado was only 37 when he died of liver failure on August 27, 2006), his legacy lives on via an impressive musical catalog, which laid the foundation for classic and modern grindcore. Among his many accomplishments are a 15-year stint in Napalm Death, one year and an album (Brujerizmo) with Brujeria, founding guitarist in Terrorizer and eight years in the grindcore supergroup Lock Up.
To honor Pintado’s memory, Decibel revisited all of the songs he penned and selected five fave choice cuts.
5. Napalm Death – “Constitutional Hell” (Enemy of the Music Business, 2000)
Recovering from their “weird” mid-period, Napalm Death blasted out of the gate with Enemy of the Music Business and “Constitutional Hell” is a prime example of the grindfathers’ return to the top of the game. The band propels forward with gusto and Barney Greenway’s vocals are seething as he delivers the closing line “I’ll sum up all the good you’ve done on this earth—nothing.”
4. Napalm Death – “I Abstain”(Utopia Banished, 1992)
“I Abstain” opens the criminally underrated Utopia Banished, where Napalm Death revered back a more straightforward grind sound after the fallout from 1990’s heavily death metal-leaning Harmony Corruption. Pound for pound, Pintado contributed his best Napalm work on this unsung classic.
3. Terrorizer – “Fear of Napalm” (World Downfall, 1989)
The third track on World Downfall offers a dirty bass line (performed here by none other than David “Evil D” Vincent) and groovy guitars before standing aside for Pete “Commando” Sandoval’s machine-like blasting, which eventually makes way for crashing slower riff that concludes the song.
2. Napalm Death – “The World Keeps Turning” (Utopia Banished, 1992)
Pintado can be seen playing a guitar with a Nine In Nails sticker in the mostly-concert video for “The World Keeps Turning,” the second cut from Utopia Banished to make the list. But don’t concern yourself with synths and electric beats, because like “I Abstain,” a healthy amount of death metal influence is present and would only increase as Napalm Death moved forward on their “Campaign for Musical Destruction” of the early 1990s.
1. Terrorizer – “Dead Shall Rise” (World Downfall, 1989)
For an album that was recorded after the band had already broken up, Terrorizer’s World Downfall rips exceptionally hard. What’s not to like about “Dead Shall Rise?” There are mosh parts, blast beats, grind parts, even some tremolo-picked extreme metal parts. World Downfall is one of the greatest grind albums of all time, and “Dead Shall Rise” is one of the greatest grind songs of all time. It also made its way into the Splatterhouse video games.
