Eraser – Harmony Dies

Since their first demo Fuck Off and Grind from 2015, Italian quintet Eraser from Palermo have been unleashing their old-school brand of no-compromise grindcore onto the world, touring often and sharing stages with many notable contemporary and cult bands. They represent a fresh wave of grind activists eager to revive the genre’s original earnestness and militant ideals, forging their sound with modern production that lands between too muddy and too clean. Many listeners who felt grindcore’s ideas had been commodified by larger labels see this as a real treat. Alongside bands such as Convulsions, Vilmort, or Tsubo, Eraser exemplify the best way of doing things—wearing their influences on their sleeve without copying the classics, and preserving the important socio-political messages grindcore always carried.

Eraser’s second full-length album, Harmony Dies, was released on September 30, 2024 by Despise the Sun Records on CD, Rødel Records on vinyl, and Septic Aroma of Reeking Stench on cassette. It highlights the band’s technical and creative progression over their ten active years. Both in sound and lyrics, it continues in the spirit of their debut and splits, while also showing marked improvements in musicianship and songwriting. Eraser deliver an onslaught of catchy grindpunk riffs, occasionally dropping into slower, barbaric moments. Across the 22 songs, there isn’t a single filler or out-of-place passage—everything is designed to form a compact, continuous listening experience, with no pause. The typical, loudly distorted bass is razor-sharp as ever and sits high in the mix, especially complemented by the sharp, skillful drumming. The tempo changes are wild, switching from Mick Harris-style blastbeats to groovier, even hardcore-influenced parts. Vocally, there’s a very distinct yet familiar low growl that at times slips into a vicious high shriek, while bassist “Krosty” contributes strong backup vocals, enriching the overall sound.

A strong contender for best grindcore album of the past year, Harmony Dies—with its excellent mix by G. Trombino at Big Rock Home studio and mastering by James Plotkin—evokes classic names like Lee Dorian-era Napalm Death, Terrorizer, Assück, and Insect Warfare. The album’s artwork, drawn by Julien of Huerte Artworks, depicts four stages of decomposition of a terrified individual. This visual pairs perfectly with the musical intensity and the often humorous, sardonic, but consistently critical lyrical themes. The band take a firm stance against modern neoliberal capitalist values, hypocrisy in the punk scene, Western colonialist mindsets, and the failure of both parliamentary democracy and democracy as a whole to solve systemic issues—along with the oligarchs who make life miserable for so many.

Human experience here is portrayed as a never-ending process of spiritual decay until actual bodily decomposition arrives at death—possibly an escape. Given the subject matter and the tone of the message, it’s easy to see where the album’s title comes from: harmony indeed dies when we are stuck in this unending cycle of misery known as life in late-stage capitalism. Music of such quality rarely gets the attention it deserves, and Eraser definitely need it. I’m certain they’ll continue surprising us with more ear-bleeding thrills!