Grom (band)
Grom is an American NSBM band with a strong Slavonic/Mediterranean influence within its lyrics, due to that being the racial composition of the band. When they formed originally in the late 90's they opened for many well-known mainstream metal acts such as Immolation, Deicide, Incantation, sometimes playing before as many as 600 people. The band was originally composed of 2 polish immigrants, J-Sick on vocals and Heilige Krieger on bass, along with H.K. Belarus (who was from Belarus, obviously) on drums, and of course the bands leader, Ymir G. Winter (Greek/Slavonic descent), on guitar & backing vocals. They recorded the extremely raw and now out of print demo "Coat of Arms" around this time.
This attracted some attention from Vinland Winds Records, who along with Hakenkreuz Records, released Grom's first CD, a mini-CD entitled "Pagan War Machine".
Grom quickly grew to notoriety for being a fanatically racist, Anti-Semitic, White Power Pagan NSBM band. This drew the attention from various factions in the movement, from long haired [...] Metalheads, to White Power Skinheads, to members of the anti-Christian World Church of the Creator. It became harder to get gigs and the days of performing before 600+ people where over due to mainstream metal media backlash. This might have had something to due with the beating of a Jewish member of the metal maniacs staff by one of the now-former members of Grom.
After several years of playing successful shows for the Keystone State Skinheads and at other venues, Grom released several new split Cd's, with the Hellenic horde Bannerwar and the Polish horde Sunwheel (Sons of Zeus and Bestial Onslaught, respectively). Grom revealed great MusicAL talent by evolving and experimenting with each & every release, never staying stagnant. The Sunwheel split, for instance, featured guest spots by Wilhelm from Sombre Chemin and the appearance of Ymir G. Winter's brother Void, another former Grom member, on an experimental cover of Boyd Rice/NON's "Total War". There was also a pronounced thrash influence.
The band gained even more ground with the UG extreme metal opus "By Oak Ash and Thorns", which had a myriad of influences, everything from death metal, traditional black metal, folk, OI!/R.A.C., Thrash, and so forth.
About this time several members of Grom left, with several [...] youth taking their place. Warhammer got behind the drums, and Einhammer took over the vocals. Grom is currently without a bass player. Several new albums are planned, including a split with Wulfgravf (should be released shortly), which is Einhammer's own band, a live album with photos of Grom supporters and fans in the booklet, another full-length album, and a re-release of the original Coat of Arms demo. Related band Wulfgravf is also planning a full-length, and additionally, several Grom sideprojects are in the works, such as NYC-style Hatecore band Hatelordz, and death metal band Sadocorpse, and possibly some sort of folkish acoustic project. Rumors of involvement with non-racial projects have been spoken of, but appear to be unfounded. Grom continues to be most active NSBM band in the USA, playing about 4-5 shows a year.