Dallas Drummer Bryan Fajardo Is Putting His Stamp on Grindcore

For nearly three decades, Dallas drummer Bryan Fajardo's precision blasting has been the driving force behind a slew of North Texas and international grindcore bands, earning our praise in 2014 as possibly "the world's greatest grindcore drummer."

Just last month, he pulled triple duty — with his bands Cognizant, Trucido and Flesh Parade — at one of the country's best metal festivals, Maryland Deathfest. And at 44 years old, he’s showing no signs of slowing down.

"It's just something I've been doing nonstop for more than half my life, so it's just something that my body needs to do," he says as he takes a break from celebrating his birthday earlier this month to talk grindcore with the Dallas Observer.

As a young boy growing up in Albuquerque, New Mexico, he banged on pillows and lampshades and jammed out to thrash and death metal records with his best friend and future Noisear bandmate, Thomas Romero, whom he'd known since grade school.

"[Thomas'] older brother went to the service and left him this insane tape collection with all the sickest thrash metal and early death metal," Fajardo recalls of his early days in Albuquerque. "His brother is the reason we got into metal. He had Napalm Death. I mean, all the good stuff.”

Fajardo, who now lives in Dallas, says he first gravitated toward the chugging riffs of bands like Deicide, Morbid Angel and Suffocation before meeting two dudes he had seen on a local Albuquerque public access show called Zero Hour Squared with Mike Trujillo.

"They're about 10 years older than me," Fajardo explains as he tells the story of how he met his other future Noisear bandmates, Joe Tapia and Alex Lucero. "Somehow my brother saw them in the street one day, and he had them follow him to Thomas' house, where we practiced."

The musical bond was immediate, Fajardo says, with the foursome jamming under the name Remain Nameless before officially forming Noisear in 1996.

"That was an instant relationship with those guys," he says. "They were already very knowledgeable about grindcore, so those are the guys that converted me."

With their influence and Romero’s extensive record collection, Fajardo dove headfirst into grindcore — a subgenre based upon the foundations of hardcore punk and death metal pioneered in the mid-80s by bands like Repulsion, Napalm Death and Brutal Truth, among others.

Noisear’s constant touring schedule led to Fajardo’s eventual two stints as the drummer of Orange County grinders Phobia, a band he had grown up listening to.

“The releases I did with those bands were my first exposure to getting somewhat of a name out there,” Fajardo explains. “Not that I was trying to do that, but, you know, I was playing in those two bands and then Kill the Client was another addition to everything.”

Shortly after his family relocated to Dallas in 2005, Fajardo linked up with the now-defunct grindcore act Kill the Client, who are particularly revered in the grindcore scene.
While the band’s demise in 2014 is complicated, most of the band reformed under the name Triage several years ago — a blessing to everyone who missed Kill the Client’s frenetic riffs, socio-political lyrics and neverending onslaught of blast beats.

“We all had a mutual agreement to just keep jamming together, minus the one person that kind of caused a lot of issues towards the end,” Fajardo carefully explains.

Despite being a Kill the Client offshoot, Triage features more of death metal guitarist Chris Richardson, who has been buzzsawing in his bands Cleric and Kaliya.

“It’s definitely a different band,” Fajardo says. “There are many similarities in the music, but Chris has more of a death metal mix going on rather than the more grindcore/punk-influence that was in Kill the Client.”

The move to Dallas proved rather fruitful both creatively and personally as Fajardo grinded his way, quite literally, to becoming the grindcore drummer. After joining Japanese guitarist Takafumi Matsubara’s Gridlink, Fajardo also lent his talents to bands like P.L.F., Captain Cleanoff and Rotten Sound, just to name a few.

“We have a new project called Barren Path, which is basically the Gridlink lineup that we were doing for the last shows,” Fajardo responds after being asked about getting the band back together. “We have a new record coming up in August on WIllowtip Records.”

Aside from his own projects, Fajardo recently finished a North American run with New Orleans grindcore OGs Flesh Parade, who have been spreading their own brand of Cajun grind since 1990. The outfit has had a slew of members, including Goatwhore and Soilent Green vocalist Ben Falgoust II.
"I've known those guys online for the longest time," Fajardo says. When the band asked if he'd fill in, it was a no-brainer. "I mean, I grew up listening to this stuff. I've been covering Flesh Parade songs with my band members since we were kids."

The band recently completed a run of West Coast shows, including the Maryland Deathfest performance, and recorded a pair of singles before Fajardo stepped back to focus on his other projects.
“We have a new Trucido record that’s basically done right now,” Fajardo explains. “Our good friends at Regurgitated Semen Records are releasing it later this year. The Triage record is done. I need to start asking around and find a home for it.”

While Fajardo might be pretty busy for the rest of the year, he hints that there is always room for new music.

"I don't really feel a need or anything in my body that wants to stop doing this, so I’m gonna keep going,” he says. “This is my life.”