Girl Brutal’s Electronic Rage Attracts Metalcore Fans

Like a nighttime artillery barrage, stuttering strobe lights flash over electronic noise punk trio Girl Brutal. Clad in bunny ears, clownish Joker makeup and thong underwear over her tights, Grace Nelson stalks the stage, stomping, screaming, squatting and rolling on the floor as drummer Music Knight lays down chaotic, pummeling beats over Jarrett Mintz’s ear-splitting air-raid-siren synths.

The YouTube video of the band performing its most recent single “Poison” at The Milestone is from Girl Brutal’s Aug. 27, 2024 show, commemorating Nelson’s 24th birthday. It’s a parody of Bacchanalia, a raucous rave in hell, but Girl Brutal’s lyrics, delivered in a machine-gun staccato by founder, frontwoman and songwriter Nelson, provide a message amid the maelstrom:

“Why do I lie when you boys make me dry/ What a bore to see you talk shit … Ya milky sticky grainy brain you thinks I’m gonna sue ya/ You’re a loser poser shithead copy cat I like it too ya…”

“Poison” is a response to people in the local music scene shit-talking and wallowing in drama, Nelson says.

“I was seeing poison within the community when we’re supposed to be coming together and being reasonable adults,” she continues. “It felt like I was back in high school.”

Girl Brutal is hardcore music for people who want to let their anger out, Nelson states.

“I definitely cater … towards feminine rage,” she says.

But the band does have a softer side. In the single “Serenade,” which dropped in July, Nelson tackles her own insecurity. Here a bubbling 1980s-style synth horror soundtrack underlays Nelson’s whispered vocals, which allude to Shakespeare’s Love’s Labour’s Lost.

“Put my pain on your shoulder and I expect you to let it out/ Take care of me, rid it for me/ I can’t feel it anymore and my love’s lost, hate won…”

Nelson explained to Queen City Nerve that “Serenade” is about her childhood struggles with an eating disorder.

“I wrote it [about] a relationship that I have with my body and my appearance,” she says. “But other songs are [about] calling out hypocrites and things that I see that I’m not happy with.”

The flip side of “Serenade” illustrates Girl Brutal’s take on social issues. A shouted manifesto bolstered by grinding pneumatic drill beats, “GBHC” (Girl Brutal Hates Cops) is an outraged howl in reaction to the murder of George Floyd and police brutality as a whole.

“Try to beg for my life in a fucking chokehold/ Every word that I speak doesn’t get heard…”

The trio brings its cacophonous yet alluring sonic assault to The Milestone on Jan. 10, then to The Rooster in Gastonia on Jan. 18.

Grace Nelson plays on musical theatre background as Girl Brutal

Instead of alienating audiences with its jagged shards of noise and stark messaging, Girl Brutal has been on a roll, gaining enthusiastic fans with every show.

As Nelson’s layered and witty lyrics illustrate, the band has a playful side, bolstered by Nelson’s theatrical and sometimes satirical performance, which is where the bunny ears come in.

“I wear [the bunny ears] for their playful innocent appearance,” Nelson says.

The attire ironically plays off Playboy bunnies, iconic symbols of the sexualization of women. Onstage, Nelson supplements her assaultive approach with overblown sexy gyrations, as much a parody of femininity as Playboy publisher Hugh Hefner’s famed bunnies.

“A lot of times I do sexual movements or something a little more risqué,” Nelson offers.

It’s meant to mock what people expect of a woman performing onstage, she says, noting that she’s screaming and being creepy while she’s gyrating.

“When she’s being sexy, it’s for the girls,” says Knight, who has been dating Nelson since early 2022.

Nelson concurs. She says the faux-sexy antics are a shared secret message with women in the audience: This is the shit guys expect from us. Much of her captivating stage presence is instinctual, but she’s also drawing on her past as a performer and theatre kid.

“Originally, I’m a piano player. I used to do concert recitals,” Nelson says.

Attending high school in Mint Hill, Nelson became besotted with musical theatre. She cites rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar as one of her favorites at the time. She was drawn to the music’s dark and dramatic qualities, but now she considers it a guilty pleasure at best.

After graduating from high school, Nelson started attending local shows. Her explorations sparked an interest in electronic music, including the electro-hardcore of Machine Girl and the experimental hip-hop of Death Grips.

“Digital noise can be whatever you make of it. You will hear the craziest tingly noises,” Nelson says. “It’s just so experimental and wide-ranging. It can’t be put into a box.”

Deciding to combine multiple eras of the things she had done, like performance art and electronics, Nelson devised the concept of Girl Brutal. She originally opted for a solo act, but when she joined the uncompromising Charlotte hardcore band Wastoid as its bassist and befriended guitarist Jarret Mintz, her plans changed.

Drawing upon their shared passion for electronic music, Nelson and Mintz launched Girl Brutal as a duo, playing the band’s first show at The Milestone on Feb. 11, 2024. By that time, Nelson was dating Knight, who has played drums for Charlotte bands True Lilith and Ink Swells. The couple also played together in nu-metal trio Cosmic Twynk.

“[I realized] I have this incredibly talented drummer that I’m dating, and I figured [he] could help elevate our sound,” Nelson says.

Knight initially had doubts about joining the combo, feeling that their sound was already full, but he recognized that Girl Brutal was sharing stages with similarly heavy acts that successfully incorporated drummers into their lineups. He joined Girl Brutal in June.

“A lot of the Girl Brutal songs have specific sounding industrial drums,” Knight says. “Sometimes I will overlay that.” But at other times, Knight says he can freestyle, completely losing the rhythm because the track already has electronic drums that anchor the song.

In a relatively short time Girl Brutal has made an impact on the local music scene. In July, the trio expanded its audience when Welcome to the Family show promoter Jake Woodard asked Girl Brutal to play a secret set at an otherwise metalcore show at The Milestone.

Read more: Welcome to the Family Fest Founders Turn To Booking Shows Year-Round (2023)

Knight believes Girl Brutal is inviting people to encounter a type of music they’re less familiar with, as Nelson’s “screaming vocals” and his and Mintz’s metal chops and tendencies captivated the metal-forward crowd during Welcome to the Family. Electronic music is hardly new, he acknowledges, but there is a shortage of original electronic acts in Charlotte, so Girl Brutal is in a unique position to influence the local music scene.

“I love a good guitar, bass, drums and singer band,” Knight says. “There’s nothing wrong with it. But it’s good to show people that there are alternatives and they can be local.”

Nelson says she’s flattered that, after seeing Girl Brutal play, a few fans started their own band called Yrdsale.

“I love sharing music with people and I like inspiring people,” she says. “People love a party. They’ll come [to our shows] and they’ll wear bunny ears and cool, crazy outfits. I can tell that [we are] something that’s fresh and new for the average music enjoyer.”

With people getting involved in the harrowing whirlwind of sound at the trio’s shows and finding encouragement to start their own projects, Girl Brutal’s confrontational, committed and self-reflective frontwoman is just getting started.