‘#MakeEaracheGrindAgain’
This single hashtag across the RJD main stage video screen at this year’s Bloodstock 2016 festival said enough. Even if it was hard sometimes to make out the tracks being advertised, one look at the imagery said enough – Singaporean grind monsters Wormrot were back and ready to lay waste to the music world once more. With their explosive full length “Abuse”, Wormrot took the world by the throat in 2009 and with “Dirge” in 2011, they squeezed it even tighter and now, as Autumn signals the traditional death of summer and birth of Winter, “Voices” firmly puts the band back where they were before – squeezing the life out of everyone and everything with high speed sonic torment with the intensity of a seriously pissed off cheetah chasing down its prey. Granted, things aren’t the same in the Wormrot camp, with founding member Fitri leaving the fold, but replacement Vijesh on drums has proven that any doubts about the ferocity of the band being called into question, and that is merely from the single “Fallen Into Disuse”!
From the off, “Blockhead Fuck Off” is a statement of intent. That statement is basically ‘we will be playing faster than a cheetah with semtex shoved up its arse and angrier than the internet over some perceived injustice with no facts to back it up’. The sheer vitriol present in the delivery of the music is intimidating to the point of actually making you lean back a little, wide eyed and amazed at the fury within and it doesn’t stop there. One by one, the tracks steam roller ahead. Laden with more blastbeats than most death metal bands could ever dream up in their careers and fully loaded with chainsaw like guitars cutting a fearsome groove full of malicious intent through all in their path, it just shreds everything thrown towards it. The odd melodic progressions hidden in the angry music on offer, complimented by some real dirty and raw riffs make for an interesting contrast whilst the vocals keep that ferocity which first made the band a household name back with their debut full length ‘Abuse’.
20 tracks and 25 minutes in length, this release embodies the spirit of grindcore, bringing it once again to the forefront of not just extreme metal, but metal itself. It is a truly terrifying musical experience which at the same time is one of the most enjoyable things I have listened to all year and just listening to this highly charged release brings visions of anticipation to the forefront of my mind pertaining to just how the new material will come across in the live setting. The last time I saw Wormrot, the whole venue was a maelstrom of bodies engaged in a brutal display of enjoyment and given the intensity in this album’s delivery, then that maelstrom may surface once more and reach new levels of aggression and violence usually only reserved for those who have achieved legendary status in the grindcore and powerviolence styles.
At first, if you would have asked me what the most intense release of the year was, I, along with many others would have naturally pointed you towards “You Will Never Be One Of Us” by the now defunct Nails… But this, this changes everything!
Usually you would be locked away if you said you were hearing voices… But in all honesty, if this is what the voices sound like, get me in that padded cell and load me up because I want this and so much more of it! Essential listening for 2016 and pretty much all the time which passes between now and their next release! Utterly phenomenal in all aspects of the word!
(9/10 Fraggle)
Leave a Reply