Let’s get the elephant (in this case a goat, but let’s not split (goat) hairs) out in the open, and although this represents Singaporean Grindcore trio Wormrot’s fourth album after 2016’s excellent ‘Voices’, many metal fans interactions with Wormrot would’ve been via a photo of the band playing in what appears to be in a shed with a magnifically horned goat front and centre in the (French) pit, staring spellbound at vocalist Arif’s guttural bar spitting. It is a funny photo and whatever its artistic merits, seemed to encapsulate and virtual signal a somewhat parochial view of the band and although they do originate from humble beginnings, Singapore has a thriving Grindcore scene of which Wormrot, alongside such scene luminaries as Demisor, Volition and WTN, play a prominent part.
I would go further and suggest that their label, Earache, exploited this view (to an extent) when they managed to get the band onto the Shangri La stage at 2017’s Glastonbury festival (along with Napalm Death who were also magnificently incongruous). I only mention this because whilst it could be on the face of it, a somewhat jokey vibe as in ‘Look at this coiled fuck of a band you bunch of metropolitan, left leaning Coldplay loving pussies…isn’t this fucked up right? Isn’t this funny…right? Right? Dance monkey…dance!’. Well, that could be the cynic in me but for me, who was attending the festival with my wife, it represented a heaven-sent opportunity to cleanse my palate of what was mostly a smorgasbord of dreary music, with a wonderful spoonful of molten metal medicine. As a walked the miles to the outer realms of the festival about an hour before their set, I was greeted with an empty field and a sound-checking band. Bumping into their drummer Vijesh prior to them going onstage, we had a lovely chat for 20 minutes or so about how they had managed to land here, at one of the world’s most famous festival and he wasn’t quite sure either. Anyway, they came out (admittedly to a sparse crowd) and smashed the granny out of their brief but ferocious set.
Context is everything, granted, but then what of this their latest album and how does it compare with their back catalogue? Well, against the backdrop of this being their last album with their current vocalist Arif who having suffered vocal cord damage alongside ‘family issues’, makes this appearance with the band and as a result, it seems this album was conceived from a maelstrom of confusion, sadness and uncertainty. What this means for the band going forward is uncertain but what is clear, is that this twenty-one-song album seeks to cover all bases. The Grindcore elements are all in place and tracks roar along at pace, ticking all the genre conventions with peddle to the metal one hundred mile per hour riffs which segue into lovely bouncy breakdowns, so far so good. But what you can feel, is the band trying to break the shackles, and that is apparent on many of the tracks on Hiss, which employ different guitar tones, a more tribal drumming style, actual vocals (‘Broken Maze’) where the pace slows somewhat and various string instruments chime in and join the party. There is also the production, which takes more than passing fascination with the sparse booming toms of early Napalm Death records, with drums exploding and the malevolent vocals, spitting from a corner like a partially disembowelled cobra, non-more so than on ‘All Will Wither’.
This new approach is most apparent on album closer ‘Glass Shards’. It is in stark contrast to what has come before, (not just on this album but also from their career in general) and whilst it would be churlish to castigate a band for attempting something new, in my opinion, this new direction which also features some lovely 1980’s thrash guitar chugging, is the sound of a band that seem somewhat at a crossroads. Being honest, I feel that this album suffers from a severe case of schizophrenia and as a result, whilst all the genre elements are all present and correct, the songs themselves do not feel as immediate or as powerful as on previous releases. That is not to say, there are not moments on Hiss that do not shine, there are, it’s just overall, it sounds as though Wormrot been caught between the temptation to do what they have always done and done so well and carving out a new niche for themselves. As a result, on this album, they have not necessarily done either and have unfortunately fallen between two musical stools. Here’s hoping that the line-up changes don’t destabilise the band too much and they go on to create more music, because if this is to be their swansong, it’s going out with a whimper rather than a roar.
(6.5/10 Nick Griffiths)
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