Second Dish of Abuse (Wormrot, Dirge 2011)

Dirge, possibly holds the title of the most looked forward to Grindcore release ever, period, even more so than the rumoured debut release of a super Grindcore band featuring the Pope, Trevor McDonald and Conan the Barbarian. Literally when Dirge was released, every rss feed and every tweet before my eyes all stated the same two things: a) DIRGE HAS BEEN RELEASED OMG! b) OMG DIRGE IS AMAZING! So expanding on conjecture b, here is my following review.

I hardly feel words are sufficiently powerful enough to describe in depth the raw explosive feel that Dirge offers in its inhumane rampage of powerviolence on speed approach to grindcore. If you thought you knew bands who played fast, think again, I am pretty sure that Dirge, laps your fastest track a few times over as a warm up run, before it then proceeds to tear it to shreds with its superior grind bashing fury. 

Dirge is basically what would happen if you mixed a heavy influx of Insect Warfare's torrential top heavy grind with the screaming frantic uzi rampage of Hellnation, spiced up a tad with a small vibe of Magrudergrind. The Grindcore formula of Abuse has become heavily distorted with much weight and emphasis on an excessive spewing of Powerviolence, perhaps best described by the band themselves with the track Overpowered Violence, with the fantastic execution and dynamic of Abuse being the only keepsake. In fact I am pretty sure Wormrot's song naming policy on Dirge, is part inspired as a descriptive title to its upscale brutality, Meteor to the Face and Ferocious Bombardment are all words I would of used to describe this release, had Wormrot not beaten me to the chase!

Fuck traditional song development, and threading rhythmic sectors, interloping verses etc This is grind, the way it was meant to be! Wormrot chuck at your face a furious cacophony composed off  hundreds of fast paced riffs and endless beats, all the whilst screams of primitive emotion are belted out throughout, as for what is stopping the release from tearing apart the space time continuum located around your speakers, certainly stumps me.

The extensive drum work of Fitri's dexterous bash and smash rampage is worthy of grindcore commendation giving that barbaric ferocity a sophisticated demeanour that gives the tried and tested blast beats a more fruitful yield to the tradtional bang bang bang approach employed by many a band. While Rasyid jumps from one crushing punk oozing riff to another in quick succession, with Arifs hell bent screaming in probably the most passionate masculine screaming I have ever heard. Imagine the final theartre scene of Godfather 3, and replace all that sadness with pure Ichor and aggression, double its power and you probably are somewhere just shy of understanding the blistering fury that is vehemently yelled out at sensory shattering proportions. How that man is able to talk or not induce a heart attack as he screams, is beyond me.

Punching in just over 18 minutes across 25 slices of over the top powerviolency grind, Earache have really put out a release worthy of being equal to their early back catalogue, and perhaps this amazing piece of Grindcore will be a wake up call, and pave the way for a reconnection between the genre defining label and its former disenfranchised adherents. 

However I all know what you really came to read this review for, in fact all you have already heard Dirge, and you search something specific amongst this review, you search for an answer you are not quite sure yourself and are looking for someone man enough to take up the mantle and answer it, and that something is "Does this trump Abuse?" Quite simply personally I feel it doesn't. Call me a drunkard, blasphemer, or claim I am suffering from a hallucinatory state from listening to Dirge too often, if that softens the blow for you, but either way personally I prefer Abuse. Not that this release is far from Abuse, its right up there in the kick ass factor infintiy quadrant, but I feel Abuse just had a sort of better dynamic going for it, this despite all the intense craftsmanship seems very rushed and not thought out 100%. However I do feel it perhaps not just to compare the two, each play on very different styles, this one being a more rapid contortion of irksome punk orientated noise, and abuse being a more progressive flow of  colossal proportions. 

Dirge regardless of if you prefer it to Abuse or not is undoubtedly a fantastic release, that offers an intensely amazing amount of quality that many a great grind band, hardly achieve in their lifetime. The galloping drums, raw passionate yells and lightspeed riffs all come together fantastically well in establishing some of the most fast and heavy grind there is on the market, so brace yourselves lads and ladettes, your second serving of Abuse is here, and this little bastard doesnt like to play nice!

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Alamak! What are you doing on Grind to Death-lah? (Analdicktion, Sluts, 2011)

To all gore-grind bands and porno-grind bands I warn you, its a great gamble to request from me a review of your material, aside from my complete disdain for porno-grind, and my general loathing of 99% of gore grind bands for reasons of unoriginal, shit music, crap choice of aesthetic, etc. So when Analdicktion contacted me about writing a review, deep down I was dubious that I am going to have to slander another band off judging by band name, album art, lyrical concepts etc, but if I preach openness I best live up to it, lest be a hypocrite, so thus I accepted the challenge. And luckily for Analdicktion the gamble paid off, yep that's right it paid off, yes I know that I lured you into thinking this release was going to be terrible, but that is a technique I and actual real authors and journalists employ to keep attention, yes I know I am wasting time, and even more time by constantly writing, but its my blog and my post, and I can right as much as I like about whatever I like, did you know Hippo's eat only Red Herrings?

Time wasting aside, Analdicktion although as suggested by the name and artwork are not really goregrind, although there is that tone to it, however I personally would describe them as Cerebral Bore meets Circle of Dead Children  in a blood soaked bath tub of death metal cacophony, with all the free cadavers and chainsaws you can muster. Architectures of rhythm are grand and foreboding as they shake violently amongst the snare slamming savagery  as a constant howl bellows on occasion warping to a testosterone laden scream of intense anguish and despair.
Sporting bone crushing break downs that force the very earth before you to tremble, and a tyrannical manic smashfest of blast beats and rolling drum kicks, they quickly establish a dynamic that operates on interlacing rhythmic and harsh moments in a superfluous conjecture of brutal death metal than occasionally protrudes violently its bloodied fangs into a grindcore vibe like a hell bent rabid dog.
 The only grumbles are two in number, firstly the drums in the more intense moments play the same fast paced beat, which although one hell of a bestial beat it can feel samey as the tracks progress and the second qualm is a personal one, and that's I don't really like the general gorey porno theme, but in no way is a reflection of the top notch pounding they offer, and besides that's the beauty of music, you can make it about anything you want.
To be honest it is no surprise that these guys are good, this release will be released by Scrotum Jus Records, the same guys who originally released the legendary Wormrots - Abuse, and if my memory serves me well, Analdicktion's logo is designed by non-other than the man himself Arif Rot, either that or someone else from Singapore whose artwork goes by the name "Rot Art". Once again, SE Asia is showing up trumps as the new homeland for extreme music, with Analdicktion amongst is arsenal of sickening sounds from the orient. Fans of Brutal Death Metal, prepare to have your faces shredded off.

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Wormrot I Adore (Wormrot / I Abhor, 2010)

The day has finally dawned, I have my much awaited copy of Wormrot/I Abhore, listened to it God knows how many times, and finally decided to spread the word of our Lord and share its Glory!
Introductions with Wormrot should not be needed, but if you so happen to  have been in a coma between late 2009 and now then all you need to know is that these Singapore trio release kick ass more often than a falsehood leaves a politicians mouth. As for the other band present, I Abhor  are a hell bent quintet based in L.A with a grim dystopian approach to some fast paced Grind, and should not be neglected in the shadow of Wormrot's awe.

I Abhor start off with a few rogue shacky notes struck out, then accompanied by a simple generic cymbal beat, creating an aura of suspense, then a short lived warping guitar work drags us into the realm of blast beats and shifting screams of anger and despair.  Throughout their tracks the drum work has a eminent echo from  constant snare bashing, and at first glance may sound messy and repetitive, however you should notice that drumming is highly above standard and is the main driving force, behind the songs. The guitars are very much only used to fill space, and when they are used independently nothing exceptional is performed, but nothing terrible either. Vocals are gruff, and compliment the angry raw drumming perfectly , expect nothing but pure energetic low tuned screaming. One can easily identify Assück as being the overall feel the band are trying to achieve, and although it is certainly a good route to go down, I have my own suggestions for the band. 

The band certainly have all the elements that makes them a fantastic band, however I think the way they play out these elements needs adjusting, instead of going the Assück route, I recommend making the drumming more clear and the vocals a bit louder as it was too often drowned out in the snare blasting,and if these where to be achieved the band will never be second rate to Assück, but have their own sound and feel, alongside their already impressive ability.

This is purely and simply 100% cacophonous defenestrative Grindcore. It's rowdy and upbeat nature is only superseded by its addictive temperament which will get you hooked faster than chocolate flavoured crystal meth. They even toy with their audience having the first 13 seconds of their track a tribute of counting to the number 12 before Arif's vocals explode your eardrum in a 3 second blast, powerful enough to give Gulf War Syndrome even to the most resilient of men. These guys are just relentless, at no point do they waiver or pull out a short straw on their instrumental lashing, we have 8 grinding tracks of biblical proportions. "Critical Human Stupidity" is the second track and by far my favourite, with its energetic virulence  one can not find a fault in such a wild tune.
These guys stick a middle finger to the concept of one album wonders, and bash out nothing but Grindcore of the highest order, everything seems to be there, amazing guitar work? check, blast beats galore? check, ear piercing vocals? check, crystal clear sound quality? check, elements all thrown together through a black hole? check, what more could one ask for? A bassist I hear you say? Sorry I can't quite hear that over the crushing guitar work of Fit. The overall Abuse formula has been fine tuned to near perfection, we have a more fluid rhythmic structure in place, but at the other end of the table these guys have brought a more overall Insect Warfare stranglehold to their already mind-blowing songs, and they just make it work as if there was no jump from one to the other, not even a shudder. There is only one way to play this and that's with the repeat button on, volume maxed out and a health hazard warning outside your front door, any other way and its wrong.
Lastly, all I have to say is Wormrot LEAD US ONWARD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wormrot   -   I Abhore

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Ohrwurm: Grind aus Singapur

No I have not been kidnapped by German scientists who have replaced my encephalon (medical term for brain, for you goregrind fans), with that of Angela Merkel, my German title has a legitimate purpose.Firstly after a indiscriminate amount of time of deciding which album to review first, I thought why not do a review on a album which I was in the mood to listen to, so dear readers by deduction  as I write this review I am blasting out intense Singapore Grindcore.

As originality is something I do cherish I fancied an original  title, and the only one that sprang to mind was "earworm" defined as being: A tune that is stuck in one's head, obviously being reference to the name of the band. However much to my dismay I discovered that I must of picked up the title from Grind and Punishment. After several minutes of thinking I remembered that from my German A-Level days learning that in fact Earworm is a loan word from the german Ohrwurm, hence the title. For those of you not so well versed in Anglo-Saxon or Germanic Languages Ohrwurm: Grind aus Singapur translates to Earworm: Grind from Singapore. Feeling now that I have the linguistic high ground I shall commence with the review.

There is only one word to describe your first listen of this album, it does not involve any colourful language nor does it have technical musical term, the term quite simply is "wow!", with an exclamation mark on the exclamation mark. The first track starts of with a distressed man screaming about the Patriot Act , and the song just breaks into a grindcore tune, with quite provocative lyrics, amazing multi tonal vocals, fantastic drumming and guitaring; what an awesome start, and all this in 1m19s. The barrage of amazing songs doesn't stop there , for a total of 22 minutes spanning 23 tracks and if quick arithmetic serves me right that is an average song length of 56/57 seconds. To those of you new to Grind, I will point out this is normal to have short songs, but back to the review.

Another Interesting feature of their songs is their sense of humour, I do love it when bands are not serious all the time about everything they do. They have a track called Fuck... I'm Drunk, which is a parody of Aussie Grinders Fuck... I'm Dead, and they also feature a cover of the Yeah, Yeah, Yeah's I tried listening to the original here, although I am not a fan of their music it is nice to see the comparison that the original has near no musicianship and minimal energy, and Wormrot just crank up the song, if the song was a person Wormrot would be the people giving it caffeine, alcohol, coke, acid and any other drug that fucks you up and then putting it on a roller-coaster, to produce the Wormrot affect.

The Album art itself is awesome, I do love amazing album arts and many a time have just got the album based on the cover and not of that of recommendation. The Font for the logo is brilliant aswell, the merging of eastern Asian calligraphy with that  of our Roman alphabet is a interesting feature, like said in many films and people its all the little things which contribute the most to the overall effect, and this is certainly true with Wormrot. For a band to come from Singapore and produce this sort of amazing quality material is just beyond me,  to think this band has created all this, where it is harder at every single level to acquire, produce, organise and promote Grindcore then this has been a true testament to the skill of Wormrot.

Intense is another good word to describe this album, the musicianship is just intense from the blast beats to the gruff and occasional husky vocals, to the guitaring  and without the traditional bass player this trio have achieved an amazing sound, in the vein of older grindcore bands, yet in our day. This has led me to believe that Wormrot are infact part of a much sinister plot, perhaps the aforementioned German scientists do exist and kidnapped all of the Grind Legends from the "old school" and brought them to Singapore, committed tests and experiments on them, and after much work created a sinister creature known as Wormrot, and released them in 2007 to feed and to fine tune their skills, and by 2009 they released the Raw co-ordinated Grinding Sounds that we now call their album Abuse.

Like many stories this one has a very happy ending, my favourite record label Earache have picked up the band after listening to their songs from I believe on Invisible Oranges , although I cant be bothered to confirm if this is true or not. The band are now doing or have done 2 splits one with I Abhor and the other with Joe Pesci (the band not the actor) and have also stated that they intend to release another album  (source), and also are going on a tour more can be seen on their myspace. Well this is enough for one review although I could go on for hours.

Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/wormrotgrind

Last FM: http://www.last.fm/music/Wormrot

Encyclopedia Metallum http://www.metal-archives.com/band.php?id=3540285169

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