WORMROT - Dirge

Artist:  Wormrot
Album:  Dirge
Year:  2011
Genre:  Grindcore

Grindcore still feels like the red-headed stepchild of the hardcore punk and metal world.  35+ years later it continues to stand as the genre too extreme for even the most seasoned underground fan of the wildest, least commercial bands.  Seth Putnam wrote a song called “Grindcore Is Very Terrifying.”  Well...yeah…it is.  I think anyone in a grindcore band would agree.  Grindcore has zero boundaries and doesn’t give one flying fuck about restraint.  

For example:

-Go slow, go slower, go fast, go faster.

-Guitars…clean or dirty…who cares?

-Recording sucks?  Oh well.

-Lyrical subject matter from politics to porn.

-Throw in a saxophone, kazoo, or some other random instrument.

-Have one or multiple inaudible singers.

-Use samples.

-Play tight or sloppy.

-Add a shitload of noise.

-Write a 5 second song. 

-Use a drum machine.

Basically, be punk as fuck in attitude and do anything you want.  It doesn’t matter.  That’s the glory of the genre.  Yet, it’s also what keeps most bands buried well below the level of popularity that other extreme music, such as what many death and black metal bands, has achieved.  Singapore’s Wormrot choose the very direct approach that rattles my head just like nineties stalwarts Insult, Assuck and Spazz did previously.  They don’t pull any huge surprises reflected in the list above; just pure speed and brutality.  There is so much auditory violence happening in these songs which are just brief moments in time as most barely reach the 1 minute mark.  25 songs in 18 minutes leaves no time to breathe.  Wormrot are tight players, but the humble production of the album feels like you are right in a room with them giving the record a live feel that could go off the rails at any time.  They do utilize a bit of hardcore influence to divert slightly from blasting away at blinding speeds.  It becomes difficult to speak at length about an album like Dirge.  It’s going to be one of those black and white things; either you like it, or you don’t.  It’s not going to be the album that breaks grindcore out to the masses, but it is an extremely strong output by a tremendous band.

Listen to "Compulsive Disposition" here.