Dirge

Listening to this I wondered whether I’d actually have noticed if the track listing had suddenly morphed into last year’s Abuse, and the answer is probably not. This is largely identical, and given that both records last less than twenty minutes you could easily jam them together into an exhausting and seamless forty minutes of obnoxious grinding. Wormrot seems to be about the only band on the current Earache roster that I listen to nowadays, perhaps because they invoke the classic short-and-loud format of the label’s classic early grind releases. Except here technically adept death metal riffing replaces haphazard avant-garde edge and goofy humour replaces righteous anger. That there is a song here called You Suffer But Why Is It My Problem, lasting four seconds rather than two presumably because of the extra syllables, tells you all you need to know.

Wormrot’s music is actually quite impressive, with many of these micro-tracks taking the form of meticulously-planned drive-by harassments, hurling out properly maiming riff-shards then accelerating away again, cackling. Of course, the fact that tracks last a few seconds with barely a gap between them, adds to the cumulative impression of a sort of hyperactive brilliance. Public Display of Infection is good, based around a succession of whirring deaththrash riffs, gelled together expertly by Fit‘s superb drumming. Evolved Into Nothing is an epic death metal tune condensed into 45 seconds, opening with a fleeting glimpse of irresistible down-tempo Obituary groove before exploding into a frenetic projectile vomit of blasting.

Admittedly, it’s a relief it only goes on for twenty minutes. I imagine that if you are beaten repeatedly over the head with a mace, the longer it goes on for the less you register each individual blow. Dirge is an impressive album because of the sheer energy that the band exudes, and whilst I can only tolerate this sort of thing in small doses, I’d imagine hardened grind fans should enjoy this.