### Wormrot / I Abhor: Split

#### 16/02/11 || Habakuk

After their stellar 2009 effort ‘Abuse’ almost out of nowhere, it quickly became public grind consensus that Wormrot are among the best things that the genre has to offer these days. This split with American genre mates I Abhor fills the void until their album “Dirge” due in 2011 will hit major stores across the globe and beyond. Wait a minute, this sounds like I’m only going to focus on Wormrot here? It’s two bands on here, after all!

Correct, but then again, have you heard about I Abhor? Well, now you have. They start off this 11-minute disc with five songs in Brutal Truth-ish fashion: Dissonant crawling, blasting outbursts and a few odd grooves here and there. Buzzing guitars, rumbling bass, enjoyable double vox – just the snare drum is a bit too bangy, which takes some of the enjoyment out of this. What it comes down to is that these songs are decent enough to build enough anticipation for what comes next, but without being disrespectful, I have to say Wormrot’s following six minutes absolutely smoke the first half.

Their production is the same in tone as on “Abuse”, just lacking a bit of its punch, and the songs are basically of the same quality. Wormrot’s full-speed-ahead approach with smashing breaks and little crusty interludes comes across as absolutely coherent despite its chaotic nature – partly owed to the simple combo of guitar, drums and vocals. There is nothing superfluous, but everything is kept crisp and discernible – except for the lyrics, obviously. The riffs range from simple punk-driven chord progressions to modern day Repulsion interpretations. Around those, Fitri on drums works his ass off, and Arif screams his soul out in awesome low grunts, high shrieks and hollow hardcore shouts – the latter of which are a welcome addition this time around, as opposed to the constipated attempts on the debut album. There really is nothing more to ask for.

So, while I hope this split puts I Abhor on the map and makes them able to get a better production next time, I’m happy to announce that Wormrot keep producing more of the same: Grindcore up there with the best of ‘em.

- Information
- Released: 2010
- Label: Scrotum Jus Records
- Website: I Abhor MySpace / Wormrot MySpace
- Bands
- I Abhor
- C: vocals
- A: guitars
- B: bass
- J: drums, vocals
- Wormrot
- Arif: vocals
- Rasyid: guitars
- Fitri: drums

- Tracklist
- I Abhor
- 01. Downfall
- 02. The third eye
- 03. Bereft of life
- 04. Asphyxiate
- 05. Extrinsic ascendance
- Wormrot
- 06. Twelve
- 07. Critical human stupidity
- 08. Talkshit holocaust
- 09. Terminal turbulence
- 10. Retarded collisions
- 11. In turmoil
- 12. False grind sodomy
- 13. Mind control