World Extermination

The first time I googled "grindcore", Insect Warfare appeared, and its album, World Extermination, had an obnoxious album cover and lyrics that gave me an urge to ad nauseam, so I gave it some time to it. It's very common for grindcore bands to experiment with stuff like noises, different tunings, et cetera. The hyper-colossal influence of Napalm Death, Nasum, and power-violence bands like Siege and early Nails' material turns this album into a grind testimony. A doomed beff of shrink-wrapped punk-ish yet metallic stringfeast fills you with a vegan banquet filled with sick riffs, from groovy ones to completely ear-blasting tremolo picking.

The drums form a complete goulish heterogenic mixture of pure fast blast beats to thrash metal/crossover skank beats. Most of the blast parts are used with the china, an instrument not used in the majority of grindcore. Still thinking that the drums sucks? Look at the drum fills at the track "Decontamination", as well as the song's bridge, with hi-hat grooves, but for some reason, the drummer inserted a one-second blast beat in the same compass with the hard rock-like beats.

As I said before, Insect Warfare is influenced by Napalm Death, mainly on its vocals. Lee Dorrian did screams and growls; what also does Insect Warfare's vocalist do? Yeah, goddamn screams and growls. ND's vocal sections on the B-side of Scum and all of "From Enslavement to Obliteration" ALMOST sounded the same, and in World Extermination, and I'm very sorry for all die-hard IW fans.

Overall? Yeah, it's good.

Ooh boy, here we go.

Insect Warfare is what I'd call the "Napalm Death of modern grindcore", even among metalheads who don't normally listen to much grindcore probably know of Insect Warfare and their only full-length release: "World Extermination".

Now as you may know this album has a rather short run time of exactly 22:29 (according to the metal archives page, of course). Some may call this a downside, some may call it an upside, I'm rather neutral. World Extermination is a great... "Sit down and not think about anything" record, it's good to put on and zone out, maybe play some video games or check a forum post or two. As such, I don't think you should take it too... Seriously, as with most grindcore.

But hey, this is an album review, I might as well try to review it, eh? Let's get on with it.

The album starts with a void of static-y noise before breaking into the opening grind of "Oxygen Corrosion", a short 53-second opener which sets the stage for the next 21 minutes of noise, grind, and power.

The guitars overpower everything on this record, the drums compliment them but ultimately, remove the guitars and you remove EVERYTHING from this album. Oh and of course, the bass is damn inaudible. This is all good of course, as the guitars sound wonderful, being more distorted and twisted then even a death metal record.

Though I'm sure most people could rabble and ramble about the guitars all day, I wanna focus on two things: the drums, and the vocals.

Oh man, oh man.

I honestly love the kit used, it's natural, and definitely sounds like it was recorded naturally using a real drumkit, no electronic or computer-generated stuff here. Drummer Dobber Beverly smashes and destroys everything in his path as he makes his way through the record, from "Enslaved By Machinery" to "Lobotomized", his drums truly shine and grind, through and through.

Then we get to Rahi Geramifar's vocals.

Now, I'm not too big on vocal techniques or anything like that. I know how pitch shifters work but that's about it, and I have no clue how Rahi does any of the stuff he does on this album. It's so angry and distorted, there's no way you can make out any lyric without looking at a lyric sheet. From topics like nuclear warfare, internet forums, to even human trafficking; Rahi knows no bounds on what he can sing. And neither can the rest of the band.

If you wanna see how damn powerful this band is, watch a drum cam of one of their concerts, I promise you can find them on youtube easily, just watch one of those and you'll see how pounding this band can be. I've listened to a lot of grindcore, and nothing really compares to Insect Warfare's sheer speed and aggression. Speaking from the heart, I cannot think of better grind nor core.

Give this one a listen, will ya?

-Someone who is rather grateful, and somewhat dead inside.

I find myself gravitating towards modern grind compared to the older classic bands like Repulsion or Napalm Death. Now those are all great bands that have released great albums at some point in time (or in Repulsion's case, album) but there's just something about those bands that just doesn't float my dinghy. I can't put my finger on it, but Insect Warfare is an example of grind that I can absolutely jam to.

Speed and sheer aggression are the main selling points of this album. From the rapid drumming, to the extremely sharp guitars and the pissed off lyrics that rant about everything from nuclear holocausts to anonymous internet users. Even the album cover is a sight to behold. A flaming skeleton towering over a city while cockroaches crawl over everything? Sign me up.

The riffs on display are paired with an extremely gorgeous guitar tone that gives the riffs an extra shot of caffeine. That's not to say that the riffs are lacking in quality or that the riffs are being carried by the razor sharp guitar tone, because they clearly aren't. Even though some of the riffs are straight up random shredding (like on "Armored Virus") or noise (see "Enslaved by Machinery"), Beau manages to conjure up some really memorable riffs on many songs, with my personal favorites being "Nuclear Deterrence" and "Hydraphobia".

Drumming is also top notch, with the tracks "Street Sweeper" and "Mass Communication Mindfuck" being the perfect example of what drummer Dobber Beverly is capable of doing. The kit being used here has a pretty nice sound to it with an extremely organic feel to it. The kick drum stands out in the mix without sounding like a generic, overused sample and the snare drum has a very nice ring to it when it's struck. The cymbals do take a significant hit in volume when Dobber Beverly starts blasting at an insane speed, but it just contributes to making the drum kit sound natural.

The final piece of this puzzle right here is Rahi. He brings an amazing vocal delivery to the table which mostly consists of an incomprehensible growl which alternates with a high shriek. His vocal performance is simply unmatched in terms of sheer anger and brutality, as cliché as that sounds. Every single grunt that comes out of this man's larynx as a rhythmic tool to accentuate the music. It just raises the height of the towering monolith that consists of Beau and Dobber Beverly's performances.

The three parts that make up this album are extremely strong on their own. You could put any one of Insect Warfare's members into a top-tier grindcore band like Nasum or Rotten Sound and they'd still fit in. But somehow these three elements came together to form this unstoppable pillar of grindcore. Every single performance is as tight as it can be and it sounds and feels like the band fits together like a hand in a glove. Even the production fits the music like key in a lock. This album is literally the perfect example of what grindcore is, it oozes grindcore from every pore like it was made head to toe with it (which it absolutely is).

Insect Warfare were a short-lived American grindcore band who in 2007 released their first and only album, World Extermination. Although it proved to be the band's only full-length release, it turned out to be one of the most intense, brutal recordings in grindcore history and one of my all time favourites.

Sure, the album follows the usual old school grind formula with short songs, 20 in 22 minutes with excessive blast beats, screams, and riffage, but Insect Warfare take the old school sound to the absolute extreme and beyond. The album is an unrelenting assault which doesn't let up for a second. Beau Beasley's guitar playing is impeccable on this release, delivering riff after riff with intense brutality, from fast, pounding barrages to slower, absolutely crushing groove-laden breakdowns and each is as heavy as it gets. But all the riffs on this album are catchy as anything, getting stuck in your head for days and that's what separates his playing from most.

A lot of grindcore riffs are intense, but rarely as catchy as this and that's what makes it so good. This guitar work is also backed up by some of the fastest, most unrelenting blast beats in grind. The double bass pounds like no one else's and the musicians have some of the tightest playing around. There's no sloppy yet endearing playing here. The band's attack is surgical, precise, and strategic. They simply create a massively intense sound and their instrumentation pummels your ears into submission like no one else. And vocalist Rahi is the perfect addition to the carnage, switching between a horrendously brutal bark and intense shrieks with apparent ease. His performance is just beyond savage. As a whole the album is just blisteringly intense. Listen to it loudly and it really feels like the sound is peeling the skin from your face straight to the bone. This is NOT easily listening by any stretch of the imagination!

It's a real shame that the band never made another full length, but maybe it's better this way They have nothing to tarnish their legacy. Highlights of the album for me are Enslaved by Machinery, Human Trafficking, Mind Ripper, and Hydrophobia, but in all honestly it's perfect from start to finish and there's no other grindcore album that matches the pure intensity of World Extermination.

Originally written for swirlsofnoise.com

I don't think anything puts the idea of grindcore to sound as well as the beginning of this album does. The album literally begins with sounds that make it seem like a building has just collapsed around you after a massive nuclear explosion. It was by far the most brutal and fitting beginning to a record of this nature. I headbanged so hard when I first heard this that I would not be surprised if I now have a concussion. "World Extermination" is a headbangers heaven, and that is not an over exaggeration.

That being said, it can get a bit repetitive. The riffs do sometimes begin to sound alike and that is a problem with an album that is under 30 minutes long. But it is not so bad that it is a major blow to the record as a whole, tracks like "Manipulator", "Human Trafficking", and "Mind Ripper" have some of the best riffs I have ever heard in grindcore and metal. The majority of the tracks keep the pace too, remaining very fast, very angry, and brutally uncompromising. Production wise this is one of the heaviest CD's I have ever heard. The guitars have a booming, menacing, explosive quality to them and I can even hear the bass relatively well, which is very commendable considering the incredibly heavy and over powering nature of "World Extermination".

The vocalist, Rahi, is insanely good too. He is not necessarily original, as the vocals usually stick to the typical formula of interchanging with high-pitched shrieking vocals and low guttural tones, but his speed deserves praise. This is one of the absolute fastest albums I have ever heard and he keeps the pace with the instruments the entire time. That being said, the whole band plays very well together, and I can only imagine how legendary these dudes would have been live. Such a shame that they split up.

Drumming wise, the drummer definitely gets the job done but I can't say that he does anything very innovative or original. Then again, in "World Exterminations" case he doesn't have to, everything else makes up for it more than enough. Lyrically, the album follows the typical grindcore fare primarily sticking to themes of war, misanthropy, and anti-government. But content-wise they are definitely richer than what I am used to hearing in grindcore and sometimes even contain some dark humor. "Decontamination" gives a good illustration of this,

"my secret lab remains unseen.
where i cook up some tryptamines.
one day i left in unattended.
return to find it had exploded.
one ton of rare drugs, ten thousand times a normal does.
the chemicals i kept inside have released in the environment.
tainting the water supply.
a single drop will get you high.
mass hysteria affects the area the whole town trips out. decontamination is death."

That's some pretty high quality stuff and rather unexpected for what the rest of the album lyrics talk about. Thus, "World Extermination" does have a lot of variety and although it does get repetitive at times I have listened to this record so much that I can't say that it is necessarily that much of a criticism. In the end, this album is an exercise in brutal, amazing, and mesmerizing grindcore. It is grindcore done right, and a bright spot in the loads and loads of unoriginal slop that often come out of the genre these days. Give this one a listen and experience what perfect grindcore truly is.

This is a grindcore album, plain and simple. There are no bizarre structures, sexual lyrics or slow and "br00tal" parts. Actually, blast beats, heavily distorted guitars, invisible bass and the will to headbang are the main characteristics of this amazing album, which is made of pure mind-blowing blast beating, which is somehow mixed with hardcore punk and thrash metal.

Each song has more or less one minute, and although there are some interesting parts that you WILL remember after listening to this (like Street Sweeper at 0:11), "World Extermination" is pretty much the same thing from benginning to end. No songs stand out by themselves, but they aren't meant to: each one of them is a piece of a very solid (and traditional) album.

Grindcore purists tend to be amazed by this, a far from innovative album but still very good. The music here is incredibly fast and violent, and mixes blast beats and a lot of snare drums with the most hardcore, pissed off, "didn't kill enough today" vocals I have ever seen. The guitars are extremely fast and harsh, but they play a secondary role, since the band ends up making us focus our attention on the drums and on the screams. By the way, if there is actually any bass here I feel sorry for the bassist, because he wasted his time.

It can be clearly seen that the band achieved what they were going for. The production helps a lot: the album is thick and raw, maintaining the dirtiness that makes it so appealing to grindcore fans. The lyrics are unintelligible (a shitty grindcore symptom, but unfortunately you will have to cope with it), but the growls delivered by the vocalist are some of the most insane and inhuman ones I have ever seen, and that is because he simply forgets about the existence of pig squeals (not that I miss the bree-bree-breeing).

However, if you don't like grindcore more than you should (and unfortunately that is my case) you will find out that this album is not that appealing. It is definitely good, but after ten minutes you have seen pretty much everything it has to offer. If you are a grindcore junkie, go ahead and pay whatever price you have to in order to acquire this. Otherwise, just download two or three songs (including Street Sweeper, man that song is great...) and go back to Carcass.

Looking through the reviews posted on this site, I often get irritated by the pages of “100%” and “Best thing ever” reviews. Surely you can find something to criticize, something not quite perfect, even on your favourite albums? Here though, I’m afraid I struggle to find anything I don’t like.

The guitars are harsh and aggressive, often employing typically punky strumming and more metallic palm muted riffs. The drums are dependably tight, blasting and chaotic, predominantly using a mixture of blasts, thrash and d-beats broken up with lightning fast snare and tom fills. The vocals almost take a back seat, offering up a distorted layer of sickening guttural heaving and screaming. The bass is buried almost completely in the mix and plays no real role beyond backing up the guitars. The crowning glory is in the production, probably helped by the tightness of the performance – full and thick, whilst retaining a dirty edge that really lets all the instruments shine through.

Of course none of what I have described here is especially new, unexpected or original and the album contains all the ingredients of pretty much any modern grindcore record - short, pounding tracks, with a few deathly metallic flourishes here and there. It’s more a tried and tested formula, delivered with greater precision, clarity and brutality than ever before. Put simply, if you’re partial to fast, harsh and aggressive music, you’d be hard pushed to beat this. I’d even recommend this if like me you’re not usually a huge fan of the genre – I’m not at all usually. This is far and away the best Grindcore I’ve ever heard and I’m absolutely gutted that now I’ll never see them live.

A well deserved (and realistic) score of 95%.

It seems no metal sub-genre is free of their share of purists. These last years, the spotlight has been mostly on the experimentation or "open-mindedness" in the world of grind with albums by bands like Fuck The Facts, Cephalic Carnage, Brutal Truth, Agenda of Swine, Antigama or Inevitable End. If they don't try new grounds, grind bands mostly play their music in the growing gore/porn/pornogore field. Conservationists seem to strongly disagree with those different branches of their dear genre pioneered by Napalm Death, Brutal Truth and Terrorizer among others. So here comes the answer of the now defunct Insect Warfare with their first and only full length World Extermination; an attack of pure and old-school, conservative as it can be grindcore.

So as previously stated, Insect Warfare's goal isn't to make original metal of any kind, but to be a tribute to the true grind, play like in the good ol' eighties. What does that mean for the uninitiated? Real fast, short and brutal songs influenced by punk and hardcore talking about how the society we live in and the current trends suck. Thus the fitting album title World Extermination and their band's name, Insect Warfare; they do a rant against a society that only deserve to be exterminated by maggot. Well that's quite of a hyperbole but you get the point. There isn't much more to say about the sound of the release, it has those bands grinding quality and some of the grooves more akin to Brutal Truth's Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses. Though compared to them, the unrelentlessness rarely slows, and barely - except when you switch the vinyl to side B. The experience could comparable to the one of being pursued by a bloodied madman, hatchet in the air, in dark empty alleys of a poor district, barely halting to see if your attacker is still there - only by the corner of your eye. Or like a swarm of vicious insecticide toughened insects decimating all the weak in their path. It's fast, real fast and it's short too, the running time barely getting over 20 minutes. World Extermination achieves the same purpose as Origin's Echoes Of Decimation and Abigail's Forever Street Metal Bitch; a short n' fast outburst of raw metal energy of their respective sub-genre, meant for several spins. There are no standouts as everything sounds the same, it's not catchy, nothing will be stuck in your head as if you never listened the album in the first place though there are no fillers to be found, only the essential.

While it's certainly an entertaining listen of brainless, pure and unadultered violence, the interest falls short to extended exposure. If you liked Extreme Conditions Demand Extreme Responses because of the mix of outbursts of violence and slower more death metal or groovy moments, you may feel the release is lacking. And if you have difficulties getting into grind because of seemingly purposeless bashing and lack of intelligence or artistic qualities, it certainly won't be your eye-opener. You may give it a spin once in a while, but your day, week or month wouldn't be lacking of anything if you didn't have your dose of Insect Warfare; you may just listen to Brutal Truth instead. It's meant for the purists of the genre but if you like to blast some grind once in a time like me, you'll surely find some enjoyment. Otherwise if you have never heard the string of words "Insect Warfare", there's no reason why you should have.

Before I start my review, I would just like to say that THIS IS THE BEST GRIND ALBUM EVER.

Now, onto the review. Going track by track is just pointless on a grind album, so I'll just go by the instruments.

Vocals are first. This guy's growls are inhuman. Seriously. He's pretty much unintelligible the entire album, aside from a few instances. Which kinda sucks, because the lyrics are good. Stereotypical grind lyrics, but still written well. He has a nice shriek which he uses sparingly, mostly for a couple words each song.

Guitars. The guitar tone on this album is ridiculous. It's crunchy as shit, but not to the point of just static. There are loads of quality riffs to go with the parts of just absolute chaos. The middle of "Nuclear Deterrence" is a prime example. Or the intro to "Self-Termination". Or the intro to "Manipulator".......you get the idea. There is definitely a nice Brutal Truth influence on the slower riffs. That's undeniable.

Bass. The bass isn't all that audible. But it is definitely there. The album has a nice "thickness" to it. It's the complete and utter opposite of say, "...And Justice For All".

Last, but CERTAINLY not least is the drums. This guy is unbelievable. It's really fast, but doesn't sound triggered. The tone of his kit is great for grind. It's not like the woodblock-ness of "Under The Sign Of Hell" or the tinny sound of "St. Anger" or just about every goregrind band that doesn't use a drum machine.

In conclusion, I would say this is required listening for any fan of grind, especially old school grind. Absolutely savage and furious, this album will scare the Abercrombie off of any poseur, and will probably leave your mother calling the priest to exorcise you.

Grindcore has been so-so for the past couple of years. It hasn't been too bad, but it hasn't been great either. The emergence of scene grind has somewhat weakened it as well, and in doing so, grindcore has at times seemed to be a genre destined for failure. However, hailing from Houston, TX, land of fag-bashers, church-goers, McDonald's and sloppy brutal death metal, Insect Warfare manage to bring the grind back from its' whirlwind haydays.

If I were to give Insect Warfare a key word, it would be integrity. This band stays true to what old grindcore is all about - social awareness, rights and the human condition of the Western World. Everything this band holds dear lies in this word only.

Speed is also essential to the old grindcore roots from which Insect Warfare rises. Although speed may be able to keep anyone tuned to the frantic pace of grindcore, sometimes it just doesn't cut it for me. I guess this is in a way a reason why Insect Warfare has emphasized the riff so much - not only to blast its way through the CD, but also to make it memorable and stand out - one of the exact reasons I'm writing this review.

There isn't much philosophy behind Insect Warfare but to be as hateful, relentless, primitive and furious as possible. Just listen to the music - you won't be disappointed. The whole point of Insect Warfare is to cut the bullshit and be straightforward.

World Extermination, Insect Warfare's only full-length album, is 22 minutes of the purest, dirtiest and thrashiest insanity to manifest from the grindcore scene in recent times. Released in 2007, World Extermination is nothing but a showcase of some truly balls to the wall grindcore, repeatedly beating the listener round the face with its brutal sledgehammer sound. In a word, this album is relentless. It refuses to loosen its hold on the audience's eardrums until it is satisfied that they are adequately obliterated, leaving them in a squashed heap inside the listener's head.

The vocalist produces some of the sickest sounds that can possibly be emanated from the human vocal chords. He incorporates a hideous combination of monstrous growls and subhuman screams throughout the album, delivered with an unapologetic level of anger.

World Extermination's lyrical content is focused around the issues of the condition of society and humanity. Once again, the band's opinions are inflicted upon the listener without remorse, slating the state of the world and man's ignorance to his circumstances. The band disparage contemporary society and the cultural obsessions of modern living such as Myspace, along with the way we blindly accept the bias of the corporate dominated world of the media:

"You and all your Myspace friends should get flushed down the toilet."

Drumming on this release certainly won't win any awards for innovation, but the drummer does what this type of album requires. An unyielding barrage of blast beats detonate in the backdrop throughout each track. It wouldn't be a grindcore album without a core of blasting and beating drumming for the rest of the components to mould themselves around. It keeps everything frantic and primitive, which is what every fan of real grindcore supplements their grind diet with.

The guitars are filthy and raw, continuing with the low-pitched tone of the release, grinding, crunching and pounding with a deadly aggression. Scattered with catchy riffing, their main role is to formulate a disordered and chaotic atmosphere: the definitive soundtrack to the World's Extermination.

For me, World Extermination is one of, if not the best grindcore releases in recent years. It fulfills everything that anyone could ever want from a grindcore album, nothing more, nothing less. It's a fundamental addition to any grindcore fan's collection, and highly recommended for fans of ugly metallic music in general. Check it out! You won't be sorry, but your neighbours might...

Now this is what grindcore is ALL about...none of this new scene-grind or "deathcore" bullshit to be found here. It's filthy, disgusting, brutal, and unfriendly, pretty much what I look for when I'm listening to grindcore.

Guitars have a very nice tone to them, it's a very crunchy and harsh tone, suits the music being played on this album very well. Sometimes (but not that often) you'll find a couple good groovy/catchy riffs here and there, like at the beginning of Self Termination, Human Trafficking, Hydraphobia, or Lobotomized for example. But most of the time the guitars are just going for all out chaos, and it sounds really fucking good!

Drumming isn't going for anything remotely unique, just blastbeats, blastbeats, and more blastbeats! You'll occasionally find a mid-paced rhythm here and there, but most of the time the drummer is just doing lightning fast blast beats and the occasional fill. It's what you'd expect from a grindcore album.

And the vocals are absolutely sick...he's growling, and it's extremely low pitched. But if that were the only description I'd be giving you, I'd be missing something. The guy pretty much sounds inhuman! Also there are high pitched and somewhat raspy screams used quite often which are done very well I might add.

I would consider this an essential for anyone who is a grindcore fan. This is pure take-no-bullshit grindcore, and it's done really fucking well. My one quarrel with this album is the length...the album seems over before you even start getting used to it. But other than that, this is basically everything I look for in a grindcore album.