Decline

Featuring Ethan from Primitive Man on guitar and vocals, you probably know we're in for a filthy ride. Colorado's Vermin Womb is every bit as disgusting as their name. The don't really care about sounding like a particular subgenre - they just throw in everything fast and filthy and play it with all the fury they can muster. Decline clocks in at a mere 23 minutes, but that's all they need. It comes, it kicks ass, and then crawls back to its filthy lair. This is the sonic embodiment of violence.

This really is a melting pot for all that is filthy and confrontational in metal, and to a lesser extent, punk. There's a decent amount of death metal in the mix, and grindcore often dominates in a relentless onslaught. We've got black metal in there, with blistering tremolo not being uncommon. This is crusty as all fuck, and draws up some of the filthiest sounds from an already filthy genre (it's called crust, for fuck's sake). For the punk angle, we've also got a bit of hardcore and power violence, because why not. This is fronted from the same dude behind Primitive Man, so it shouldn't come as to big of surprise that Decline sometimes reels back to a cancerous crawl, trudging along like a wounded prehistoric beast attempting to free itself from a tar pit.

Ethan's vocals are absolutely crushing. Something must have pissed the man off pretty bad, because he sounds like he's out for blood. Probably somewhere between crust punk and grindcore vocals, his rage-soaked howls propel the music towards oblivion. The riffs are unsurprisingly furious, do tend to blur together to an extent but they all have so much oomph it doesn't really matter. The drumming is really impressive. The dude sure can lay down a world-shattering blast, but is also surprisingly dynamic in his playing. He experiments with many rhythms, and really knows how to work the cymbals.

This is a very one-minded album, and they commit to their vision wholeheartedly. This is a short but absolutely devastating slab of sonic violence, and their swift but bloody reign of terror leaves no prisoners.