Decline

I first discovered Vermin Womb around the time of this release. It instantly became my favourite grind record of all time.

Because, let's face it, this is a melting pot of a large group of extreme metal and punk genres, you are free to make the distinctions yourself. The reason I personally consider grindcore the most prominent is the grind centered drumming and the extremely low pitched vocals, almost reminiscent of pitch shifted goregrind vocals, but with the howling fury of more traditional grindcore. The very prominent, heavily distorted bass is also a contributing factor to this notion, sometimes venturing into crust-like bass melodies. The heavy use of tremolo picked guitars in long and winding sections, the bleak soundscape and the 'no fun' attitude seems taken out of the better parts of black metal. Decline is an interesting record even with this, not too surprising, mix of genres. If you are familiar with other works of guitarist and vocalist ELM, most notably of Primitive Man, you'll find that characteristic doomy flare present here too.

The opening track is unleashed with a ramp up that approaches super critical mass, but quickly falls into a new sort of chaos. It's unhinged, pushing and pulling the listener into a sense of no security. Tempo changes are found everywhere on this record, and they always feel slightly off. In the best possible way. It's suffocating, large and crushing both in structure and sonic qualities.

Like many grind releases, this is a blast fest, often interchanged with downright groovy parts, often unexpectedly jumping out at you. Some parts even feel like they deliberately want to confuse the listener, leaving you hanging on the downbeat, for a delayed pay off. Slow headbanging becomes a natural reaction.

Once we reach the final track Cancer, the album has shown you its chaotic potential and established the sound and feel. It almost comes as a surprise when the final and definitive riff of the song hits at 1 minute and 30 seconds in, with a straight forward approach that hasn't quite been heard on this record up until that point. The machine has gained traction again, slowly but confidently moving off the battlefield. Left is a trail of utterly demolished bodies. And in my case, a mind blown.

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.