Arson Cafe: Wormrot - Hiss Review

Tuesday, August 23, 2022

Wormrot - Hiss Review

Throughout all these years of obsessively listening to countless albums after albums, the times when I was blown away to this extent by something have been as rare as crossing paths with a unicorn. It is the case of a band with a really clear upwards trajectory, steadily for over a decade, offering the musically richest and most intriguing material of the genre they are devoted to. And finally, all planets align, all of their little flaws are not just erased but boosted with the opposite sign, to create Hiss, Wormrot's best record to date and one of the best pieces of grindcore ever made. I believe this is how a genre defining work should be, glorifying the highest qualities of that music style, while shedding light on why it is not mere noise or aggressiveness. It exemplifies grindcore's best self, a rapidly paced bludgeoning of endless ideas molded into short durations, with multiple unexpected turns, excellent musicianship, overwhelming compositional inspiration and my goodness, how great are these aesthetics, the concept and the lyrics. All the tracks are perfect, the record flows like a pristine river despite all of its acute content and changes in sense, there are scarce clean vocals, brilliant violin use, slight black metal hints (as they have had in the past) and generally, there is no better musicianship in grindcore right now. Wormrot surpassed themselves, and this organic production fully helps with the outcome this time, while a sector that was not ideal so far is maybe another of the highlights of Hiss: the demonic drum playing. It is impossible to not recognize the sheer magnificence of this band's effort at the moment, whether you are a fan of the genre or not, and I don't think Hiss will be ever overlooked in the future when discussions arise about this kind of extreme metal. I hope the record proves to become a modern classic and Wormrot placed among the best bands of the trade. Just congratulations. [5/5 - Masterpiece]

Origin: Singapore

Label: Earache Records

Release date: July 8th, 2022

Listen: Bandcamp

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Reckoning

From all the hills came screams. A piece of sky beside the crescent sun was detaching. It was a loosened circle of evening sky, suddenly lighted from the back. It was an abrupt black body out of nowhere; it was a flat disk; it was almost over the sun. That is when there were screams. At once this disk of sky slid over the sun like a lid. The sky snapped over the sun like a lens cover. The hatch in the brain slammed. Abruptly it was dark night, on the land and in the sky. In the night sky was a tiny ring of light. The hole where the sun belongs is very small. A thin ring of light marked its place. There was no sound. The eyes dried, the arteries drained, the lungs hushed. There was no world. We were the world’s dead people rotating and orbiting around and around, embedded in the planet’s crust, while the earth rolled down. Our minds were light-years distant, forgetful of almost everything.