Dirge v. Cursed

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Grindcore is not a genre I listen to a great deal, but as I've mentioned in the past I do spin it now and again. Two releases in the genre have recently grabbed my attention, and the impressions I came away with were very different.

First off, Singapore's Wormrot has been getting a lot of hype lately, and their new "full-length" Dirge was released free on Earache's web site. The music is basically straight-up grindcore, with some metallic elements. Consisting of 25 songs and lasting only an anemic 18 minutes, it's basically just a blur. I thought grindcore was supposed to keep you off balance with frequent tempo and rhythm changes, and sometimes it manages to do that. But much of the time, this thing just blows past you. It's not change if you don't stay on one thing long enough to register a contrast.

Contrast that with Finland's Rotten Sound. Cursed (Relapse) is the deathgrind band's sixth full-length, and it clocks in at a much healthier 27 minutes with 16 songs. Some people say that "deathgrind" usually just means "death metal songs that are too short", but that's definitely not what's going on here. This is basically half each, with death metal style aggression and growls, the heaviness common to the best of both worlds, frequent tempo changes, and grind-tastic drumming. The songs stick around just long enough to groove, and then they move on to something else. They even manage to throw in a few solos.

The Verdict: I find in favor of Rotten Sound. Wormrot's Dirge (3 out of 5 stars) has some good parts, but they get lost all too quickly. It's an enjoyable listen, but completely unmemorable. Rotten Sound's Cursed (4.5 out of 5 stars), on the other hand, combines the best parts of grind with the best parts of death into a sleek, heavy, and memorable package.